Oregon Bishop Search Cmte UPDATE

Directly from the Diocese of Oregon a few moments ago, the Bishop Search Committee Update:

Search Committee Update

June 5, 2009

-The Rev. Sara Fischer, search committee communications sub-chair


The Search Committee invites your prayers during the coming weeks as we embark on the next level of discernment in our process. We have identified eight semi-finalists for nomination as our Tenth Bishop of Oregon. So that all sixteen members of the Search Committee can interview each of these eight semi-finalists in depth, we have invited them, in two groups of four, to gather with us for several days in a retreat setting. We will complete these two intensive interview sessions in late June, and then enter the work of discernment and reference-checking. Our final act as the Search Committee will be to present, in August, no more than four names to the Standing Committee. Please pray for the Search Committee and for each of the semi-finalists who are themselves in a process of discerning God's call.

For more information, see http://diocese- regon.org/bishopsearch or contact Paul Barthelemy (vicah@nehalemtel.net) or Mary Cramer (m.m.cramer@comcast.net), Search Committee Co-chairs.

Submitted by Deirdre Steinberg, Diocesan Communications Director

Bishop of Oregon Search Update: 51?

Bishop Search Update: May 28, 2009

In our Bishop Search process, 51 priests, men and women, from throughout the United States and beyond, submitted applications in response to our diocesan profile. Our diocese is blessed indeed! After a period of intense individual review of each application, as a group the Search Committee recently has undertaken the monumental, prayer-filled task of narrowing down fifty-one applicants to a group of eight semi-finalists.

During June, the Committee will begin interviewing these semi-finalists, with the goal of presenting the names of four finalists to the Standing Committee by early August.

We ask the diocese to continue to pray for the Search Committee, the Transition Committee, the Standing Committee, and for those on the journey with us, as together we seek discernment of God’s will for our diocese.

—The Rev. Sara Fischer

Sincerely,

Deirdre Steinberg, Communications Director

Episcopal Diocese of Oregon

11800 SW Military Lane, Portland, Oregon 97219

Direct: 971-204-4108, Mobile: 503-890-1542

www.diocese-oregon.org

Oregon Bishop Search: Discernment Begins...

By The Rev. Sara Fischer and the Rev. David Sweeney,

Search Committee Communications Sub-Committee

The Bishop Search Committee met on April 24 at St. Paul in Salem. It was clear to all of us that the work of discernment is truly underway. The committee is now receiving application materials from priests from around the country—men and women engaged in their own process of discerning whether or not God might be calling them as the tenth Bishop of Oregon.

Our agenda included the following:

• An update of our applicant list. This list changes daily, as individuals submit application materials. The application deadline is May 15,2009.
• A report from the education sub-committee on its work in developing materials to help Oregonians of all ages understand the office of Bishop. Look for an insert in the summer issue of The Oregon Episcopal Church News.
• Discussion of our discernment process as we review application materials. A recurring theme in committee discussions has been the need to treat each application on its own merits, according to criteria we’ve established, and the need to bring every applicant to prayer as we review his or her materials.

What’s next? The Search Committee will gather in the third week of May to review all application materials, using a carefully-developed screening process which we hope will assist us in identifying eight applicants as semi-finalists. Those semi-finalists will be invited to participate in in-depth interviews in June.

Questions? More information about our search process is available on the Bishop Search website, www.diocese-oregon.org/bishopsearch/bishopsearch.htm, and those with questions or concerns are also encouraged to contact Search Committee Co-Chairs Mary Cramer (m.m.cramer@comcast.net) or The Rev. Paul Barthelemy (vicah@nehalemtel.net).

An important note about nomenclature: The Search Committee strives not to use the term “Candidate.” In our present American culture, the term candidate implies a process wherein people are running “against” one another for political office. Hence in our meetings we refer to those who enter into the search process as applicants. After our first round of screening, in June, we will interview eight semi-finalists. The individuals whose names the Search Committee submits to the Standing Committee for approval are referred to as nominees.

