All Saints' Episcopal Church

All Saints’ Parish Rector Search

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December 2009 Update

The Search Committee has concluded its work. 18 months of discernment was concluded in a seven-hour session on Saturday, December 12th, 2009. The day commenced with a Holy Eucharist celebrated by Search Committee Chaplain, the Rev. Michael Seiler, who also shared words of encouragement in a sermon to the Search Committee and members of the Parish who attended. After the Eucharist, the Search Committee moved from the Chapel to Upper Sweetland Hall where they spent the remainder of the day reviewing the final candidates’ credentials and prayerfully discerning. It was an intense day, where we each focused on every word spoken in the room. We reviewed each candidate, we each carefully shared our views, we discussed and discerned and at 3:14 p.m. a motion nominating three candidates was made, seconded and unanimously approved with a great cheer of joy. The three final candidates will be presented to the Vestry on December 19th in a meeting that will be facilitated by The Rev. Canon Joanna Satorius, Canon for Formation and Deployment from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

A recap of the process is provided below.

Parish Phase

  • The Parish Phase of the process began in September 2008 was completed in the Winter of 2009. It included the Parish Survey, Forums, History Day and Focus Groups.
  • The culmination of the Parish Phase is the Parish Profile and the Rector Profile.
  • The Parish Profile (including the Rector Profile) was concluded by the Profile Committee in March 2009 can be downloaded by clicking here.Recruitment PhaseOverlapping with the Parish Phase, the Search Committee reached inside and outside the Parish and started to compile a list of possible candidates. The candidate list was compiled from various resources including priests who heard about the opportunity and contacted us, names submitted by parishioners, names submitted by our clergy and staff, and names referred to the Search Committee through resourcing calls and personal meetings by the Search Committee members.
  • 78 candidates were identified in this process.
  • The Search Committee vetted the list of 78 names and submitted a shortened list of 42 to the Diocese for further consideration.
  • As part of the Recruitment Phase, we completed a number of forms required by the Diocese. The forms provided all sorts of statistical, financial and qualitative information about our open Rector position.
  • The Diocese entered our data into the national priest database that includes approximately 4500 names.
  • The national database generated an additional 40 candidate names.
  • In total, 118 candidates from our recruiting efforts and the church database have been considered.Diocesan PhaseThe Diocese vetted the list of candidates we submitted plus the computer-generated list of names.
    Members of the Search Committee met with Bishop Bruno and the Diocesan Deployment Officer (The Rev. Cannon Joanna Satorius) to review the list of candidates. Our Diocesan deployment officer contacted 64 candidates to determine whether they were interested and available to consider our Rector position and provided us with a list of interested candidates on June 17, 2009

    Interview Phase

    We received a terrific list of candidates from the Diocese of Los Angeles in June and sent packets of information to all the candidates. Candidates have received a packet of information about our church.
    We received from the candidates copies of sermons, other background information and a written response to five questions.

    The Search Committee was very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet a number of the candidates who attended General Convention in Anaheim in July 2009. A few candidates visited All Saints’ while they were in Southern California and toured our facilities.

    Candidates provided a written response to five questions on July 15, 2009. The Search Committee met on Saturday July 25, 2009 to review the written responses and to prepare for telephone interviews. The telephone interviews were held during the month of August, 2009. We used “Skype” video technology for most of the interviews so we could see the candidates as well as hear them during the interviews.

    We then scheduled candidate visits to All Saints’ during the months of September, October and November 2009. The candidate visits included tours of our facilities and other regional points of interest, informal lunches and dinners with search committee members, and a Eucharist and formal interview with the search committee.

    We visited all of the final candidates’ churches during the months of October and November 2009 to hear them preach and to observe their communities.  We checked all of the candidates references and met with as many references as possible during our visits to the candidates’ churches.  As a final due diligence matter, we conducted an Oxford Background Check on the final candidates.

    Vestry Call and Institution

  • The Vestry will invite the final three candidates to ASBH with their spouses or partners
  • The Vestry interviews and entertains the candidates
  • Clergy and key staff meet the candidates
  • The Vestry discerns who should be called as our next rector
  • An offer is made by the Vestry
  • The offer is accepted
  • Our new Rector arrives and is instituted
  • A new era in the life of the Parish beginsTiming is in God’s hands. We are working as expeditiously as possible, but this all takes time, attention and energy. This is truly an exciting time. We recognize that the Parish is restless as we can’t imagine life without Carol, and the thought of all this change is unsettling and very present. We are very hopeful about our future and we are all very committed to finding the person that God is calling to be our next Rector and leader.In Christ

    Cathy Bando
    Rector Search Committee Chair

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