What a wonderful time to be part of the Diocese of Connecticut! You are on a very special journey, a journey with God to discern who God desires to have as your next Diocesan Bishop. The election of your next bishop is not about attaining individual needs and desires or satisfying special interests. The responsibility of choosing of a bishop is profoundly significant in light of God's Kingdom and God's eternity. Choosing your next bishop is about what God desires, for only God knows your needs, the needs of the broader church and who can best participate with him in effecting God's best for all.
Here below are some resources that will help you, as the members of the diocese in your discernment of who God wills as the Diocese of Connecticut's next Diocesan Bishop.
"May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing."
Rebecca P. Scruton, Chaplain
"The ministry of a bishop is to represent Christ and his Church, particularly as apostle, chief priest, and pastor of a diocese; to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the whole Church; to proclaim the Word of God; to act in Christ's name for the reconciliation of the world and the building up of the Church; and to ordain others to continue Christ's ministry." BCP 855.
This is a profound undertaking and a holy task. This ministry is beyond the scope of human skills and abilities. It can only be affected with the constant help of the Holy Spirit.
Choosing God's person to be in this office is also beyond our human wisdom. The choice of this person needs to be done in concert with God's will and God's wisdom.
This knowledge is affected through discernment.
Discernment arises out of intentional relationship: relationship to God (prayer), relationship with God's Story (Scripture), relationship with each other (Christian community).
We need to experience God's working in the stories of Scripture, God's nature, and God's desires as expressed through the Bible. We need to listen to the story of God's movement in our own lives and in the lives of others. We need to be vulnerable, we need to be humble, we need to be patient.
It is imperative that each of us be willing to allow Christ to change us before we expect him to change 'the other'. Out of this vulnerable, humble space we experience the mystery that all things are held together in Christ. We need to listen with our ears, process with our minds and love with our hearts...and allow Christ to effect the outcome.
Your Search/Nomination Committee has been engaging in the process of discernment over these past six months. Included in their very intensive, professional labor on your behalf, they have studied Scripture, prayed together and listened to and for the movement of God's Spirit. No one is infallible, but the desire of each heart is for God's will to be done in the selection of the next diocesan bishop.
As a Search/ Nomination Committee we read many passages of Scripture to help us reflect on God's call and movement. We reflected on Old and New Testament passages, learning of and experiencing God's intentional, mysterious, surprising, loving involvement.
We have focused on Jesus the Good Shepherd, the Vine and the branches. We deliberated on the call of God to Samuel, Elijah, and David. We also focused on many of God's promises and God desires to meet our needs. Over and over we discovered anew that our God is an awesome God.
One text that continues to speak to us is I Samuel 16: 1-13, the story of how God guided the choice of David to become the second King of Israel. The committee held this and other verses in awareness and prayer together and separately in daily reflection. This way of reading and praying Scripture attunes us to God's 'still small voice', which informs our decisions and discernment.
Following are some of the Scriptures and meditations we used throughout our process.
| I Thessalonians 5: 16-18 | Proverbs 3: 5&6 | Philippians 2:3-8 | Matthew 6:33 |
| I Samuel 16: 1-13 | Matthew 7:7 | Matthew 11: 28-30 |
When the list of Nominees is made public, the responsibility for discerning God's will broadens. Each one of you is invited to move forward in your personal journey with God as delegates to your Electing Convention.
Over these next months, I invite you read the Bible daily, pray for God's wisdom, for God's will to be done, and listen to God's revelation in the Christian community.
I encourage you to read the scriptural passages that the Search/Nominating Committee studied. Pray through them, discover God's love and presence in the Scripture, in your life and in the Diocese of Connecticut.
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