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November 28, 2004

Notes on the Election of our next Bishop

Nominations for our next Bishop were sought through a wide variety of ways, and 400 recommendations -284 unduplicated names -were received by the Committee. All 284 were invited into the process. They were sent a brochure listing the "Seven Gifts" that the Diocese was searching for, gifts defined in a series of diocesan-wide meetings with clergy and lay members, and they were asked to pick one of those seven gifts and respond to the Committee.

95 of the nominees chose to respond; according to our Consultant, the most who had ever replied in the past was 25. The process was designed to screen people IN, not OUT. The 95 were then asked to respond to a second of the seven gifts, and 30 replied.

Working with these 30, one member of the Committee was assigned to each person. Six teams of three members each made conference calls to the candidates for an interview that lasted two hours. Each candidate submitted four references, and one person called all four to get a clearer picture.

The Committee met on October 29, and the list was cut to 12. Teams of two then scheduled a personal visit with the candidate, visits lasting 36 hours with talks to 10 other people on the candidate's staff or others who knew the candidate. That process continues.

Early in January the Committee will reassemble and cut the list to 6 or 7. Those individuals will then be invited into the Diocese at the end of January, together with their families for their own discernment procedure -whether they like us or not, a sort of last chance step. After thorough background checks are conducted by the Standing Committee on February 24, they will be invited for a series of regional meetings hosted by the deaneries. Ours will be at St. Margaret's on Thursday evening, May 26, exact time TBA, for brief presentations, questions and answers, etc. The next step will be deanery meetings without the candidates for follow-up discussions and concerns to be addressed. The actual election will take place at a one-day convention in Cincinnati on June 11,2005.

Why the big response? The Consultant said that Southern Ohio is known as a healthy diocese with a respected Bishop, an engaging profile and good people. The selection criteria followed the national church Canons/Constitution... and the noted Seven Gifts. All Committee decisions were made by consensus, never a vote, and each decision was fully supported by the Committee, which was grounded in prayer and worship.

The Committee has practiced the highest standard of care and sensitivity with the candidates, tender handling of them and each other. No names have yet been announced, either those in or those out.

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Bishop Thompson's Address

to the 129th Convention of the Diocese of Southern Ohio

November 14, 2003

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. There is one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, there is one God and Father of all, who is Lord of all, works through all and is in all" Ephesians 4:4-6.

My brothers and sisters, in the name of Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior, I greet you and welcome you to this 129th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. I thank God for this gathering, for our life together, and for the blessings that God has and continues to bestow upon us as followers of Christ in this day, place and time.
I thank you for living in obedience to our Lord's Great Commandment to love one another and to his Great Commission to be a missionary church. I thank you for being living witnesses of our Lord's prayer: "To be one as He and the Father are one."
I do not need to tell you that these past months and days have been marked by controversy and even turmoil in parts of our Church and beyond our borders. But by the grace of God and, thanks to your witness and leadership, Southern Ohio continues to move forward as a strong, healthy and united diocese.

To my dismay and to God's great sadness, there are members of the Church who are saying to those with whom they disagree, "I have no need of you." But Jesus is saying, "Not only do I need you, but I have chosen you, that you should go and bear much fruit."
I do not diminish the challenging matters facing the Church, but I am unalterably committed to the principle that we, in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, will not be distracted by them. I meant it when I said that we will focus like a laser beam on God's call to be a missionary diocese. We will keep our eye on the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We will be the bearers of blessing for our needy world.

