Even though he is eligible to serve for another eight years, the Rt. Rev. James. L. Jelinek, Bishop of Minnesota, recently announced he will soon make a formal call for the election of a Bishop Coadjutor for the diocese and resign by mid-2010.

In a statement released Sept. 25 at a diocesan clergy conference, Bishop Jelinek said important work remained to be done during the next three and a half years.

“My hesitancy in bringing this up now is the obvious concern about being a ‘lame duck,’ especially when we are engaged in so many ways to determine the near and further future of the diocese,” Bishop Jelinek wrote. “I consider that we are now engaged upon the central calling of my ministry as bishop in this last quarter of my episcopate. We need to push on, search deeper and identify the things that keep the people of this diocese from working together for mission, ministry and evangelism.”

Under the plan outlined by Bishop Jelinek in his letter, an episcopal search process would commence shortly after the Oct. 28 conclusion of diocesan convention. A special election convention would be held in the spring of 2009.

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