[ENS] West Missouri diocese elects Martin Scott Field as eighth bishop

[<mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal News Service
>November 6, 2010

West Missouri diocese elects Martin Scott Field as eighth bishop

>By Pat McCaughan

[Episcopal News Service] The Very Rev. Martin Scott Field was elected
Nov. 6 as 8th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri,
pending required consents from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction
and standing committees of the Episcopal Church.

Field, 54, rector of St. Paul's Church in Flint, in the Episcopal
Diocese of Eastern Michigan, was elected on the third ballot out of a
field of two nominees. A third candidate withdrew after the second
ballot.

Field received 89 of 143 votes cast in the lay order and 53 of 103
clergy votes at the election, held during the 121st annual convention
meeting of the diocese at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas
City. A total of 52 votes was needed to elect in the clergy order and
72 in the lay order.

Pending a successful consent process, Field will succeed the Rt. Rev.
Barry Howe, 67, who was elected in 1997 and last year announced his
decision to retire.

Under the canons (III.11.4) of the Episcopal Church, a majority of
bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must
consent to the bishop-elect's ordination as bishop within 120 days of
receiving notice of the election.

The consecration is planned for March 5, 2011.

The other nominees were the Rev. Peter F. Casparian, 59, rector of
Christ Church, Oyster Bay, in the Diocese of Long Island; and the Rev.
Canon Edward Daniel Smith, 54, canon to the ordinary, Episcopal
Diocese of Missouri, who withdrew after the second ballot.

The Very Rev. Douglas Johnson, chair of the diocesan transition
committee, said during a Nov. 6 post-election telephone interview that
the diocese is very excited about Field and future possibilities.

"The diocese has worked and prayed very, very hard to get to this
point and we are very excited about moving ahead with our life as we
look forward to the next episcopate in the diocese," he said.

After election results were announced, Howe telephoned Field with the
news "and amplified it for everyone in the cathedral nave to hear and
listen in," Johnson said. "He (Field) is excited about coming to the
diocese of West Missouri and can't wait to begin his ministry here."

Johnson said the election was held within the context of Eucharist.
After Field was announced as bishop-elect "we completed the worship
with prayers of thanksgiving and a blessing from Bishop Howe."

During the search process, Field, who also serves currently as
assistant to the bishop for congregational life and dean of the Flint
River Valley Convocation in the diocese of Eastern Michigan, had said
he would bring gifts of consensus-building and visionary leadership to
the diocese of 50 congregations in the western half of Missouri.

He described his ministry experience as rural, urban and suburban in
"settings racially homogeneous as well as settings resplendent with
wide racial and ethnic diversity," in a written statement posted on
the Missouri website.

His ministries have been varied, he added. He has served as a solo
priest and has supervised a staff as large as a dozen employees,
administered $1.5 million budgets and managed multiple parish
properties valued at over $10 million, initiated communitywide
ministries and participated in joint government and faith-based
community initiatives.

Prior to moving to Flint in 2003, Field served congregations in
Tennessee, Hawaii, Maryland, and Ohio. He has also served as assistant
for congregational life to the Bishop of Eastern Michigan since Sept.
2007 and has been dean of the Flint River Valley Convocation since
2005.

He served as associate rector at St. Luke's Church in Jackson,
Tennessee from 1998-2003.

While serving as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy he was also interim
rector at two Tennessee congregations: St. Anne's Church in Millington
(1996-1997) and St. Matthew's Church, Covington (1994-1996), and
served as a non-stipendiary assistant at St. Christopher's Church in
Kailua, Hawaii (1989-1993).

After a two-year stint in the Disciples of Christ Church in Maryland
and Ohio, he served as youth minister at St. John's Church, Chevy
Chase, in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, from 1985-1989.

He was ordained to the diaconate Oct. 10, 1991 and to the priesthood
May 2, 1992. He holds a bachelor's degree in religious studies from
Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia and a master of divinity
degree (1983) from the Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington,
Kentucky. He is currently working on a doctor of ministry degree in
congregational development at the Seabury Western Theological Seminary
in Evanston, Illinois.

He and Donna Cassarino married Aug. 4, 1979. The couple has two adult 
children.

--The Rev. Pat McCaughan is a national correspondent for the Episcopal
News Service. She is based in Los Angeles.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_125606_ENG_HTM.htm