The Diocese of Northern Michigan has decided that it will choose from multiple nominees when it next elects a bishop.
 
The diocese’s 114th annual convention, meeting on Oct. 30-31 in Escanaba, Mich., approved a new election process that allows for nominees by petition and will stress regular communication with the wider Episcopal Church.
 
The diocese’s tenth bishop, the Rt. Rev. James A. Kelsey, died in an auto collision in June 2007. A diocesan discernment committee said from the beginning of its work in 2008 that it intended to nominate only one person as the next bishop, and it chose the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester, rector of St. Paul’s, Marquette. The diocesan convention elected Fr. Thew Forrester in February 2009, but he failed to receive sufficient consents among bishops and standing committees.
 
Both in her verbal report to the diocesan convention and in an interview with The Living Church, standing committee president Linda Piper said that poor communication harmed the consents process for Fr. Thew Forrester.
 
“Somehow we did not communicate clearly our process, and we’re working to change that,” she told The Living Church. “In our congregations there is a ministry discernment process. We based our process on a discernment process that we’ve used at the congregational level for 20 years.”
 
In her report to the diocesan convention, Ms. Piper acknowledged widespread feelings of anger and grief regarding the previous election.
 
“I don’t believe that any of us were prepared for the shock and disappointment, the anger and the sorrow, that came as a result of the failure of the consent process,” she said. “We weren’t ready for trial by internet. We never imagined that what we know to be true and right for us would cause such a reaction from the wider church.”
 
This year’s convention reflected an effort by the diocese to hear from the wider church more quickly. The diocese invited five guests from across the nation and granted them seat and voice.
 
When the convention began debating whether to allow nominees by petition, two of the guests — the Rt. Rev. William D. Persell, Bishop of Chicago, retired, and the Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees, a member of the standing committee of the Diocese of Los Angeles — defended such nominations.
 
“The petition process provides insurance against a search process gone awry,” Bishop Persell told the convention. “It also provides assurance to the wider church that you intend to elect your next bishop in an open and transparent way.”
 
After more debate, the convention voted to allow for nominees by petition.
 
“It was very helpful to have our visitors,” Ms. Piper said. “They could speak to what has happened in other dioceses.”
 
The visitors also gave the diocese a sense of support from the wider church, she said. Northern Michigan’s annual conventions, like so much else in the diocese, embody a commitment to total ministry, a concept that recognizes ministry by laity and downplays differences between clergy and laity.
 
In 1993 and 1994, delegates eliminated votes by orders and allowed each congregation to elect up to four voting delegates. Not all clergy are elected as voting delegates. All Episcopalians in the diocese have seat and voice, however. Ms. Piper said that policy sometimes increases participation in convention by about 25 percent.
 
“Our conventions tend to be informal. They’re very friendly and feel like a family reunion of the wider church,” she said.
 
“We love the Episcopal Church, and we love being the Episcopal Church in the Upper Peninsula, even if we do it a little differently.”
 
Douglas LeBlanc
 
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