Candidate Being Nominated by Petition

I have learned that a local priest is being nominated by petition to be Bishop of Pittsburgh. Assuming that nothing damaging is uncovered by the background check—there is no reason to expect that any skeletons will be found in the closet—this person will become the fifth candidate in the April election.

I have been waiting to see if anyone would be nominated by petition, and I am saddened that someone has been. This will not be everyone’s reaction, of course, and there are those who will not be pleased by my sharing my opinion on this topic. I have written a post on my own blog about why I think an internal candidate should not be elected bishop, irrespective (mostly) of the particular attributes of the candidate being put forward. You can read my post here.

Initial Candidates Announced

As many readers will already know, four candidates for Bishop of Pittsburgh have been put forth by the Standing Committee. They are:

1. The Rev. Canon Michael N. Ambler, Jr., Rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Bath, Maine
2. The Rev. Dorsey W. M. McConnell, Rector of Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
3. The Rev. R. Stanley Runnels, Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Missouri
4. The Rev. Ruth Woodliff-Stanley, Rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Denver, Colorado

The official announcement is here. We now enter a period during which additional candidates can be nominated by petition. Petitions need to be postmarked by February 5, 2012.

Since only names, current positions, and photographs of the candidates have been released, anyone who feels strongly that someone else would be a good candidate is in a difficult position. If such a person knew more about the candidates, it would be easier to say either that the slate is strong and there is no need for additional candidates or that the slate is not strong and other candidates are indeed needed. Even if one is willing to give the Standing Committee the benefit of the doubt—I count myself in this category—the need to know more about the candidates is irresistible, and it is unreasonable to suggest that everyone should wait until the final slate is determined before attempting to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of those whose names have now been placed before us.

It would be a terrible duplication of effort for all Pittsburgh Episcopalians to be Googling the candidates and to be finding the same information. I therefore suggest that we use this blog to collect and distribute candidate information. Opinion is also welcome, but it should be tied to particular information you have discovered.

If you leave comments here, we will try to aggregate the information, so that people can go to a single page to access it. When the Standing Committee releases information, we will have more data before us, but the effort expended before then will not have been wasted. If you know any of the candidates or know someone who does, we would like to hear from you also.

Let me begin by offering the Web sites of the churches the candidates are presently leading:

1. The Rev. Canon Michael N. Ambler, Jr.: Grace Episcopal Church, Bath, Maine
2. The Rev. Dorsey W. M. McConnell: Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
3. The Rev. R. Stanley Runnels: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Missouri
4. The Rev. Ruth Woodliff-Stanley: St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Denver, Colorado

OK, then. Let the Googling begin!