The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts announced on April 12 the
names of those who will serve on the two committees responsible for the nomination, election and transition process for a bishop coadjutor to succeed the Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE.
Dr. David Urion of St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields Church in Lincoln has been named chairperson of the Discernment Committee, with the Rev. Laurel Deery, deacon at Grace Church in Salem, as vice chairperson. The Discernment Committee (usually known as a nominating committee) will be responsible for profiling the diocese, seeking and collecting nominations and presenting a final slate of nominees for election.
The Rev. Julian Fredie, deacon at St. Cyprian’s Church in Roxbury, has been named chairperson of the Transition Committee, with Angela McConney Scheepers of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Dedham as vice chairperson. The Transition Committee sees to the election process, including a “walkabout” of meetings with the nominees, and other practical matters related to the episcopal transition.
Urion is the director of Behavioral Neurology Clinics and Programs, as well as the Education and Residency Training Programs in Child Neurology and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities at Children’s Hospital in Boston. He is a longtime member of the diocese’s Commission on Ministry and a member of the volunteer faculty for the diaconate formation program. Deery is a former junior high school teacher and a co-founder and board member of The Fund to Prevent Homelessness and the Grace Center in Gloucester, a day center for the homeless. She is a Church Home Society board member and previously served as the deacon for the North Shore Deanery and St. John’s Church in Gloucester.
Fredie’s corporate management career focused on real estate, construction and acquisitions, and included international responsibilities and direct operations in Europe and China. He volunteers as a congregational business consultant in the diocese in addition to his service as a deacon. McConney Scheepers is an administrative magistrate for the Division of Administrative Law Appeals, which conducts due process hearings for state administrative agencies. She has served on the diocese’s Commission on Ministry, Board of Directors of the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center and as a missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.
The full committee rosters appear below.
The diocese’s 185 congregations are configured into 12 geographic deaneries, and each deanery was asked to nominate two lay and two ordained people to a pool from which the Standing Committee made its selections, appointing several additional members to insure diverse representation and skills needed to do the work.
Eleven deaneries are represented on the committees; the Standing Committee did not receive nominations from the Taunton River Deanery, the Rev. Zenetta Armstrong, President of the Standing Committee, said.
“I believe we really did succeed in casting a wide net and achieving representation from the pool regarding age, ethnicity, urban-suburban, deacons, priests and lay people, gifts and skills. The work was done prayerfully and carefully, and these are the people God has raised up from the effort put forth. We celebrate that and feel confident in their ability to do the work entrusted to them,” Armstrong said.
“I am really appreciative of the work of the Standing Committee, deans and everyone who put themselves forward to be considered and I want to acknowledge their commitment to the work of the church. Let’s continue to keep each other in prayer,” she said.
The Standing Committee will convene the two committees for a retreat on April 27 at Christ Church in Cambridge with Suzanne Foucault, an organizational consultant from the Diocese of San Diego who has been hired to serve as an advisor throughout the process.
The bishop coadjutor election is scheduled for April 5, 2014, and the new bishop’s ordination and consecration for Sept. 13, 2014. A bishop coadjutor is elected to assist and then succeed the sitting diocesan bishop—in this case upon his retirement, the date of which has not been set.
Discernment Committee (deanery affiliation in parentheses)
Chairperson: Dr. David Urion, St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields Church, Lincoln (Concord River)
Vice Chairperson: The Rev. Laurel Deery, Grace Church, Salem (North Shore)
John Anderson, St. James’s Church, Groveland (Merrimack Valley)
The Rev. Johanna Barrett, Trinity Church, Topsfield (North Shore)
William Boyce, Grace Church, New Bedford (Mt. Hope-Buzzards Bay)
The Rev. Lynn Campbell, Christ Church, Needham (Charles River)
The Rev. Dr. Libby Gibson, St. Mary’s Church, Barnstable (Cape and Islands)
Michele Griffin-McGregor, St. Andrew’s Church, Framingham (Concord River)
The Rev. Edgar Gutierrez-Duarte, St. Luke’s/San Lucas Church, Chelsea (Mystic Valley)
The Rev. Eric Hillegas, St. Chrysostom’s Church, Quincy (South Shore)
The Rev. Michael Hodges, St. Paul’s Church, Dedham (Neponset River)
Dr. Sasha Killewald, Christ Church, Waltham (Alewife)
Ryan McDonnell, Christ Church, South Hamilton (North Shore)
Mary Beth Mills-Curran, St. James’s Church, Cambridge (Alewife)
The Rev. Ema Rosero-Nordalm, St. Stephen’s Church, Boston (Boston Harbor)
Julia Shea, St. John’s Church, Winthrop (Mystic Valley)
The Ven. Geoffrey Smith, Parish of St. John the Evangelist, Hingham (South Shore)
Transition Committee (deanery affiliation in parentheses)
Chairperson: The Rev. Julian Fredie, St. Cyprian’s Church, Roxbury (Boston Harbor)
Vice Chairperson: Angela McConney Scheepers, Esq., Church of the Good Shepherd, Dedham (Neponset River)
Libby Chafe, Church of the Holy Spirit, Wayland (Concord River)
The Rev. Karen Coleman, St. James’s Church, Somerville (Alewife)
The Rev. Jonathan Eden, Christ Church, Cambridge (Alewife)
The Rev. Dr. Lisa Fortuna, Iglesia de San Juan, Hyde Park (Neponset River)
The Rev. Alan Hesse, Epiphany Church, Walpole (Neponset River)
Claudette Hunt, St. Andrew’s Church, Ayer (Concord River)
The Rev. Adam Linton, Church of the Holy Spirit, Orleans (Cape and Islands)
The Rev. Kit Lonergan, Christ Church, Andover (Merrimack Valley)
Peter Lucey, Church of Our Saviour, Somerset (Mt. Hope-Buzzards Bay)
Bessie Lyman, Grace Church, Newton (Charles River)
The Rev. Jeff Mello, St. Paul’s Church, Brookline (Charles River)
Beverly Merz, Trinity Church, Boston (Boston Harbor)
Jeffrey Mills, Church of the Advent, Boston (Boston Harbor)
Vicky Provost, St. Stephen’s Church, Lynn (North Shore)
David Sullivan, Emmanuel Church, Wakefield (Mystic Valley)
The Rev. Diane Wong, St. John’s Church, Holbrook (South Shore)
Related articles:
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Standing Committee issues letter on Bishop Shaw's call for coadjutor election
Bishop Shaw calls for election of his successor