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Committee outlines presiding bishop nomination, election processes

March 28, 2023
Office of Public Affairs

The Episcopal Church Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop (JNCPB) is continuing its work to prepare The Episcopal Church for the election of the 28th presiding bishop at General Convention in 2024.

Below is the final of three educational essays the JNCPB is posting this month. It lays out the basic timeline and steps for the nominating and election process. 

The first essay traced how the office of presiding bishop has changed and evolved from being the senior bishop by consecration who presides over meetings of the House of Bishops to the elected and complex multifaceted position it is today. The second essay outlined the current roles, functions, and responsibilities of the presiding bishop. 

Committee members are grateful to their predecessors who, leading up to the election of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in 2015, published the original versions of these essays. The committee thanks Bishop R. William Franklin, the author, and Sally Johnson and Bishop Ed Konieczny, previous co-chairs, for their permission to allow these essays to be updated and re-posted.

It is the hope of the JNCPB that all Episcopalians, and especially all members of General Convention, will take the time to read these essays to learn the importance of what we will do next summer at General Convention. Should you have any questions or comments about these essays or the work of the JNCPB, please contact pb28@episcopalchurch.org.

Follow the committee on the following social media sites:

See past press releases about the committee’s work.

Election of the Presiding Bishop in 2024: Essay 3
The Basic Timeline and Steps of the Nominating and Election Processes

Formation of the Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop and its work thus far

The majority of the committee members typically are elected in person at the meeting of General Convention three years before the new presiding bishop is to be elected; in this case the meetings of convention in 2021 and 2024. Due to the postponement of the 80th General Convention until 2022, the committee election was held online during the summer of 2021 and was followed by a series of canonical appointments.  

The JNCPB is composed of 20 people. Five bishops were elected by the House of Bishops, and five clergy and five lay people were elected by the House of Deputies (Canon I.2.1.a). Two members between ages 16-21 were appointed by the president of the House of Deputies (Canon I.2.1.a). Three members were jointly appointed by the presiding bishop and House of Deputies president “to ensure the cultural and geographic diversity of the church” (Canon I.2.1.c).

The JNCPB has been meeting since October 2021 as a whole, and in sub-committees, to prepare for the selection of nominees for presiding bishop. Until late May 2022, those meetings were all conducted via Zoom because of pandemic restrictions.

The committee met in person for the first time May 24-26, 2022. It met again in person Oct. 27-29, 2022, and Jan. 10-13, 2023. Outside ofthose meetings, the committee’s work—both in plenary and subcommittees—was carried out via Zoom conference calls, email, and interchanges through Microsoft Teams, the General Convention Office-supplied web-based collaborative work platform.

The JNCPB conducted a churchwide survey in October 2022 by which more than 6,000 Episcopalians shared their hopes for and concerns about the world, the church, and the next presiding bishop. The JNCPB continues to be committed to receiving input from Episcopalians that represents the vast diversity of the church.

The committee has interviewed Presiding Bishop Michael Curry; the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, his predecessor; churchwide leaders; denominational staff members; and other individuals serving in close proximity to the presiding bishop.

In addition, committee members have spent countless hours in conversation and prayer.

The Nomination and Election Processes

Nominations

• The “Profile for the Election of the 28th Presiding Bishop” is scheduled to be issued May 15. At that time the JNCPB will provide specific information for those wishing to submit names of bishops for consideration.

• The committee will receive names of candidates from then until July 15. The application packet will be sent as soon as a bishop confirms interest in entering into discernment with the committee. The committee will not wait until the deadline for receiving names to send the packets. Bishops who discern a call to enter the nomination process will have until Aug. 15 to submit completed applications.

• In the months following the identification of candidates, the JNCPB will discern which candidates to nominate for presiding bishop. (Canon I.2.1(d) requires a minimum of three nominees.)

• The JNCPB will announce its nominees in the spring of 2024.

• For a set period of time after the announcement of the JNCPB’s nominees, in accordance with a process that the JNCPB will announce, any deputy to the 81st General Convention or bishop may indicate an intent to nominate other bishops from the floor at the General Convention, scheduled for June 23-28, 2024, in Louisville, Kentucky. 

• The committee will vet those nominees with the same process it used for its nominees (Canon I.2.1(d)).

• The names of any additional nominees will be announced in early June 2024.

Election

(As outlined in Canon I.2.1(g) and Constitution I.3)

• Early in General Convention there will be a joint session of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies at which the names of the nominees of the JNCPB and any other nominees by petition will be entered officially into nomination.

• On the day following that joint session, the House of Bishops will elect one of the nominated bishops to be presiding bishop “by a vote of a majority of all bishops, excluding retired bishops not present, except that whenever two-thirds of the House of Bishops are present a majority vote shall suffice” (Constitution I.3).

• After election by the House of Bishops, a report of the result of the election, including the number of votes cast for each nominee on each ballot, will be made to the House of Deputies. The deputies will then vote to confirm or not to confirm the bishops’ choice of presiding bishop.

• The term of office of the presiding bishop is nine years, beginning on Nov. 1, 2024, unless the person elected will turn 72 before the end of the term. In that case the presiding bishop must resign at the General Convention which occurs nearest to the birthday (Canon I.2.2).