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Rector Search |
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Prayer for a Search Most gracious Lord, we give thanks for all of the dedicated clergy who have served Christ Church. Grant that the Holy Spirit may guide and direct those who will call our next rector. We pray that they may choose wisely that we may receive a faithful minister to lead and equip this parish in our worship, our ministries and our daily lives, seeking to do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen |
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The Search for a Rector: Steps for Selection
The vestry, acting as the search committee for the new rector, met with Ms. Beth Strickland from the Albany Diocese on the 21st of September. Acting as the deployment officer for the diocese, Beth outlined for the vestry the procedures that will lead to the calling of a new rector. At the outset, the stated goal of the search committee is to have this process completed before the present rector departs next June. Prodigious efforts will be exerted to achieve this ambitious end.
Ms. Strickland was pleased that the search will be conducted only by members of the vestry. She related the difficulties encountered in other parishes when various parishioners served in searches on an “ad hoc” basis.
Ms. Strickland discussed Canon number 13, which elaborates the rules that govern the calling of a rector and clarifies the role played by the bishop in the selection process. All potential candidates and their resumes are screened by the deployment office and ultimately the bishop to assure that the candidate’s spiritual orientation is in agreement with that of the diocese.
The vestry will write a questionnaire that will be submitted to the congregation to answer. Once the results of this are correlated, a parish profile will be generated. Active, prompt participation by the congregation will assure our ability to develop this profile in a timely manner. This position paper will define the qualities that we wish to have in our new rector. Through advertising and other means, solicitations from applicants will be sought. Their applications will be vetted and pruned to include only serious candidates. A rather extensive interview process constitutes the next step, including visitation to the candidate’s home parish by vestry members. In this way the list can be further shortened, so that very few applicants will be asked to visit Cooperstown as part of the final selection.
As stated earlier in this article, we hope to have the final calling done by late next spring. However, in order to preserve continuity in this search, any outgoing members of the vestry will continue to serve on the search committee, have full voting rights, and actively participate in the final selection. The vestry wishes to express our sincere appreciation to the Albany Diocese for their organized approach to this task. All of us came away with the impression that Ms. Strickland will be a delight with which to work.
--Roger MacMillan |
