Lent V, March 20, 2018
Bishop Search Update #5
The Search/Nomination Committee and the Transition Committee will be giving regular updates on the Search Process through regular emails.

See Bishop Search Website
See also the Convocation Website
Application/Nomination Period is Now Closed
The Bishop Search Process has moved into a new stage following the closure of the window for receipt of applications. The Search and Nomination Committee is delighted with and encouraged by the number of applications it has received from highly qualified clergy who have put themselves forward as candidates to be our next bishop. 

The next part of the discernment process is to conduct video interviews with those candidates best fitting our Bishop Profile. To do this effectively, the Committee will work in small groups from the week beginning March 19. The aim will be to determine who to ¬invite to the Candidates’ Retreat being planned to take place in Germany in May.

Please continue to hold in prayer all those who have put themselves forward as candidates as well as the Search and Nomination Committee. Your support in this way is greatly appreciated.

The Bishop Search and Nomination Committee
Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe.
The Bishop Search Website
The Application Period for Bishop in Charge is now closed !

Continue to visit the the special Bishop Search Website for up to date information on the Search and Transition process.

This website is the "go to" place for all information for the Bishop Search, Nomination, and the Transition processes.

This site includes:
  • The Convocation Profile, which was developed by the Bishop Search and Nomination Committee, both in an on-line and a downloadable form.
  • When the list of candidates has been finalized, biographical and other information about the candidates will be posted.
  • It will also include other information about the Convocation, which will assist persons who are interested in the bishop search process, including a description of the Convocation Parishes and Missions.
  • Over 17,300 visits have been made to the Europe Bishop Search website since it was launched in early February.

Prayer for the Convocation
O God, we pray for the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe as we discern and elect a Bishop to serve your people, build up your Church and proclaim boldly the Gospel to the world. Send us, we pray, an apostle who is a wise counsellor, a merciful pastor, filled with your joy and grace. May your servant have the abundant gifts needed to lead your flock and the strength and courage to administer them. And may we renew and rededicate our lives to your will and service. All this we pray in the Name of our Great High Priest and Servant of the servants of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 
Timetable of the Search for the Next
Bishop in Charge
October 2016 - Convocation Convention in Fürstenried Palace, Munich, Germany
  • Bishop Pierre W. Whalon announces his intention to resign as Bishop in Charge effective July 2019
  • Strategic planning process begun with small group activity at convention
  • Strategic Plan committee is appointed and commissioned

Winter and Spring 2016/2017
  • Strategic plan is developed with input from all significant groups in the convocation, the Presiding Bishop's office, and with full-communion partners in Europe

September 2017
  • Strategic plan is approved by the Council of Advice

October 2017 - Convocation Convention in Wiesbaden, Germany
  • Strategic Plan is presented to Convention
  • The Search and Nomination Committee and Transition Committee are commissioned

November 2017
  • In consultation with the Presiding Bishop's Office, a Search Consultant is engaged by the Council of Advice

December 2017
  • Search and Nomination Committee retreat with the Search Consultant in Paris, France, December 1-2
  • Input from congregations and parishioners is received by congregational forums and online surveys.

January 2018
  • Transition Committee retreat with the Search Consultant in Florence, January 12-13
  • Search Profile is written by Search and Nomination Committee and approved by Council of Advice at the January 26-27, 2018 meeting in Waterloo, Belgium.

Early February 2018
  • Publication of the Convocation Bishop Search Profile on the Bishop Search website (europebishopsearch.org) 
  • The Position is announced in various ecclesiastical venues
  • Applications for bishop are received

March 9, 2018 (extended from March 2)
  • Window for applications is closed

Spring 2018
  • Applications are vetted and a list of up to eight candidates is compiled

May 24-27, 2018
  • Discernment Retreat with up to eight candidates and the Search and Nomination Committee, close to Munich, Germany

June 30, 2018
  • Final shortlist is presented to the Council of Advice

July 1-20, 2018
  • Petition process open for additional candidates

August 15, 2018
  • Final list of candidates is made public

September 27-30, 2018
  • Presentation of Bishop Candidates and spouses:
  • September 27: Paris, France
  • September 29: Munich, Germany
  • September 30: Rome, Italy

October 18-21, 2018 -   Election Convocation Convention  in Waterloo, Belgium
  • Election of the Bishop in Charge and regular convention business 

Following the Election
  • The Standing Committees of all the Episcopal dioceses and all diocesan bishops are asked to approve the election. This process can take several months.
  • The Presiding Bishop, Deo volente, receives notice that consents have been received from a majority of bishops and standing committees of the Episcopal Church and announces the name of the Bishop-elect
  • The Bishop-elect begins her/his transition to assume office.