I think it is significant that the Holy Spirit is breaking out all across our diocese. Since our last convention, I have, under the hand of God, been blessed to dedicate the new, state-of-the-art sanctuary at St. Matthew, Westerville; broken ground for the new building for the Church of the Good Samaritan, Amelia; dedicated the astonishing addition at St. Thomas, Terrace Park; and helped launch St. Mary Magdalene, our newest congregation, who already has purchased an amazingly beautiful new property. I was blessed to be with our St. Margaret, Trotwood, family to dedicate their new building. St. Margaret's, formerly landlocked, inconveniently located and hemorrhaging in membership, now has purchased 39 acres, built a magnificent church that seats 600, and under the leadership of the Rev. Ben Speare-Hardy, the congregation has embraced a vision for a school and center for assisted living. Supported by fellow Episcopalians from Dayton area congregations, together we processed into the new church accompanied by drums and singing, "We are marching to the light of God."
A month ago, I helped break ground for the Church of the Redeemer in Cincinnati. Their Cornerstone project will add worship space, classrooms, offices, meditation gardens and more. It is significant that the Church of the Redeemer accomplished this missionary challenge during an interim period, while seeking and awaiting a new rector. Still, in the interim, they oversubscribed their campaign by more than three times their intended goal. 

Bishop Price has dedicated new chapels at St. Stephen, Cincinnati, and Trinity, London. And under the direction of Roger Speer, youth director for the diocese, the senior high youth have built a wonderful outdoor chapel at our Procter Camp & Conference Center. 
Over the years, I've learned more and more about the wonderful ways of God. I do not worry about money. That wonderful hymn says it all: "Great is thy Faithfulness. 0 God my Father, morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed, thy hands have provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me."

These groundbreakings and dedications are wonderfully significant for all of us, and I am prepared to go anywhere to set in place for God something that never existed before. These new ventures are signs of God's reign among us. But I rejoice equally in the countless ways God is honored and exalted in the mission and ministry of every congregation in our diocese. I rejoice in the licensing of 10 exceedingly well-trained lay preachers in the East Central Ohio Cluster. This creative and visionary development is evidence of God's potential to change not only that part of the diocese, but the entire diocese. "The days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh." Would that all of God's people were prophets and preachers. Like the Rev. Barry Cotter, Missioner of the ECO Cluster, says, our task is to "unbind [God's people] and let them go."

For all of this, I give thanks and praise to God. I cannot thank God enough for His goodness to us and the constancy of his blessing. An article from The Dayton Daily News recently reported that denominations and dioceses across the country are struggling for vocations to the ordained ministry. It acknowledged the one bright spot in this picture is the Diocese of Southern Ohio, which has 57 people in the process toward ordination - more than 20 of them under the age 35.

This summer, Archdeacon Hanisian called me and said, "Bishop, do you know how many vacancies we have in this diocese?" I asked, "How many?" Jim answered, "Two. And one is being filled as we speak." This has never happened in all my years in the diocese. We owe a great debt of thanks to the Commission on Congregational Life, the Commission on Ministry, and to our superb staff for their support for congregations and clergy. Here, let me say thank you to Bishop Price; Archdeacon Hanisian; Steve Muncie, canon for mission; Patty Hassel, our finance officer; Richelle Thompson, director of communications; Roger Speer, our youth officer; Richard Aguilar, Hispanic missioner; Penny Buckley, director of the Procter Camp & Conference Center; and Dean David Ruppe, whose work helped to bring Bexley Hall Seminary back to Southern Ohio. Thanks to the Rev. Kitty Clausen, Bexley is a fully accredited, degree-granting seminary, in cooperative ministry with Trinity Lutheran Seminary. And my thanks to other staff, including Jeffrey Price, director of public policy; Ida Riley, executive secretary to the bishop and the trustees; and Jane Curry, Bishop Price's executive secretary. No bishop in the Church is blessed with a more competent and dedicated staff than am I. They humble me by their devotion, and they are instruments of God's grace for you. No bishop in the Church is blessed to serve among such extraordinary clergy and lay leaders as God has called and raised up in this diocese. I give thanks for the faithfulness, generosity, commitment and hard work of the clergy and people of this wonderful diocese. Above all, we owe a great debt of thanks to God for His wonderful provision.

