Outcome-based Episcopal Math: Are 11 Conservatives Less Diverse than 5 Liberals?

The Diocese of Albany will elect a bishop coadjutor on March 25, and Albany Via Media’s website has claimed that the process “severely limits the roles of the clergy and laity,” producing “no candidates who are of a more moderate, Episcopal positioning.”

For a superior way of nominating a bishop, Albany Via Media cites the work of what it calls a “real diocese”: California. The Diocese of California will elect the successor to Bishop William Swing on May 6, and comments already have ensued at titusonenine.

Albany Via Media vice president Robert Dodd wrote early on that Albany's "fast track" would not allow time for electors to meet the candidates in person. (As Via Media's site now acknowledges, Albany's standing committee somehow found time to schedule [PDF] two "meet the candidates" days).

One of Dodd's more peculiar arguments is that declining to designate a nominating committee "severely limits the roles of the clergy and laity."

In November 2003 I wrote a cover story for Episcopal Life about how dioceses nominate their bishops. That story mentioned how the dioceses of Texas and West Texas have relied on processes similar to the one now being used by Albany. While the majority of dioceses prefer nominating committees, there's nothing inherently non-Episcopal or unrepresentative about the choices of Texas, West Texas, and Albany.

When it elected a coadjutor in 2003, West Texas chose from 12 "potential nominees." The electing convention for Albany will choose from 11 nominees. Members of the Diocese of California will choose from five.

Via Media also is clearly concerned that no candidates to its liking are among the 11 nominees.

In a letter posted on Via Media's website, Richard Angelo mocks the nomination of Tory Baucum, a associate professor at Asbury Theological Seminary and an associate international minister for Alpha International and Holy Trinity Brompton:

I am curious as to why we need to cross the ocean (not [that] Dr Baucum is a resident of England) to find a Bishop and in addition why we see no candidates who are of a more moderate, Episcopal positioning.

Certainly, we may possibly know the answer to these questions. The Diocese just can't seem to find someone in the "Episcopal" Church that suits [it]. Why not get Pat Robertson on the list also? (just joking but the way we are going who knows.)

Tory Baucum has never renounced his ordination vows as an Episcopal priest, but because of his affiliation with Holy Trinity Brompton he's compared to Pat Robertson. Oh, that "more moderate, Episcopal" sense of humor!

Apparently not even Marshall Vang [PDF], dean of the Cathedral of All Saints, qualifies as a "more moderate, Episcopal" voice, although Via Media describes the cathedral as "a welcoming community."

This sense of being excluded is not unique to liberals in conservative dioceses. As I wrote in a sidebar to the Episcopal Life story,

Evangelicals, meanwhile, point out that they sometimes do not enjoy even a token presence on some diocesan slates. "In a conservative diocese, groups often work against a person perceived to be too liberal," Kevin Martin wrote in his critique of episcopal searches. "(In liberal dioceses, conservatives never make it out of a search committee anyway.)"

In Iowa, Kansas, Milwaukee, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Oregon, conservative evangelicals would not have found committee-nominated candidates who clearly stood with them on the most contentious issues of gay ordination or blessing same-sex unions. As with female nominees, though, committee members said they believed they kept their choices fair.

"I don't think we were looking for a liberal or a conservative candidate. We were looking for candidates who would lead us in conversation about the issues facing the church," said [Deacon Warren] Frelund of Iowa. The Rev. David P. Jones of Concord, N.H. [chairman of the nominating committee that proposed Gene Robinson], self-identifies as an evangelical, but said he believes the committee he helped lead presented a slate that represented the identity of the diocese.

"Why choose a severe evangelical for the slate? That would be clergy abuse," he said.

Albany and California have taken two very different routes to choosing their bishops. Both bishops-elect will require consents from General Convention in June. Both slates will be criticized for being too limited or -- despite the assurances of Tom Schultz, OHC, in California -- influenced by church politics.

Still, it takes a powerful imagination to conclude that a slate of 11 nominees not screened by a committee is somehow less representative or fair than five committee-approved nominees. I'll leave it to readers to decide whether California's six questions or Albany's 17 questions seek more details about the nominees' theology, leadership styles, or thoughts on the Episcopal Church's divisions.

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