By Fr. Frans Van Santen
You may wonder how we are going to find a new Bishop. This article gives you the gist of that. The Standing Committee, with Fr. Jonathan French as one of its prominent members, is responsible for guiding this process. The Standing Committee has assembled a special committee to do the ground work. A team of seven clergy members and seven laypeople is working behind the scenes as the Search Committee. Our very own Heather Hetzel is part of this team.
The Search Committee has several tasks. The first task is to listen attentively to the Holy Spirit to help identify the person whom God may be calling to be our next Bishop. Initially, the Search Committee will focus on capturing the hopes and dreams of the people of the diocese. This should result in a profile of the Diocese of Central Florida.
Once the profile is completed, the vetting process begins. Each candidate will be vetted, which means that their background and references will be checked. They will have deep conversations with members of the Search Committee, who want to know as much as possible about their present and past actions. The vetting process should lead to a selection of three to five candidates, who will be presented to the Standing Committee by late October. Election of the new Bishop will take place on January 14th, 2023.
The best thing you can do in this process, is to keep Heather and all other members of the Search Committee in your prayers, as well as our current and future Bishop. If you have any questions about this process, please let us know. We will do our best to keep you updated in the months to come.
If you want to know more information about the Bishop Search you can visit https://dcfsearch.org/
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