Screening Out
In choosing a bishop, do nominating committees increase, or limit, diversity?
by Doug LeBlanc
Section: Active Voice 5/1/2006

I won’t blame you if you’re thinking, “What in the world is LeBlanc doing back in this space?” I had a brief sojourn with the Anglican Communion Network, and quickly learned that public relations is not the sharpest tool on my editorial belt. Episcopal Life asked me back, and I’ve happily returned to the world of journalism.

Perhaps I should begin this new season of columns with a confession: I am an episcopal election junkie. My habit began in 1998, when the Diocese of Newark was searching for the person who would succeed John Spong. This election marked the first time the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson was on a slate of nominees, which made the walkabout and the election enough of a news story for me report on it for Episcopalians United.

I had nursed many assumptions about the Diocese of Newark, few of them charitable. For some conservatives, the Diocese of Newark will provoke the same shudders and clucking you’ll hear among some liberals if you mention Nashotah House or Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.
But when visiting Newark for both the candidates’ walkabout and the election, I was impressed by fellow Episcopalians who were deliberate and thoughtful about choosing their next leader.Since then, I’ve followed any episcopal election in which a friend is involved, or for any diocese that has a reputation for a prevailing conservative or liberal spirit, or for any diocese that puts together an even remotely interesting profile or slate.

One of the more interesting debates regarding episcopal elections is whether a diocese should rely on a nominating committee, as the majority of dioceses do, or forgo the committee and allow any duly qualified candidate to be nominated by a set number of electing deputies. I know the dioceses of Eau Claire, Texas and West Texas have relied on this latter press, and the Diocese of Albany chose to use it in seeking the successor to Bishop Daniel Herzog. the rest