Sincerely,

Deirdre Steinberg, Communications Director

Episcopal Diocese of Oregon

11800 SW Military Lane, Portland, Oregon 97219

Direct: 971-204-4108, Mobile: 503-890-1542

www.diocese-oregon.org

Floundering and finding

I am not sure where this entry will eventually end up as my mind is in wandering mode at the time of this writing...

We have had a strange and unusual Spring here in southern Oregon. Here it is nearing the end of April and we are still getting snow in the mountains and the valleys, including my own. It could be another one of those years where we are in the 40's and 50's until the first of May when it will--as before--rocket to 80 degrees within 24 hours and leave us all stunned and coming down with colds...joy.

I want the warmth to come, the light, bright and good, the greening of my world. I need the light to shine in the darkness of my weary spirit; weary from grief, loss, hurriedness, workday stress, the loneliness in the crowd kind of feeling, the stillness of my home. I want to put my hands in the earth and inhale her in all of her fertility and life-giving presence. I want...no, I need flowers and growing things to involve my hands and heart in moving meditation and in those moments, continue a silent dialogue with God about everyday stuff, and about what I'm to do with my life, aside from the usual perambulations of the every day.

I spoke with my spiritual director this last Sunday, and we talked about finding our identity as women of our respective generations. From where we have been to where we are now and what the future may make of us in time. There are times when I find myself in a mental desert searching for myself, if only I knew what I was looking for, I may find it. Or maybe its a mountain I must climb to test my endurance of the seemingly ordinary. On other days I think I have figured it out but you know, we never really do...figure "it" out that is. We lead ourselves to think we are coming within reach only to discover that we are further away than we initially thought. This is when I tend to want to simply forget about ever discovering that "thing" I am supposed to be. And why is that so important? To try to fit myself into an identity or a role that I think I am to engage for the rest of my life.

I have been silent in this blog for a while. Yes I did write a rant on letter-writing which I didn't announce to my usual list of readers but just let it sit there to be found by those who might happen by. Lisa Fox of My Manner Of Life has also been in silent mode. I have read some blog entries by similar spiritual women who have wondered if their blogs should or could continue. Closeted Pastor and Gartenfische have approached this subject and I like what they say about it, and the support they have received to keep on writing. All three of these blogs by these extraordinary women should continue in my opinion but then I am selfish in this respect because I love reading fine writing about things that really matter in life. I know I can find substance in each one of these places given the articulate prose.

When you are a searching person like me, you need inspiration in its many forms. Being a lover of literature I have found some especially good places to immerse my often empty cup of myself and find myself filled with refreshing word images and enlightenment. Recently I found Choralgirl
and her poetry offerings as well as her prosaic commentary on poets of our time to be refreshing and enriching. I also recommend the pithy writings of the author of Wyrdbyrd's Wyrld where topics are many and the views are varied. And if its the Barkings of an Old Dog that you want to hear, I offer you Clumber, who's perspective is vertically diminished yet brimming with good bites and dreams...of bites...of something, preferably tasty sans drool. I find that dogs always have something sage to offer us, either silently [its the eye communication] or physically [dragging us by the leash, or depositing wet tennis balls in our hands]. I love the picture of Laika, the space dog's memorial statue in Moscow. I earnestly encourage you to take a look. Somehow Clumber pawed his way through cyberspace to find it.

And as Clumber is a seeker of God and of the doggy esoteric, I too am seeking God in the everyday, in the dogs [I am becoming partial to golden retrievers, hence the blatant dog picture] I happen upon [and occasionally the kitties; most definitely the rabbits], in the people I meet, intentionally or otherwise...perhaps my journey is about them, or they are in some way a part of my journey in finding out who I am and what I am to be. I welcome the thoughts of my readership and their perspectives on the matter. I admittedly say that I become tired of feeling lost in certain aspects of my life. But maybe this is the way its supposed to be: that there is no "fitting in", that we are always going to be in a state of flux. Perhaps in my spiritual life, floundering is part of the finding. Either way, I am never alone.

Catherine

The photo of Mt McLoughlin is courtesy of the USGS and the picture of Dewey the golden retriever is courtesy of his human, Shawn Nolson at shawnolsen.net. The sleeping volcano that is Mt McLoughlin is in huge, plain view of my office in the northern part of the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon.