The House of Bishops’ March 14 covenant to withhold consents for episcopal elections will impact 11 dioceses in disparate ways. Four dioceses will see no affect to their present schedules while seven will have to change their plans in order to conform to the house’s wishes.

Bishop Jerry Lamb of Northern California wrote to his diocese on March 17 stating "the timeline for the election of my successor in this diocese was developed to bring the person elected here in Northern California to General Convention in 2006, and so the moratorium regarding consent would not apply to our election."

A spokesman for Eastern Michigan told THE LIVING CHURCH "a very tentative calendar lists a May 2006 election and a call to General Convention 2006 for a confirmation." No "official" decision had been made but he added, "the House of Bishops covenant of March 14 will have little effect on our process."

The Diocese of California’s executive officer, the Rev. Canon Michael Hansen, told THE LIVING CHURCH "our Episcopal election will be held on May 5 2006, which means we will need General Convention 2006 consent in June. We will, therefore, go ahead with our election."

The language of the bishops’ covenant will not effect the Jan. 29 election of the Rev. Ambrose Gumbs as Bishop of the Virgin Islands. "Those of us having jurisdiction" the bishops wrote, "pledge to withhold consent to the consecration of any person elected to the episcopate after the date hereof until the General Convention of 2006."

The Rev. Canon Carlson Gerdau, canon to the Presiding Bishop, told THE LIVING CHURCH that though the consents for Bishop-elect Gumbs’ election had not been mailed out as of March 21, the covenant’s ban did not apply to the January election.

In a March 18 letter to the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Bishop Herbert Thompson, Jr., wrote, "The Standing Committee and I have met and agree that there will be no episcopal election on June 11, 2005 and no consecration on Nov. 12, 2005."

What Southern Ohio will do, Bishop Thompson wrote, was, as of yet, undecided.

The Oct. 15, 2005 election of a suffragan bishop for the Diocese of West Texas has been canceled, a diocesan spokesman said. On March 17, Bishop James Folts and the diocesan standing committee agreed to delay the election in later March or early April and present the bishop-elect to the Columbus General Convention in June.

During the discussion on the moratorium on elections at the House of Bishops’ meeting at Camp Allen, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold asked whether any bishop would be placed in canonical difficulty by the proposed ban. Bishop Bertram N. Herlong of Tennessee told the Presiding Bishop that it would affect his diocese, as he will reach the mandatory retirement age of 72 next year. Tennessee’s canon to the ordinary, the Rev. Robert Dedmon, said on March 18 no decisions had been made as to what the diocese will do.

Nor has the Diocese of South Carolina decided how it will proceed. The president of South Carolina’s standing committee, the Rev. Marshall Sanderson, said "the Diocese of South Carolina will begin the process to select our new bishop with a scheduled retreat of the Nominating and Standing Committees as planned on March 29-30."

"At our convention, in anticipation of this eventuality, we scheduled the election for a ‘date certain’ to be decided by Bishop Salmon and the Standing Committee," he wrote. "We wish, as in all things, to take the high moral ground, and will take in serious consideration, the HOB ‘request’ to delay the actual election."

A spokesman for the Diocese of Southwest Florida said "things are, well, clear as mud around here."

Southwest Florida’s standing committee will take up the House of Bishop’s request at their April 19 meeting. Southwest Florida communications officer Jim DeLa said there were several plans under consideration. One option is to "do nothing and let the 2005 diocesan convention, meeting Dec. 2, 2005, amend its own resolution and pick a new election date," eliminating the need for a special convention to rescind the March 1 deadline created by the 2004 convention, he said.

What is certain, he said, was that the bishop nominating c committee’s budget was increased from $95,900 to $125,000 at a meeting of the diocesan council on March 18 "in anticipation of the search process being lengthened by the HOB’s covenant," Mr. DeLa said.

Information on elections in the dioceses of El Camino Real and Central Ecuador were not available at the time this article was published.