April 5, 2019
  • Worship Service and soirée honoring Bishop Pierre W. Whalon (Friday evening) at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris, France

April 6, 2019 - Ordination and Consecration of the new Bishop in Charge in the Cathedral in Paris, France
  • The festival liturgy will be celebrated in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France. The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, will preside (Saturday at 11:00 a.m.)
Bishop Search and Nomination Committee
Bishop Search and Nomination Committee
Left to Right:  Dr David Lee Williams, Christ Church, Clermont-Ferrand, France;  Mr David Case – Co-Chair , Church of the Ascension, Munich Germany;  Mrs Dagmar Hamberger , St Boniface, Augsburg, Germany;  The Rev. Mark Dunham – Co-Chair, Rector, St James, Florence, Italy;  The Rev. Austin Rios , Rector, St Paul’s-within-the-Walls, Rome, Italy;  The Very Rev. Lucinda Laird , Dean, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Paris France;  Mrs Helena Mbele-Mbong , Emmanuel, Geneva, Switzerland;  Mr John Adam , St Augustine, Wiesbaden Germany. 
Not Pictured:   The Rev, Richard Cole , Emmanuel, Geneva, Switzerland;  Mrs Carole Ducastel , All Saints, Waterloo, Belgium;  The Rev. Canon Michael Hunn , Episcopal Church Center, New York, USA;  Mrs Nancy Janin , Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris, France;  Ms Nancy Treuhold , Board of Foreign Parishes, New York, USA.
Transition Committee
The Transition Committee Retreat

We of the Convocation aren't just calling a new bishop. We are also presenting the finalist-candidates to all of us, saying farewell to our beloved Bishop Pierre, consecrating the new bishop and helping him or her and any family settle into Paris.

All those are principally the role of the Transition Committee, which held a retreat in Florence on January 11-13 to prepare to take on these daunting tasks. 
Left to Right: Dottie Dunnam (Florence), Harriet Rivière (Paris), Ron Clingenpeel (consultant), Rob Warren (chaplain; Clermont-Ferrand), Christoph Herpel (Frankfurt), Anne Swardson, Co-Chair (Paris), Michael Rusk (Geneva), Andrea D'Agosto (Rome), Chris Easthill, Co-Chair (Wiesbaden), Janet Day-Strehlow (Munich), Steve Smith (Munich), Felicity Handford (Waterloo), Not Pictured: Alison Wale (Clermont-Ferrand)

The Transition Committee will prepare what's called a "walkabout," a visit by all the finalists to Europe to meet us. The dates are Sept. 26-Sept. 30, in Paris, Munich and Rome. Save the dates! Those from other churches and mission congregations will be welcome at these events, which will also be live-streamed and available later.

We were also excited to talk about preparing the election, at the Convocation Convention in Waterloo on Oct. 19-21, after the Search Committee's hard work in selecting the finalists. The next big events after that will be in Paris. On Saturday, April 6, is the consecration of our next bishop, who even now may not know he or she has been called by God to, in the words of our bishop-search prayer, be "an Apostle who is a wise counsellor, a merciful pastor, filled with your joy and grace.''

The event will start at 11 a.m.; we expect dignitaries both from the national church and from churches, Anglican as well as ecumenical partners, from across Europe. We hope that as many of you as possible will come too. A lunch for everyone will follow. 

Transition Committee
January 20, 2018
Further information on the Membership and the Duties of the Search and the Transition Committees can be found here.
Earlier Bishop Search Update E-Mails....

Search Update #1  - Nov. 12, 2017. Search Update #2  - Dec. 16, 2017

Search Update #3 - Jan. 23, 2018. Search Update #4 - February 2018
The Episcopal Church in Europe
The Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe is one of four Anglican jurisdictions in continental Europe. The other Anglican jurisdictions in Europe are: the Lusitanian Church of Portugal , the Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain , and the Church of England's Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe . The Convocation is a jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church,  the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry . The Episcopal Church is one of 39 provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church is present in 16 countries around the world. 

The Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, a suffragan bishop to the Presiding Bishop, is based at The American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris. There are congregations in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. The Convocation functions both as a European Church with a legal corporate structure based in France, as well as being a diocesan-like jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church has been present in Europe since 1815. The Convocation was created by a Canon of General Convention in 1859, and Bishops in Charge were appointed by the Presiding Bishop. Some were diocesan Bishops or recently retired Bishops, who exercised oversight on a part-time basis. Bishops in Charge have been resident in Europe since 1960.

The first full-time resident Bishop in Charge was the Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning (1971-1974). The first Bishop in Charge to be elected by the Convocation itself and the first to be ordained and consecrated in Europe is our present Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon, who was elected in 2001 and consecrated in St. Paul's Within the Walls Episcopal Church in Rome on November 18, 2001.

Bishop Whalon announced his intention to resign as Bishop in Charge effective July 31, 2019. This has initiated a Search Process for our second elected Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe.
The Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe | 23 avenue George V, 75008 Paris, France 
+33 (0) 1 53 23 84 06 | news@tec-europe.org | www.tec-europe.org