Katy Dickinson

Electing a Bishop

My family and I attend All Saints' Episcopal Church in downtown Palo Alto, part of the Diocese of El Camino Real (ECR), now in the process of electing its 3rd Bishop. There are at least 8 meetings with all of the 5 candidates for ECR Bishop this week, with the electing convention to be held on 16 June. The walkabout meetings will be held in five cities, with over 200 miles between the southernmost and northernmost locations. I am a convention delegate from All Saints' and my husband is an alternate so John and I are are attending four of the meetings.

ECR includes the counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey and San Luis Obispo. The youngest diocese in California, it was formed in 1980 by the separation from the Diocese of California ("DioCal" is based in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral). ECR's Trinity Cathedral was built in 1863 and is the oldest church building in San Jose. ECR comprises approximately the middle third of the California coast, an area about 50 miles wide and 250 miles long. El Camino Real is named, not for a city or state, but after the Spanish colonial road from Mexico City to Oregon: The King's Highway. See the Diocesan Profile for more (23 pages, PDF format).

ECR has spent three years of diocese-wide meetings and reorganization and prayer preparing for its 3rd Bishop (since the first two ECR Bishops were not great successes). To see all of the materials about the 5 candidates presented for our consideration by the Search Committee, check out ECR's Episcopal Search and Transition web pages. The "Rules of Order in the Convention" for 16 June specify: "All electronic communication devices and equipment, other than those used by the Convention Committee for purposes of managing the Convention, shall be prohibited on the floor, and access to the floor shall be limited to voting members of the Convention and certified Convention staff." I will not be able to blog from the convention (as I did in October 2006); however, I can write before and after.

Posted at 10:36AM Jun 06, 2007 by katysblog in Church  |