Western Jurisdiction Conference July 16-19, 2008

Western Jurisdictional Conference
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Rev. Olon M. Lindemood

Greetings from Portland, Oregon! Today has been about casting ballots and listening. 16 candidates for the Episcopal Office seems like a large number. Knowing that before tomorrow is over there will be two Bishops Elected is evasive. The first 5 ballots have found us unable to elect a first bishop. When each report of voting returned, we would hear Bishop Mary Ann Swenson say, “ I have results from the last ballot.” Then she reads, “ There were 80 votes cast, no invalid ballots, 54 votes need to elect. There is no election.” It has been interesting that there has not been a single sound when the result of “no election” has been stated. As though there was no expectation that the group could be successful with the first election! So, we vote and then vote again. (No election has happened before a ninth ballot in the Western Jurisdiction and there have been years when there have been as many as 40 ballots taken.)

We also listened. There are 16 Episcopal candidates that are all making themselves available to the possibility of becoming a bishop in the Western Jurisdiction. Our delegation invites candidates to come join us and discover what a special Annual Conference we are! Each candidate presents with possibilities for how they might become not only bishop, but the bishop of the Denver area. We are aware of the fact that we, in Rocky Mountain Conference, are part of a two point charge. That means there is extra work for a bishop that is assigned to us! So the questions are around balancing General Church and Annual Conference responsibilities and availability instantly becomes an awareness of the difficulty of serving the Denver area.

Through out all of this voting and listening, we all continue to offer prayers, “PLEASE God, let this be your work and not ours. Let you spirit rule in ways that will assist us to become the church for this new day! God, help us! Please. Amen.”

Forwarded by Skip Strickland
(Friday Morning
The Sixth Ballot has not been taken yet.
We are in recess for caucusing.)

Thursday July 17, 2008, Reflections from the Western Jurisdictional Conference

80 delegates
2 votes each
16 candidates
2 openings for Bishop

Who knew this would be so hard? Every moment of the day thinking, planning, hoping for an election. But there are so many candidates – so many excellent candidates – how to choose?

We started the day in prayer with our delegation – we talked about strategy and possibilities, and we feel the power of the responsibility. We celebrated our candidates – their presentations last night made us so proud!

The opening worship service was a chance for reflection and preparation, for singing, for praying, for centering ourselves. And then we questioned, we listened, we discussed – the Candidate Forums gave us the opportunity to tease out the subtle differences, to address the hard issues, to share in the excitement of so many visions. And then the vote.....

Ballot Number 1: 80 votes cast. 0 invalid ballots. 54 needed to elect. There is no election.

We sang, we prayed, we applauded the committee that pulled this together.

Ballot Number 2: 80 votes cast. 0 invalid ballots. 54 needed to elect. There is no election.

We sang, we prayed, we accepted reports.

Ballot Number 3: 80 votes cast. 0 invalid ballots. 54 needed to elect. (Can you believe we went this far without one invalid ballot?) There is no election.

We sang, we prayed, we talked about money and rules.

Ballot Number 4: 80 votes cast. 0 invalid ballots. 54 needed to elect. Chuck Schuster added as a write-in. There was no election. We voted again.

We had dinner, we celebrated Bishop Shamana's retirement, we reconvened for a plenary session.

Ballot Number 5: 80 votes cast. 0 invalid ballots. 2 more additional names. Chuck still in the running. 54 needed to elect. There is no election.

And tomorrow it will start again – what joy, what discovery in the process!

80 delegates
2 votes each
16 candidates
2 openings for Bishop

Maybe tomorrow will be the day – pray for the delegates, the candidates, the process!
Diana J. Huerta

Forwarded by Skip Strickland on Friday Morning

Day 2 Balloting

[RMC News Western Jurisdictional Conference Update] Puddle Jumping in Portland

Episcopal Election Ballot Report
There have been 5 ballots taken so far in the Western Jurisdictional Conference here in Portland.  In each case all 80 ballots were valid, which means that 54 votes were needed to elect.  No election has taken place yet.

Here are the results.  The numbers are in order from first to fifth ballot

Please continue to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the Western Jurisdictional Conference.

Skip Strickland and Ben Roe,
Rocky Mountain Conference Communications Team at WJ Conference