We began our time together on October 13, 2008 with prayers and a review of the guidelines for discernment listening for Christian consensus. Chaplain Nancy Mills offered a well prepared reflection on our work and community as a search committee. Present were: Pat Burau, Lonnie Lacy, Geri Nelson, Skip Jennings, Ted Clarkson, Rick Buechner, Walter Hobgood, Nancy Mills, Robert Fain.

Following our opening prayers, we began to share our thoughts and insights based on our individual reviews of the survey data. Conversation was lively and substantial. There is a lot of truth in the adage that two heads are better than one!

We broke from our conversation long enough to partake of the sandwiches and refreshments provided by Christ Church on SHORT notice! The chairman of the Search Committee, having neglected to notify the parish of our meeting until he was in Wrens!

THE SURVEY

• The committee was pleased with the participation percentage and noted that generally the data was provided by an older, highly committed group of Episcopalians – 61% of whom were not born in our church! By roughly the same percentage, participants identified themselves as liberal, moderate or conservative both in their political and theological disposition - a majority indicating they were conservative in their views.
• The survey will be posted in its entirety on the search website so that all interested persons and prospective candidates may view the results and make their own interpretations of the information provided.
• The Search Committee did note the overwhelmingly clear desire to value and preserve unity in our diocese as well as continued participation in the Anglican Communion. Participants are very supportive of the generous liturgical expression policy allowed in our diocese. Consensus about the future mission priorities for the diocese was clear as well as the attributes desired in a new bishop. There continues to be fairly pronounced reservations concerning the ways gay and lesbian Episcopalians might be fully included in the life of our church.

THE PROFILE

• We next turned our attention to the preparation of the Profile. This document is very important to us and to candidates as a statement of how we see ourselves, our future direction, and the qualities needed in a new bishop for this diocese. The Profile will be developed for additional use in congregations as an introduction to the Diocese of Georgia. It will be posted and available on disk, saving considerable expense. Responsibilities for generating the sections of the profile were assigned. Fred Richter will serve as overall editor, harmonizing the different writing styles of drafters into a single voice.
• We are bit behind on timeline now and will work diligently to have the profile by November 15th.

We concluded our meeting with prayers.

Download: Results of the Diocesan Survey

Thank you to those many members of the Diocese of Georgia who participated in the September 21-30 Diocesan Survey. The Search Committee has received your responses, which were tabulated and organized by the same independent group that administered the survey. Those responses are available for download by clicking on the link above.

With these responses in hand, the Committee now turns its attention to developing a Diocesan Profile to convey the needs and character of our Diocese and the hopes we share for our next bishop. We expect that profile to be complete by mid to late November.

Thank you to those many members of the Diocese of Georgia who participated in the September 21-30 Diocesan Survey.  The Search Committee is looking forward to receiving your responses, which are being tabulated and organized by the same independent group that administered the survey.  Those responses will be especially useful as the Committee now turns its attention to developing a Diocesan Profile to convey the needs and character of our Diocese and the hopes we share for our next bishop.