wfn.org | Statement on additional nominations

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org]

May 9, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1765

May 8, 1997

Statement on additional nominations for presiding bishop

     In April the Nominating Committee for Presiding Bishop announced
a slate of four nominees the committee will present to the House of
Bishops and the House of Deputies in Joint Session on Sunday July 20 in
Philadelphia.  
     The canons provide that at the same session "any Bishop or Deputy
may nominate any other member of the House of Bishops for
consideration of the two Houses in the choice of a Presiding Bishop, and
there may be discussion of all nominees." Canon I.2.1(e).  In other
words, nominations from the floor on July 20 are in order under our
procedures.
     At the meeting of the House of Bishops in Kanuga in March 1997, a
majority of the bishops adopted a resolution expressing their view that
there should be a process by which any such additional nominees would
submit to the same physical and psychological examinations and
"background" checks as have the nominees put forward by the
Nominating Committee, and that that process should be completed for
any additional nominees by June 15.
     Nothing in the canons, of course, precludes a deputy or bishop from
nominating from the floor of the joint session a bishop who has not
participated in this process. However, those bishops voting for this
resolution have stated their intention not to consider nominees from the
floor who have not participated in this process.  
     The presiding officers of both houses have charged me with making
such participation possible.  Accordingly, I request that any deputy or
bishop who intends to make an additional nomination of a bishop from
the floor inform me in writing by June 2, 1997.  I shall then work with
the prospective nominee and the Office of Pastoral Development to see
that a process for securing physical and psychological examinations and
"background" checks can be completed as expeditiously as possible.

The Rev. Canon Donald A. Nickerson
Executive Officer of the General Convention
Episcopal Church Center