Via Stand Firm:
Vocation, shared leadership at the heart of
Northern Michigan episcopal process
[Escanaba, Mich: February 21, 2009]
By Herb Gunn
Probe a bit into what drives the ministry in the Diocese of Northern Michigan, and what guided the election of a new bishop on Saturday, February 21, and an old real estate adage comes close to mind: Vocation, Vocation, Vocation.
So when delegates to Northern Michigan's Special Diocesan Convention met on Saturday, February 21, to elect a bishop to succeed Jim Kelsey, who died 20 months ago in an automobile accident, Episcopalians also affirmed an entire diocesan leadership team called the Episcopal Ministry Support Team (EMST).
Kevin Thew Forrester, who served as the ministry development coordinator from 2001-2007, was elected bishop by a vote of 67 to 9 from the delegates and 21-1 from the congregations (with one split vote). The results of the election are now sent for consent to all bishops with jurisdiction and the standing committees across the Episcopal Church. Both the method of leadership discernment, based the model of Total Ministry that the diocese uses in local leadership discernment, and some aspects of Thew Forrester's own formation have stirred interest beyond Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
The convention was bubbling with energy from the [This incomplete sentence is as it was in the press release, ed.]
“What Northern Michigan has done is use its method of discernment that it has been using for the last 20 years for other ministries—diaconal, priestly, music coordinator, ecumenical coordinator, whatever—with their bishops. It is a very careful, prayerful method,” said Fredrica Harris Thompsett, Episcopal Church theologian and professor emerita from Episcopal Divinity School. Thompsett was one of three formal reflectors who observed and assisted the 21-person discernment team that guided the constitution of the leadership team.
In the fall of 2007 following Kelsey’s death, the Diocesan Convention became a forum for delegates to engage in small group conversations on the essential nature of the diocese, what are its values, and how the episcopal ministry selection process could reflect those values and priorities.
“Jim’s tragic death devastated us, but it also allowed us to move into a new level discernment about our ministry here,” said Linda Piper, president of the standing committee. “He had already begun to explore what a shared episcopal ministry would look like.
“When we faced the election of a bishop,” she added, “we looked at the discernment process that has served us on the congregation level. We look at the gifts of all and we ask ourselves, ‘What gifts are needed for ministry?’”
Piper explained that the discernment committee, which represented the whole diocese and has met twice a month since March 2008, embraced the same approach. In fact, the committee itself wasn’t merely a group of elected church representatives, but was seated by looking at who was and was not appropriately represented.
The selection process for building a leadership team “flows from the insight that what we do follows who we are,” explained Thew Forrester, who has served Northern Michigan as ministry development coordinator since 2001. The selection process, including the identification of a single name for bishop, was reaffirmed at the 2008 Diocesan Convention.
“It became quite clear over the past two conventions that the diocese as a whole understands ourselves to be a baptismally-grounded people,” Thew Forrester said.
“The vision that began to emerge in the light of these common baptismal values is the vision of a shared episcopacy. By that, I mean a recognition that just as with presbyteral and diaconal ministries, so too within apostolic ministry, there are people with many gifts. We are richer by far if we can develop an apostolic ministry or shared episcopal ministry that deliberately relies upon and draws the wisdom from a group of people who have been called forth because of their gifts – gifts which embody and carry out episcopal ministry on behalf of the diocese. The bishop, rather than being set apart from this group, would then be a member of this group with the canonical responsibilities that are part of our Episcopal polity,” he said.
“We know that these are killer jobs,” Thompsett said. “We know that bishops have some gifts but not all. [Northern Michigan has] set an episcopal ministry within the context of supporting group ministry. I experienced what they do as being faithful to the Lambeth Quadrilateral—that episcopal ministry is locally adapted. And they have been very faithful in following the canons.”
“We know we need to follow our own canons and the Episcopal Church canons, and our canons call for the election of a bishop,” affirmed Piper. “I just think it is a healthier and a more consistent way for a bishop to function to have support around him.”
The identification of Thew Forrester, who was invited to Michigan by Kelsey eight years ago to develop formation resources for Mutual Ministry congregations, as the sole nominee for bishop/missioner represents the continuation of a journey into new forms of ministry discernment and formation. But Piper explained that the process is familiar to churches whose search committees ultimately come to the vestry or congregation with a single recommendation for rector.
“It is a congregational model,” Piper said. “We are just taking our congregational model and applying it to the process for choosing our next bishop.”
Thew Forrester explained before the election that because the team would be composed of people with distinct gifts for a ministry such as diocesan administration and other duties of a bishop, he would be freed to do ministries reflective of his gifts that are also priorities in the Diocese of Northern Michigan, which he noted are formation, pastoral care, and representing the diocese in the wider church and through interfaith and ecumenical relationships—the groundwork of which was deepened by Kelsey before his death.
A chief mission priority of the Diocese of Northern Michigan that Thew Forrester has engaged and would continue to guide is called LifeCycles, which is a program of spiritual formation and education for adults and the preparation and training of local ministry support teams. Nurturing the emerging community of LifeCycles’ congregations and continuing to expose others to and interpret the experience of ministry in Northern Michigan continues to be a centerpiece of the mission and ministry of the diocese and its next bishop.
LifeCycles offers a leadership formation curriculum that consists of four cycles, including Christian community development, theological training, Biblical scholarship and the life of Jesus, and a still-being-developed segment on other faith traditions.
“The fourth cycle is world religions. That fourth cycle is very important,” said Thew Forrester. “A respect for other religions is woven throughout the LifeCycles material.
“The 21st century is a radically different world where who we are is already interwoven with other people and other faiths,” he said. “Either we learn not only to tolerate but to recognize the beauty and the truth and the good in other religions and faith or we don’t survive as a people. So the formation that one receives through LifeCycles engages individuals, small groups, communities, and dioceses in continual and constant dialogue with the faith traditions of the world.”
Thew Forrester’s understanding of and engagement with a broad spectrum of religious traditions generated some conversation even before his election. Thew Forrester was involved for several years in active Buddhist meditation and founded the Healing Arts Center at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Marquette where he serves as rector. But those most closely involved with the process of his nomination are not concerned by the speculation.
“Buddhism is a set of practices similar to Christian practices that became the property of monastics in the Middle Ages,” said Thompsett. “They are practices about meditation and awareness and compassionate living. They can be practiced without detriment to doctrine, and they are being restored today in all sorts of Christians. There are a number of bishops in the current House who engage in and have experience of Buddhist practices of mediation. This is not new.
“The question is ‘Is meditation a bad thing for bishops?’” asked Thompsett. “I think not. I think being spiritually grounded is essential for every leader in the church.”
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