Two Sundays ago, we instituted the Rev. Stephen Applegate as rector of St. Luke, Granville. It was a glorious service. I was struck by the citation in the Letter of Institution, "Given under my hand and seal, November 2, 2003, in the City of Cincinnati and in the 16th year of my consecration." 16th year! I felt it should have made reference to someone else. A much younger Stephen Applegate was chair of the Committee on Arrangements for my consecration after I was elected bishop on June 11,1988. I well remember that day with Russelle by my side.  (A portion of the tape made after Bishop Thompson's election was shown).  I happened upon this videotape some time last week. Even after all these years, I remain thrilled, awed and humbled - and a bit startled that it was 16 years ago. Russelle was so young and so beautiful - and I had hair!!

Now, before us at this convention, is the matter of Episcopal transition. As I viewed the film, I was struck by my own words - the words of a somewhat frightened baby bishop. I spoke about loyalty, my loyalty to my former bishop even when I disagreed with him, and I did disagree at times. I spoke of my expectation of the loyalty of the clergy, and assured the clergy of my loyalty to them.

In all three of the congregations I have served in my ministry and as bishop of Southern Ohio, we have held as top priority our giving of our full share to the diocese and to the Episcopal Church.

Here in Southern Ohio, our tradition is to give the full asking through the National Church and then, because God has blessed us, to give more. To whom much is given, much is required. Isn't it timely and instructive that on the Sunday before this convention, we read the Gospel reading of the poor widow giving everything she had to God. She was not sending a message with her money but honoring God with her own self-giving.
When we give, we do not give to the parish, to the diocese, to the National Church or to the Anglican Communion. We give to glorify God. We are giving a gift back to God from the gifts God has given us. The only message we send, like the poor widow in the Gospel is, "Thank you Lord! Thank you!"

In that 1988 election film, I spoke of evangelism as the sine qua non of the Church. A church that is not an evangelizing church, a missionary church, is a disobedient Church - disobedient to the Lord who said, "Go, baptize all nations." The Church that is content to live a maintenance life will die - and probably should. God has work to do and his way is to work through people - his Church.

The Church that is consumed with squabbling, whatever the issue, is never a church that anyone wants to belong to. And it is not the Church God calls us to be.
I have called Southern Ohio to be a missionary diocese, where everyone is an evangelist, a missionary for Christ. I have called for 100,000 members in this diocese by the year 2005. I know it frightens people, and I know people get caught up in the numbers. When I told this to a friend in New York, a devoutly faithful Christian, she said, "Who are you to limit what God can do?" Does God want 100,000 souls in Southern Ohio to glorify Him? Does God want 100,000 members of the church to carry and implement his victory in the resurrection of Jesus - person by person - until the whole world is filled with the knowledge of the love of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus? Does God want what every follower of Jesus prays for: "Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven?" Is the mission of the Church to bring all people to unity with God and one another in Christ? Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

It's not 2005 yet. We have two years to go. Perhaps my timetable is not God's timetable. But we are called to go forward, bringing people to Christ, one by one. If each member of our diocese brings just one person to church, one person to Christ, each year, we will make that goal. (It really is not that audacious, is it?)

The Church exists for those outside. But we must be careful of Pelagianism, the idea that we will do it by our own brilliance and effort and strategies and programs. It is not within our power to convert anyone to faith in Jesus Christ. This can only be the work of the Holy Spirit. But when we are faithfully following Jesus, both in living and telling his story, then the Church will become the place where the Holy Spirit does the work of conversion.

God is faithful. He will bring to completion the good work He has begun in us, in God's good time and in God's perfect way. Our call is to be faithful in our commitment to evangelism and service. Our task is to help every congregation become a mission station: a living part of the body of Christ - the place where the reign of God is both embodied and proclaimed. I already have shared with unbridled joy many of the wonderful things that God has done among us, for us, and through us. Let me here say, "Praise the Lord."

But if we have a weakness, it is like other denominations that have failed to lead the Church to a creative missionary ministry in the cities. While we have a few notable exceptions, we must help our congregations in our cities, both large and small, to be vital stations of mission.

