WEST AFRICA: Liberia elects Jonathan Hart as diocesan bishop
Episcopal News Service. November 18, 2007 [111807-03]
Matthew Davies
The Very Rev. Jonathan B. B. Hart was elected November 18 to be the next bishop of the Episcopal Church of Liberia (ECL), a diocese in the Church of the Province of West Africa.
The election took place during a special convention at the Epiphany Chapel on the campus of the Cuttington University College in Suakoko, Bong County, that adjourned at 3:15 a.m. local time once the final results had been announced.
Hart, 55, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city, was elected on the second ballot out of a field of three nominees. Attending the convention and voting by secret ballot were 60 clergy, 37 convention officers and 345 lay delegates.
Hart will succeed Bishop Edward W. Neufville, who on November 16 turned 70, the mandatory retirement age for a bishop in this West African diocese. Originally scheduled for 2006, the election was postponed by Neufville after the retirement age for the bishop was extended from 65 to 70.
The other candidates were the Rev. Canon Herman Browne, pastor at a church in Caldwell, and the Rev. James Selle, rector of St. Thomas' Church in Monrovia.
Browne was eliminated after the first ballot. Hart led the second ballot with a large majority, only five votes short of the required 60 percent, and Selle conceded.
ECL was a diocese in the U.S.-based Episcopal Church until 1980, when it became part of the Province of West Africa following the signing of a formal covenant. Both churches share a long history of mutual involvement dating back to 1836 when missionaries first traveled to West Africa.
In 2002, a revised covenant between the two churches followed more than 20 years of civil unrest in Liberia, including a seven-year period in the ravages of war. The covenant committed the Episcopal Church to assisting in the renovations of church-related buildings, including schools, clinics and hospitals and helping "to develop and operate outreach programs to assist Liberians who have lost their homes, possessions and means of livelihood" as a result of civil conflict.
The Bishop of Liberia continues to serve as a "collegial member" of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops, with seat and voice.