The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop met June 17 in Chicago to narrow the list of potential successors to Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. The committee will begin conducting interviews in September with a confidential number of candidates. The House of Bishops is scheduled to vote June 18, 2006, during the 75th General Convention which meets in Columbus, Ohio.

The committee hopes to complete its work sometime next March, at which time a list of three to five names will be submitted to the House of Bishops, according to the Rev. Canon Mark Harris of Delaware, who has been designated to prepare press releases on behalf of the committee. In addition to conducting interviews, the committee also may undertake visitations and review literature published by the potential nominees.

After the House of Bishops receives the list of nominees, there will be an interval during which bishops and elected members of the House of Deputies will be able to submit the names of candidates by petition. That interval will conclude prior to the start of convention in order to allow sufficient time to conduct background checks on nominees successfully added by petition, Canon Harris said.

Under the canons of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, members of the House of Bishops elect the Presiding Bishop after which time the incumbent must be confirmed by the House of Deputies, which is comprised of up to four clergy and four lay persons from each of the 110 dioceses in the Church.

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