Jonah, that reluctant missionary, was sent by God to the city of Nineveh. Jesus began the week of his passion by riding into the city of Jerusalem. Jesus loved Jerusalem and wept over it. Like the Essenes, he could have led his followers into the desert. But Jesus chose the Feast of Passover, chose a donkey, not a warrior's stallion or a ruler's chariot, to enter the city and claim his throne - the Cross - and there he accepted the cost of that claim.

This is the role of the Church in following our Lord into the city. We, in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, have made a decision to work cooperatively with churches in Dayton, and we are going to share with them in supporting the work of an urban missioner.
The first Sunday in Lent will mark the first gathering of our Latino congregation in Columbus. We give thanks for Father Richard Aguilar's careful planting of seeds for this ministry across the diocese. We bid your prayers and support for Richard.
In Cincinnati, the W. E. B. DuBois Academy, a charter school began by Will Willard, the son of Canon Wilson Willard, has grown successful beyond our imagining. In a recent evaluation, it scored number six among all elementary schools in the city. We helped launch it with a grant from the William Cooper Procter Fund, and we are looking to replicate this successful school and lift the horizons of young people in other cities across Southern Ohio.

When I was invested as bishop of the diocese on Jan. 15, 1992, the preacher, Bishop Richard Martin, my father in God, in his sermon, turned to me and said, "Remember, Herbert, you are only an interim. You are here between Bishop Black and the next Bishop whom God already has in mind." My sisters and brothers, we are all only interims. I bid you recall my mention of the interim time at the Church of the Redeemer, Cincinnati, when they oversubscribed the amount of their campaign goal for the sake of the ministry Christ had set before them. Interim times are not to be times of passive reflection but on the contrary, times of passionate engagement.

Now here we are all interims in life and in ministry, and so I, at this 129th Convention gathered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in accordance with the canons of the Church, am calling for the election of a follower of Jesus to succeed me as the 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio.

The Standing Committee of the diocese has set the date of the election for June 11, 2005, to be followed by the consecration of the new bishop following the conclusion of the 131st Diocesan Convention in November, 2005. The detailed transition process approved by the Standing Committee will be shared with this convention.

The question before us now is how are we going to operate in this interim? The answer is that we will not be distracted by the "issues" that so abound in the Church. We will not allow the divisive politics of some within the Church to claim our attention or distract us. But, rather, we will get on with the mission of Christ before us. And not only get on with the mission, but give ourselves to it more fully then ever. Proclaim the Good News. Bring people to Christ, one by one.

We will walk together in unity, bringing every member along with us. There is no room for spectators or speculators in the Church. No place for lame ducks. There will be no lying fallow, but every inch of soil is to be tilled, sowed and planted and watered that God might give the growth.

I am not worried about the process or the election or even the future. Because I believe in God, I believe in the Holy Spirit, and I believe in you - for I have seen what God has done through us over these near 16 years. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I am confident that we will continue in Christ's mission, and because we are one, we will be a light in every comer of this diocese, nation and world.

I love you, no matter what, and I love the Church, because you are the Church, and for Jesus' sake, I expect you to do the same. 

Amen.

The Rt. Rev. Herbert Thompson Jr.
Bishop, Southern Ohio

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Click HERE to revisit our parish trip to the Cathedral in Cincinnati, Ohio for

Pentecost, 2001.

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Lou Benavides was a member of the Diocesan Standing Committee and brought us reports from previous Council Meetings.

Diocesan Convention  Notes

The 127th convention of the Diocese of Southern Ohio met on November 9 and 10, 2000 in Columbus.  John Webster has provided us with a set of notes on the convention proceedings.  Each member of the Vestry has a copy, and there is an additional copy on the bulletin board outside the Lounge.

In his convention address, Bishop Thompson described three “choices” that have emerged from discussions with the leaders of the diocese.  These four statements will serve as the foci for diocesan activity over the next several years.  They are:

1) We will support the establishment of new congregations and strengthen the ministry of existing congregations that seek new ways to proclaim the Gospel.

2) We will strengthen ministry to youth, welcoming especially those without a faith community.

