Q&A Monday, August 10th, 6:00pm-8:30pm
LEADERSHIP
1. What do you see as the role of a diocesan bishop?
2. Good communication skills and the commitment to mutual accountability are key to our life together as the church. As Bishop serving the Diocese of Oregon, what gifts will you bring in living out those necessities?
3. What role do you play, or have you played, in financial management and stewardship in your congregations or other organizations?
4. Tell about an initiative or goal whose success depended not on your own talents but those of others whom you hired. How did you find the right people? How did you contribute to the success? What did you learn about your leadership style?
5. We are in a time where difficult decisions and strong crisis leadership is critical. Can you speak to a situation where you have stepped into a breach where confusion/indecision/conflict were at hand and comment on how you consciously shifted or leaned into a different leadership, communications, or decision- making mode?
6. Can you tell us more about what advocacy you’ve done for trans and non-binary people. What is your approach to ministering to LGBTQIA+ people in particular?
7. Are you willing to make public statements via the media regarding the Episcopal Church’s stance on issues such as Racism, LGBTQIA+, etc. Give examples of times you have done so, or decided not to do so. What was the effect of your decision?
8. How do you envision the role of a bishop and the diocese in promoting, initiating, and even funding support to extra-parochial ministries that are representing Christ in the world? In this I include campus ministry, social service agencies (such as William Temple House or Rahab’s Sisters) and chaplaincy?
9. What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges for our diocese and how do you envision your own background and experiences being helpful in addressing them?
Q&A Tuesday, August 11th 4:00pm-6:30pm
LATINX-IMMIGRATION-ECUMENISM-JESUS
1. At our 2019 Diocesan convention, a Resolution of Policy ‘Welcoming the Stranger’ was passed. It urges all congregations and their members to support and participate in training and educational opportunities to offer a sacred welcome to immigrants and refugees. What does offering a sacred welcome mean to you? As Bishop how would you encourage and promote these opportunities?
2. Oregon has a growing Latino population, spread out from large urban to smaller communities mostly Anglo and some with a growing, vibrant, Latino membership. What are you doing now to prepare for a diocese with Spanish-speaking congregations?
3. As Bishop how would you effectively reach out and communicate to our Spanish-speaking Episcopal communities? How will you engage with them in worship and in their vibrant cultural celebrations?
4. What is your experience with churches providing undocumented immigrants with sanctuary? If a parish in the Diocese took an undocumented immigrant into sanctuary, how would you respond?
5. Our city is presently in the throes of demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter. Oregon’s history, and Portland’s in particular, is not one we can be proud of regarding behavior towards people of color. The effect of this history is still seen today in the lack of diversity in the general population. The question for you is:
Our parish is interested in doing something to help. In particular, we are interested in partnering with a historically black congregation, regardless of denomination. We don’t know where to start. We don’t have a connection and we don’t want to be patronizing. How would you help parishes like ours to initiate these efforts?
6. How have you come to recognize your own racism? How have you been active to educate yourself about cultures other than your own?
7. Please share with us your personal ecumenical experiences and as Bishop how would you continue to promote ecumenical relationships?
8. In the Pacific Northwest, saying the name of Jesus makes lots of people uncomfortable, even inside the Episcopal Church. Do you believe we can become Beloved Community without talking about Jesus? How do you speak of Jesus publicly? How do you hope the clergy under your care will speak about Jesus in their congregations and in the wider communities they serve?
9. Where do you think the Episcopal Church, either as an institution or as a body of believers, is “getting it wrong, headed the wrong direction, or lost in the weeds”? And what might a Bishop do about that?
Q&A Wednesday, August 12th 9:15am-11:15am
CLERGY – CONGREGATIONAL VITALITY
1. Without quoting the BCP, what do you see the role of deacons to be in a congregation and in their diocese?
2. How do you see yourself acting as a pastor to the active and retired clergy in the Diocese?
3. Considering that many congregations are composed of largely older members and are not growing, what would you plan to do to increase church participation? What have you done in your own congregations?
4. Please describe your ministerial collaboration with deacons, and connect those experiences with your vision for the role of deacons in strengthening the ministry of the diocese of Oregon.
5. A cleric comes to you saying they feel burned out or unsupported or both, and are thinking of leaving their ministry. How will you would you approach this?
6. What programs or methods have caught your attention for drawing the unchurched into relationship with God and the Church?
7. How will you work with small congregations that are struggling financially and are fearing closure? What has been your experience in this area?
Q&A Thursday, August 13th 11:30am-1:45
WORSHIP – SPIRITUAL LIFE
1. Please share your sense of call to the order of Bishop. What part of your call to this ministry do you think you can live into as Bishop of Oregon that you can’t as a priest in another role?
2. What is your spiritual practice? What experiences or individuals have informed that practice? Tell us about a time when you felt most spiritually alive?
3. During these past few months, is there a passage from scripture or story that you have found yourself turning to? Why?
4. What activities and/or responsibilities in your church life do you find most energizing? What do you find most draining?
5. Music is an integral part of worship. What do you see as the role of music in Christian worship and outreach today? What is your commitment to it, and how can we expect to see that commitment expressed, especially in support of smaller parishes who often struggle financially?
6. What is your experience with camp and retreat ministry? How important are camp, retreat, and mission experiences in Christian formation of children, youth and adults?
7. Describe what you felt was your most engaging sermon. What was the message and how did you know it was engaging?
8. Can you share the most surprising (you define) Episcopal worship experience you have had, and why you found it surprising? This can be a positive or negative surprise, or both.
Q&A – Thursday, August 13thth 6:30pm-8:45
DIVISIONS AND HEALING
1. What are your concerns about the inequalities in U. S. culture and what structures do you see in the church that perpetuate the inequalities?
2. The National Episcopal church recently moved Resolutions encouraging churches to Speak Out for Antiracism action and for criminal justice reform. In addition, following the murder of George Floyd, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said on HBO’s Axios “that the soul of America is at stake” and that “it’s time to speak up” against racial injustice and the need to reform policing. As a candidate for Bishop of this diocese, what are your thoughts on how to do this?
3. Your consecration as our next Bishop of Oregon will be barely a week after the inauguration of the President of the United States. Regardless of whom the nation elects as President, there will be people who are joyful and people who are disappointed and angry in our diocese. How will you minister to and reach out to both these groups as our new Bishop?
4. Please tell us a bit about how your own church has coped in the past few months in the context of Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests. What have been the challenges & the opportunities for the congregation and the community? How do those experiences inform how you might lead our diocese during these times?
5. The Diocese of Oregon passed a Resolution in 2017 “Urging Support for Universal Health Care in Oregon”, addressing that health care is a human right for all peoples & is grounded in biblical text. How will you support and encourage this work in our parish life?
6. What are ways to promote community while we are dealing with the COVID-19 virus?
7. In what ways would you promote the development of shared community and cooperation between rural and urban areas in the diocese?
8. How do you help people hear “that still small voice” in these noisy times, and how might you do so in a diocese as socially, politically, and geographically diverse as ours?