Seminar on Clergy Performance Held
Diocesan Press Service. March 8, 1973 [73070]
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A group of 133 bishops, priests and lay people, paying their own way, attended a clergy performance seminar here on February 21-22. They represented 58 dioceses in 37 states.
Sponsored by the Ministry Council of the Episcopal Church with the Rev. Robert N. Rodenmayer and Bishop John R. Wyatt of Spokane presiding, the seminar was led by Felix M. Lopez, Ph.D., psychological consultant, a theologically educated Roman Catholic layman with years of experience in university teaching and in organizational consultation with educational, industrial, and church bodies.
Dr. Lopez stimulated the group with his views on role expectation (and role conflict), developing standards for evaluation, training of mentors, encouraging self-evaluation and goal setting.
On the second day of the meeting a resolution was presented by Bishop Richard Trelease of the Diocese of New Mexico and Southwest Texas, representing the Province VII delegates, as follows:
Whereas it is the consensus of the Performance Evaluation Conference held in Louisville, February 20-21, 1973 that performance evaluation is a critical matter in the Church today,
Therefore, be it resolved that the Ministry Council, or any of its appropriate member groups, be urged to develop models for evaluation and train consultants in the process to be available to the several jurisdictions and that this matter be given a high priority in the next triennium.
The resolution was approved unanimously.
The subject of performance evaluation, supportive and creative rather than threatening, is an interest of the Clergy Deployment Office (CDO) as a part of a total personnel system for the clergy and lay leadership of the church. The CDO has asked Dr. Lopez to make a feasibility study to see if his system can be applied to the Episcopal Church. The Louisville meeting and the interest which it aroused may be viewed as a part of such a study. Dr. Lopez will present his findings to the CDO board for their study and recommendations to the church.
Note to Editors: See DPS release #73007, dated Jan. 5, 1973, for previous release on the seminar