Welcome to the 2014 Bishop Election Website for St.Paul Synod

Writen by sadataley 4:11 PM - 0 Comments

From the Rev. Tim Bernard,Chair, Bishop Election Committee
On behalf of the Bishop Election Committee (BEC), welcome to the bishop election website. Here you will find links to a wealth of information about the synod, the office of bishop, the candidates for the office, and the election process. As we enter the fourth phase of the election process, Presenting the Candidates, the website has been reorganized and streamlined to make it easy to find the information that will be most helpful to congregations as we move toward the synod assembly in May. The Spirit is blowing in us, around us, and through us, as we are getting closer to electing our next bishop of the Saint Paul Area Synod!
At our recent conference assemblies each of the six conferences was eligible to nominate three people from the clergy roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America for bishop. Seven nominees have agreed to proceed as candidates for the office of bishop and have submitted biographical information and written responses to questions. We have an outstanding group of candidates among whom to discern who the Spirit is calling to lead us. You may know some of the candidates and not know others. On behalf of the Bishop Election Committee, I invite you to not to make any decisions based simply on familiarity, but to be open to the process.

• Be open to reading the candidates’ biographical information (found below) as they are introducing themselves to you. 
• Be open as you attend the two Candidate Forums (Saturday, April 26, 9:00 a.m. at Incarnation, Shoreview and Monday, April 28, 7:00 p.m. at Augustana, West St. Paul) and hear our candidates answer questions you helped to generate. 
• Be open to engaging in conversation with others about the gifts and strengths each candidate possesses. 
• Be open to deeper conversations about the complexities and realities of the office of bishop, and the leadership our communities need to build confidence and trust in the church.
• Be open to sensing the “something more” in our candidates that will inspire us to unite as Evangelical Lutherans to witness to what Christ is doing in the world.

Be open to the Spirit as together we read, listen, watch, pray, and discern who is called to this holy office.
The Rev. Tim Bernard
Bishop Election Committee, Chair
spas.bec.2014@gmail.com

• Facebook
• Tweeter
• Google+
• Pinterest