On Sunday, November 9th the Search Committee hosted Coffee Hour and presented an update on the search process. Anna Langenfeld, Search Committee Chair, introduced the members of the committee who were present and the presented a summary of the process to date. This is a summary of that presentation.
The Committee first met on August 1st, at this we meeting introduced ourselves, selected a chair, a secretary and a correspondence secretary; they are Anna Langenfeld, Debbie Gibson and Liz Burgess and set some ground rules and procedures for our future work. We also decided to continue to utilize the guidance of consultant, Jack Foster.
On August 22nd the Profile and Search Committees met together. The purpose was for the Profile Committee to share the fruits of their labors, the ‘Church Profile’, and their collective thoughts about the process and the final product. It was decided that some members of the Profile Committee would stay on board to provide continuity to the process
We were then ready to begin the Search Process. Our first task was to complete the documentation for the Diocese and the National Deployment Office. The “Deployment ‘ forms were long and took a great deal of time and prayerful consideration, but completing the forms was also a very useful exercise. All official documentation was completed by the end of September. This now meant that we were officially in the “Receiving Names Stage” of the process.
There are three different ways that we received materials from candidates. They are as follows: It is important to note that the names given to us as a result of the computer match and those from the Deployment Officer are names of people who might not be interested in applying for the position of Rector here at Church of Our Saviour. Our task during the month of October was to review all the profiles in these two groups and decide which ones we would like to have apply and send them a letter asking if they are interested. We sent out a total of fourteen letters asking selected individuals if they would be interested in applying for the position
Our next step is to review the candidates who have responded and decide which ones do we want to pursue and examine more closely. We will ask these individuals for more information, ask them to complete a questionnaire that we have created, and send us a tape of a representative sermon. It is our hope that this stage of our search will be completed by early December.
We would like to thank everyone in the Parish for their support and their continued care in praying for our work. The committee has worked well together and we feel that the process is moving along quite well. We all look forward to the day that our new Rector is among us.
1) Candidates sent materials directly to us, after finding us on the web, both our website and the National.
2) We received their names from our Diocesan Deployment Officer as a result of the Deployment Conference held at the end of September.
3) As a result of the computer match conducted by the National Office in NY. The total number of names to be reviewed was fifty-one, with more applicants expected.
