Welcome to Christ Episcopal Church

APPLICANT REVIEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Hal Rosendahl - Chairperson

                                  Dr. Michael Burleson, MD (Vestry and representative from Sts M & M)
                                  Nancy Frey                  Marita Musante
                                  Lyn Klay (Vestry)         Anne Pierson
                                  Catherine Mace            Robert Rex
                                  Marian Marcellus          Joan Stewart
                                  Mary McNellis             Marty Van Zandt
                                  Alternate: Elizabeth Harper Lawson

STEPS IN THE CALLING PROCESS IN THE DIOCESE OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

I.        NOTIFICAITON AND INTERIM SELECTION

II.      PARISH STATUS REPORT

III.     DEVELOPMENT OF A PARISH PROFILE

IV.     DEVELOPMENT OF AN APPLICANT COMMITTEE

The Applicant Review Committee is selected by the Vestry from a list of nomminees and volunteers that has been submitted to the Senior Warden. It will include a balanced group of ten people who are representative of the make-up of the congregation of Christ Church, plus two Vestry members.

This committee will receive applications from a nationwide search, screen and interview the candidates and present a list of three fianlists to the vestry. The Committee is charged with operating under strict confidentiality as it is dealing with persons' lives and careers.

V.       INITIAL SCREENING AND INTERVIEWS

VI.      FINAL INTERVIEWS AND CALL

We are reminded that this is not primarily a hiring process, but a spritiual exercise--a process of discerning what God is saying to us. As we prepare God is at work preparing the heart of the person who will respond to the call to become part of out Christ Church Community. Please join in daily prayers for the Applicant Review Committee, the Vestry and for all who are involved in this process.

A PRAYER FOR THE CALLING OF OUR NEW RECTOR

Almighty and most merciful God, we ask for your guidance as we seek the person whom You have chosen to lead this congregation. Direct us on our spiritual journey as we seek to understand our needs and the correct path for Christ Church. Unite us as one to do Your will. Watch over our Applicant Review Committee and the Vestry; endow them with wisdom to judge each candidate with fairness and compassion. Grant that our congregation may see things through Your eyes and not our own, and hear with ears attuned to Your word. Fill us with joy as we receive a new priest to lead us in our ministries. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

A THEOLOGY OF CALL

When it comes to finding a clergy person to lead a congregation, it is easy to assume that we should use the methods of "hiring" and "employment" we would use in business or other organizations. While we might create a Job Description and screen applicants just as we would in our everyday lives, the Church is different, and requires a more spiritual approach.

In reviewing our history through Scripture, we find that God sometimes chooses to interact with God's people to accomplish God's purposes by issuing a "call". This pattern goes way back in the Hebrew Scriptures. Noah was called to build an ark, so that life might be saved from the flood. The calls of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and Isaiah are four of the more well known calls in the Old Testament that have been preserved for us. Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John and the others to "pick up your cross and follow me." And St. Paul's rather spectacular experience on the road to Damascus is another from the New Testament. And God continues to call today. We worship the Living God who is still involved with, and cares about, and wants to lead God's people.

In the Catechism, or Outline of Faith, found in the end of our Book of Common Prayer, it asks, "How is the Church described in the Bible?" and answers, "The Church is described as the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and of which all baptized persons are members." The Calling Process as established in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California is based squarely on this premise as a spiritual truth. Because Christ truly is the Head of the Church, he therefore can be relied upon to prepare for each mission and parish of the Diocese a clergy person who is equipped to lead that congregation for his purposes. In seeking a new Rector or Vicar, therefore, it is important to attempt to discern who God's candidate might be, as opposed to using only our own preferences and prejudices in making such a selection.

Each group working in the calling process—Vestry, Profile Committee, Applicant Review Committee—has a unique role to play, and each has an opportunity to engage in this discernment. For the Profile Committee, how does looking at ourselves help us to understand who we are in Christ's eyes, and what he might be calling us to be as a parish or mission? For the Applicant Review Committee, who has God made known to us who is qualified by training and experience, and has the skills, talents, and Gifts necessary to effectively lead the congregation? For the Vestry, it is the discernment of who we are called to be by God and who will best lead us there.

We are not "hiring" a minister who will "do ministry" in our name. Rather, we are inviting someone to come among us to lead us in worship and equip us for our ministries in the world. The process is less like employment, and more like getting married—finding out who each other is and forming a relationship based on mutual respect, trust, and a common vision of God's call on us as a community. And we trust God to know what is best for us, and to seek God's mind and heart, using our God-given faculties of perception, intuition, intellect and feeling.

Roger Cutler, Diocese of Northern California, Consultant for the Calling Process