Regarding Transitions: Standing Committee Empowers Executive Board to Create Diocesan Survey and Profile

Beloved People of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas,

This letter is an opportunity to update and inform you on the process of discernment for the calling of our next Diocesan Bishop. There is holy and deeply important work for all of us to do as we spend these next several months in discernment together. The Standing Committee has met numerous times over the past two months to gather information, enlist the help of the Diocesan Executive Board, and to find support and leadership from Bishop Reed. He joins me in this letter to invite you to participate in the search process, and to encourage you in our discernment together as a diocese.

The Standing Committee has crafted a timeline for the process leading up to the election on February 18, 2023. We have met (via zoom) with The Rt. Rev. Todd Ousley, who serves as a resource for Episcopal (bishop) elections throughout our church, and with The Very Rev. Ron Clingenpeel, a retired priest from the diocese of Louisiana who has been a consultant for Standing Committees in more than 25 bishop elections since 1998. Both have been very helpful in answering our questions, helping us see things we’ve missed, and in shaping our process going forward.

A few weeks ago, the Standing Committee and the Executive Board took an important step in the process of discernment for the calling of our next Diocesan Bishop. The Executive Board has agreed to shepherd the process of creating a diocesan profile that will help us articulate what we hope for in our next bishop and how we currently see ourselves as the Diocese of West Texas. If you have ever been through a clergy search process in your parish, you understand how important it is to create both a descriptive and an aspirational profile.

We invite and encourage you to participate in the crafting of our diocesan profile by completing an online survey before July 18. We invite you to both prayerfully and hopefully complete this simple survey, knowing that every answer is a piece of our important work moving forward.

And, speaking on behalf of the incredibly dedicated people who are working on the profile and the process, let me say how grateful we are to discern with you in this diocese as we call our next Diocesan Bishop. Again, we cannot stress enough how important this survey is in the process of creating an accurate profile, and we call on all of you to help spread the word inviting your congregation to join you, and to be a part of this discernment together.

Please continue to keep the diocese, the Standing Committee, and the Executive Board in your prayers as well. Thank you for your kindness and love for Christ that is so often made known to us in the Diocese of West Texas.

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Peace,
Ben+

The Rev. Dr. Ben Nelson
President of the Standing Committee

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‍Click here to take the Diocesan Survey.

Click here for communication resources for the Diocesan Survey

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A Prayer for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas
Almighty God, giver of all good gifts, you have called us to a life-giving fellowship in the Diocese of West Texas: Encourage and build up in us the love of Christ Jesus that we might continue to strengthen the legacy of those who have tended and led this diocese with godly courage; look graciously upon us and on your whole Church; by your Spirit, guide the Standing Committee, the delegates, and the clergy who shall discern the one you call to be a bishop for our diocese; send us a faithful shepherd who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries. All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns now and forever. Amen.

‍Click here to subscribe to the Diocesan General Interest email list and receive all upcoming election communications.

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Standing Committee: The Rev. Dr. Ben Nelson, President; Mrs. Nancy Beauchamp; The Rev. Scott Brown; Dr. Elizabeth Manning; Mr. Richard Mosty; The Rev. Matt Wise