3) We will educate Episcopalians to understand the Christian faith so that they become strong disciples and are equipped to exercise ministries of social justice and reconciliation.

4) We will increase effective communication among all congregations using state of the art technologies.

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Memorandum

To: The Vestry and Rector of St Mark’s Episcopal Church and the East Dayton Deanery

From: Louis A. Benavides

Re: Diocesan Council Meeting 07 October 2000

The meeting was held at Proctor on Saturday, October 7 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM.  The meeting started with preparations for the Convention.  Those parishes that have not met the mission share or audit deadlines for the year were referred to the Credentials Committee for voice and vote in the Diocesan Convention.  In other words, the Council didn’t know exactly what to do.  One wants to be business like and also caring.  Budgetary Decisions:  A motion was made to revise budget figures with reduction in endowment fund in-come, and increase in operating fund withdrawals.  –  Approved.  A motion was made by the Accessibility Commission to reduce 2000 spending and spend available funds in 2001. - Approved.  A motion was made to go on record to oppose the Tithe for Growth Resolution. - Approved.  A motion was made to adopt revisions to the New Clergy Compensation Guidance previously requested, as developed by Mel Schlacter and Team. –  Approved.  A motion was made to revise the agenda for the November Convention at the Omni in Cincinnati. – Approved.  Arrangements for Future Conventions:  Nov 7, 2001:  Marriott North, Columbus;  2002: Marriott, Dayton;  2003: Radisson Sharonville;  2004: Portsmouth;  2005:  Cincinnati.  Pre-Convention Meetings (neither of the Bishops are available):  Sat, Oct 14, 10:30 AM: St James, Zanesville.  Mon, Oct 16, 7:00 PM: Christ Church, Dayton.  Tues, Oct 17, 7:00 PM: St Mathews, Westerville.  Wed, Oct 18, 7:00 PM: St Anne’s, West Chester.  Thur, Oct 19, 7:00 PM: Calvary, Cincinnati.  Sat, Oct 21, 10:30 AM: St Paul’s, Chillicothe.  Rusty Russell, Holman member from St Barnabus, reported on the Great Commissioning.  You can read about the details on the web, maps, events, tickets etc.:  Overnight for the youths (Sat Night).  Zoo event Friday evening at 5:00 PM for all families.  (This event, as well as food, is free but you need to get tickets.)  Also, there is a Friday evening musical event at St. Barnabus.  Saturday events begin at Cintis Center at 9:00 AM with a Chorale event and a Big Show at 11:00 AM (once again, tickets are required).  Parking is limited:  3000 spaces for 10,000 stadium seats.  There is a good turn-around for bus dropoffs.  Busses have to park a half a mile away.  You’ll need to take cell phones or walkie-talkies. See clearviz.org and comserv@fuse.net for more details.  Bishop Thompson’s Report:  There were a lot of personnel changes, including:  Cotter to East Central, (installation the 29th); Susan Mills to St Andrews, Dayton; and Charlotte Weed to Christ Church, Springfield  The Inner-City Schools in Cincinnati are doing well.  (The one we are aiding is open and the one we are running opens next year.)  The Bishop is now chairman of the Church Pension Fund, which has assets of $500M.  He also said that he went to supper the other night at the Cincinnati Country Club and waved at some folks.  One of them called the next day and is giving one million dollars to the church!  The Bishop is planning to go to Israel on Nov 29-Dec10.  (Let’s hope they are at piece by then.)  The Diocese is having the new priests annual orientation.   Neither of the Bishops will be able to attend.  And finally, it was reported that Bishop Black got remarried.  Bishop Price’s Report:  Our sister Dioceses Bishops of the Windward Isles and New Zealand will attend the Convention.  There are now many new Seminarians, (also, many of them are under 35).  The Deacons’ class is  being reworked and the SOLLI is starting up again.  The Diocese is still conducting a search for a new youth minister.  Rev. Zust is filling in one day a week.  Bishop Price noted that this will be the last meeting before the Convention.  The meeting was followed by devotions and prayers.

Respectfully, Louis Benavides