In his decade at the Church Deployment Office, the Rev. Jim Wilson has seen plenty of changes. The office is more computerized, more clergy are "on line" with personal profiles, and more ordained women are being placed in charge of congregations.

"The major change has been a gradual attrition from the one-priest, one-congregation model," Fr. Wilson said during a recent visit to Nashotah House, where he was conducting a seminar for new deployment officers. Fr. Wilson, the executive director of the Church Deployment Office (CDO) in New York City, touched on a variety of topics in addressing the state of deployment.

"As the church finds news ways to address that model of one priest, one congregation - team ministries, yokes, Canon 9 clergy - it has become a real challenge for bishops, diocesan deployment officers and us: how to move ministry resources around in the church."

Fr. Wilson became executive director of the deployment office in 1992, after assisting there for four years. He's been encouraged by the gradual willingness of clergy to fill out forms which enables them to be included in the computer at the CDO. The computer is used to match the ministry specialties of clergy and lay persons on file with the needs of congregations and other institutions.

"Virtually all of the active, seminary trained, clergy are on file now," he said. "Very few of the Canon 9 priests and vocational deacons are included."

When Fr. Wilson joined CDO there seemed to be almost as many deployment systems as there were dioceses. He has seen a slight change in this occurrence.

"The system continues to vary from diocese to diocese, but there is greater uniformity than there used to be," he said. "The Deployment Review made by the church in the late '80s indicated that we needed to set some standards — like better training of diocesan deployment officers (DDOs). There has been a greater participation of DDOs at the regional level, and DDOs are in more frequent contact with each other, which has led to some uniformity."

One of the greatest differences in the system of placing clergy involves the roles of diocesan bishops.

"The role of bishops is the key," Fr. Wilson said. "There are two elements to a successful deployment process. One is a capable, well-trained diocesan deployment officer. The other is an engaged bishop. Our study found that some bishops had abdicated the deployment role. I've been gratified that more bishops seem to be taking a greater role. I had four bishops in the last group to be trained (as deployment officers)."

Fr. Wilson addressed two of the most frequently heard criticisms of the deployment system. One is that it takes too long.

"There's no reason if the congregation is reasonably healthy and prepared to do the developmental (self-study) task that it can't take nine months or even less," he said. "Other congregations may well need to put more time and energy into the process."

The other criticism is that some persons have questioned whether using the computer diminishes the role of the Holy Spirit in the placement process.

"I think if you don't believe the Holy Spirit can work through computers, then your doctrine of the Holy Spirit is too restrictive," he said.

When he joined CDO, Fr. Wilson recalled, the office shared the computer being used by the Church Pension Fund, when was then across the street from the Episcopal Church Center. Now the Pension Fund has moved to a new location and CDO has its own computers.

"We need to take the next technological step," he said, noting that he hopes to make some elements of CDO's work available on the internet, and that some deployment officers could have more accessibility to the profiles of persons in their dioceses. He added that he hoped the popular Positions Open Bulletin, which lists openings at churches, seminaries and other institutions, would be online soon.

Fr. Wilson seems frustrated that while ordained women are being called more frequently, progress has been slow.

"It's still a problem, but we're getting better," he said. "Six years ago we implemented a new policy: We do affirmative action searches at our own initiative. We make sure that lists (to dioceses) include representative numbers of women and minorities. It's become less of necessity for women, but getting them called is another issue. A number of dioceses have intentional policies in this area. We still have a long way to go."

Fr. Wilson touched on some other issues:

l A network of trained interim Episcopal priests has developed "that's been of significant help to bishops