Day 6– June 26
Today was election day. We had a long list of offices to vote on like who’s on the Board of the Church Pension Fund, but also the big election of the Convention, the election of a Presiding Bishop for the next nine years. Five candidates were running for the office. There are short videos posted of each of them which are worth watching if you want to form your own opinions of the candidates. They can be found here: https://generalconvention.org/nominees-for-the-28th-presiding-bishop/
I’ll wait.
On a first ballot, the Bishops elected the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe. It actually wasn’t close.
THE RT. REV. J. SCOTT BARKER - 24
THE RT. REV. DANIEL G. P. GUTIÉRREZ - 17
THE RT. REV. SEAN ROWE - 89
THE RT. REV. ROBERT WRIGHT - 19
THE RT. REV. DEDE DUNCAN-PROBE - 9
Without trying to sound too clever, I was rooting (quietly) for Rowe but didn’t imagine that he’d receive the nod. Nine years ago I was there when Michael Curry was elected Presiding Bishop and his vote seemed like a foregone conclusion. It was just obvious. This time was different.
The Bishops seem to have picked him for a number of reasons. First, he’s the youngest person (at 49) ever elected to that office. Second, he comes off as a real change agent. In his presentation to the House of Deputies after we voted to confirm his election, he said that the church is in the midst of an existential crisis and needs to thoughtfully re-build itself to meet the challenges of the current world. His Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership will likely be helpful in that massive undertaking. A third thing I learned from people in his Diocese is that he’s really easy to work with and quite personable.
The “race” for Presiding Bishop wasn’t the Mutually Assured Destruction that we’re used to in the world of politics. These men and women work together and know each other. There’s no mystery in the House of Bishops about the qualities of their peers. For anyone who isn’t jazzed by Rowe’s election, be comforted by the fact that his peers know him and believe that God has called him to this role at this time.
Those elections took up a lot of our day. I had a meeting at 7:45 a.m. and the House of Deputies met until 9:00 PM, so it was a long day. But we only have two days left and a lot more legislation to cover. If you could take a moment to pray for your deputation, that would be greatly appreciated.
