Nominating committee presents profile for 28th presiding bishop, calls for names

From The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs

May 15, 2023

Now to God who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine —Ephesians 3:20

Dear Friends in Christ:

Please join us in this journey to nominate individuals to stand for election as the 28th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. The next presiding bishop will build upon the foundation created by those who came before them and will lead our church in the next stretch of our journey to become the church that Jesus entrusted us to build.

Through our work of discernment, we have learned that the environmental crisis, violence, conflict and war, and inequality and division are pressing issues facing the world and that we as a church are called to be active in addressing those issues. We also identified the challenges that our church is facing: to embrace our call to evangelism; to teach the faith; to nurture our own faith; and to adapt to current realities.

We have heard from you, including the thousands of people who responded to our churchwide survey and those who shared their thoughts during the interviews we conducted. Your contributions, along with our countless hours of conversation and prayers, tell us there are three important characteristics that we believe our next presiding bishop should have: strong leadership; a love of preaching and the ability to effectively communicate; and, above all, a person of strong faith.

To learn more about our work to date, please read the “Profile for the Election of the 28th Presiding Bishop,” available online in English, Spanish, and French.

As your servants in this process, we now invite the entire church to join us in this work in a particular way, by suggesting individuals who might be called to be our next presiding bishop, and to the work that lies before our church.

We invite you to submit the name of a bishop whom, after prayerful consideration, you think God is calling and has equipped to serve as the 28th presiding bishop. And if you are currently a bishop whose heart is burning to participate in this process, we would be honored if you let us know. Please submit the nomination by using this form, available online in English, Spanish, and French. The deadline for submitting names is Saturday, July 15, 2023.

We will contact all bishops whose names are submitted to invite them to participate in our nomination process.

Please join us as we continue to pray for those who are discerning whether they are called to be our next presiding bishop, and for all of us Episcopalians as we prepare for the General Convention election in June 2024.

With gratitude,
The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop