January 20, 2023
Dear fellow parishioners,
We are overjoyed to report that we delivered the names of the three rector search finalists to the vestry on January 11!
Since our first meeting in April 2022, the rector search committee (RSC) has worked very hard, with good humor and great joy. Our 12-member team was commissioned to follow the diocesan process for conducting a rector search and to provide the vestry with the names of three final candidates.
The RSC is made up of Jill Danford, Josh Franklin, Bob Garth, Nancy Hyer, Erik Larsen (vestry liaison), Thorunn McCoy, Lisa Smithen, Andrea Sullivan, Steve Thorne, and Morgan Wills, with Gretchen Abernathy and Brian Roark serving as co-chairs.
We began our work in April 2022 and completed it in January 2023. Our process can be cheekily summarized as a combination of spreadsheets and the Holy Spirit. We conducted a parish-wide survey, gathered congregational input through focus groups, and produced a parish profile as lead-up to posting the job. After the 6-week nomination season, we entered a rigorous discernment period regarding a robust slate of candidates provided by the bishop’s office.
The skills and gifts of each RSC member contributed to the development of a healthy, close-knit team. We approached our task with prayer and followed Ignatian practices for discerning God’s will together.
Thank you for your prayers for our work. We are confident in the vestry’s process for calling our next rector and excited about the outcome. Let us continue seeking God’s will for St. B’s as the vestry completes the search process.
If you have further questions or feedback for the search committee, please send them to srwarden@stbs.net.
Faithfully,