UTAH: Diocese announces four nominees for 11th bishop
Episcopal News Service. April 9, 2010 [040910-02]
Pat McCaughan
The Episcopal Diocese of Utah has chosen four priests to stand for election as its next bishop.
The candidates are:
- The Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, 54, canon for congregational ministries, Episcopal Diocese of California;
- The Rev. Canon Juan Andrés Quevedo-Bosch, 54, rector, Church of the Redeemer, Episcopal Diocese of Long Island;
- The Rev. Canon Scott B. Hayashi, 56, canon to the ordinary, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago; and
- The Rev. Canon Mary C.M. Sulerud, 59, canon for deployment and vocational ministries, Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.
Biographical information about the candidates is available here.
Barlowe, an openly gay partnered priest, has also been a candidate in episcopal elections in the dioceses of California and Newark. If elected in Utah, he would become the third openly gay priest to be elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church.
The process to select the 11th bishop of the Salt Lake City-based diocese will not include a period for additional nominations by petition, according to Craig Wirth, diocesan communications officer.
"The rules adopted by convention did not include such a process," Wirth said during an April 9 interview from his Salt Lake City office, shortly after the slate of bishop nominees was released.
According to the diocesan timeline, a special meeting of diocesan convention will be convened May 22 to elect the next bishop, with consecration tentatively planned for Nov. 6 with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori officiating.
After an extensive survey of all parishes and their members, the nominating committee concluded that the diocese needs a bishop who has an awareness of the geographic and ethnic diversity of the diocese, according to Ric Tanner, lay president of the standing committee, who is not related to current Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish.
"We have city-centered parishes and missionary parishes in the great basin of Utah, the desert southeast and southwest of the state and so we were seeking persons that could appeal to a broad spectrum of person attending the cathedral or urban and suburban parishes as well as connect with the diverse individuals of our membership in native American populations and Latino populations," he said.
He said the diocese also was seeking a person with "the ability to continue to expand our presence as a missionary diocese and to help us do a better job of feeling connected to one another throughout the diocese. It gets very tough in this day and age of electronic communication even within my own family, and as the family of the Diocese of Utah we look foward to a pastor that will help us feel more a family."
He said the committee received a total of 48 applications and was delighted by "both the number and quality of the applicants."
"We have been presented this morning with a wonderfully diverse group of four people," he added. "They are diverse in terms of geography and personal aspects of their lives and ministries but all of whom have brought diocesan experience and office … as well as parish ministry. So we think they're very well balanced and I'm excited to get to know them."
The person elected will succeed Irish, who has served as the tenth bishop of Utah since 1996. She was "the first woman bishop in Utah and the first woman bishop west of the Potomac," according to Wirth.
Later this month, Irish will also become the first woman recipient of Salt Lake City's "Giant of the City Award," jointly bestowed by the Chamber of Commerce and community leaders.
Under the canons of the Episcopal Church (III.11.4), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to the bishop-elect's ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of the election.
The Diocese of Utah encompasses some 25 congregations and several hospital and university chaplaincies and represents about 5,000 Episcopalians.