NEW YORK: Prediction of rare snowstorm postpones bishop coadjutor election
Episcopal News Service. October 28, 2011 [102811-04]
ENS staff
The prediction of an unusual October snowstorm has forced the Diocese of New Yorkto postpone its bishop coadjutor election scheduled for Oct. 29.
The election is now set for Nov. 19, according to an announcement on the diocesan website.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for parts of the diocese, predicting significant falls of heavy wet snow from early morning Oct. 29 through early evening. The diocese's announcement said that the predicted snow could "potentially making travel difficult or impossible." Roads will become treacherous by Saturday afternoon, according to the weather service. The first ballot in the election was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. EDT.
Higher-elevation areas eastern part of the Catskill Mountains, in the eastern area of the diocese, could get up to 15 inches of snow and the mid-Hudson Valley, also in the diocese, could get six-12 inches of snow with wind gusts of 30-40 miles per hour, according to the Albany weather service office.
Winter storm watches have been issued from West Virginia and Virginia northeast-ward through the mid-Atlantic region into southern New England, the weather service said.
The nominees for coadjutor are:
- the Very Rev. Peter Eaton, 53, dean of St. John's Cathedral, Denver, Colorado;
- the Rev. Canon Andrew Dietsche, 57, the New York diocese's canon for pastoral care;
- the Rev. Canon John Harmon, 47, rector at Trinity Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C.;
- the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, 57, dean of Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio;
- the Rev. Canon Petero Sabune, 58, the Episcopal Church's Africa partnerships officer; and
- the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon, 58, bishop-in-charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe.
The consecration is scheduled for March 12, 2012, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Incumbent New York Bishop Mark S. Sisk on Nov. 13, 2010, called for the election of a bishop coadjutor who will eventually succeed him. According to the Episcopal Church's constitution (Article II, Sec. 1), a bishop diocesan must retire within three years of the consecration of a bishop coadjutor. The mandatory retirement age for Episcopal clergy is 72. Sisk, 68, would reach that age limit on Aug. 18, 2014.