The information below is based on a March 29, 2011, meeting of members of St. Peter’s Vestry and The Reverend Canon Michael Hunn, the Diocese of North Carolina’s canon to the ordinary for program and pastoral ministry. This was Canon Hunn’s first meeting with St. Peter’s as the parish embarks on the process of finding and hiring a new rector — but it won’t be the last. Information from subsequent meetings will be reported to the parish as those meetings take place.

Canon Hunn will work with the Search Committee and the Vestry from day one through the signing of a letter of agreement with the new rector. He may also preach at St. Peter’s one Sunday. Information from subsequent meetings will be reported to the parish as those meetings take place.

Process Overview

Churches in the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina that are in the process of searching for a rector will find that the process is very different from what is was a decade ago, according to Canon Michael Hunn.

There are three different ways — or styles — of conducting the search for a new rector:

1. Traditional, wherein an interim rector is in place for an estimated 12 months, during which time a search committee is formed, a parish profile developed, and a search is undertaken. This style works best when the retiring rector has been with the church for 10 years or longer and is the search style that will be used at St. Peter’s.
2. The appointment of a rector for a “time certain,” usually employed in the case of a parish in crisis that needs a rector quickly. A single candidate is presented by the Bishop and the Vestry votes yes or no. Once a priest is accepted, the contract typically runs three to four years, with a mid-term review. A rector time certain can be made permanent.
3. A targeted search can be offered to a healthy parish that has developed a profile and conducted a search within the last five to seven years and still knows what it is looking for. Typically, the Bishop gives the Vestry a list of five candidates from which to choose.

The search process is a process of discernment for the entire community. It also is a process of transparency. The names of and demographic data about candidate priests are the only pieces of information that are not made public during the search.

One significant change in the search process from earlier years is that there is no longer a firewall between the Vestry and the Search Committee. While in the past Vestry members did not serve on the committee, the Diocese now recommends that three or four Vestry members take part in the search. The Vestry approves Search Committee decisions and recommendations at every step along the way.

Search Committee Selection and Responsibilities

The Canon to the Ordinary is the Search Committee’s consultant — there is no need to hire a consultant as was done in the past. In selecting a Search Committee, Canon Hunn advised the Vestry:

DON’T

• Fill the committee with HR personnel; this is a discernment process not a hiring process
• Select only people who are available or not busy
• Stack the committee with the same type of persons

DO

• Look for the most prayerful persons, people who “hold the soul” of the congregation
• Seek the most mature people (could be age, could be wisdom)
• Seek those who listen for the Holy Spirit
• Seek diversity without trying to represent every faction
• Strive to name a committee that gives everyone someone they can talk to

In the Diocese of North Carolina, the Senior Warden, after seeking advice from the Vestry, presents the name of a Search Committee Chairman to the Vestry. Once approved, the Chairman and the Senior Warden select a committee — typically about a dozen members — and present those names to the Vestry for approval.

Once the committee is formed, it will be given a “charge” based on a template designed by the diocese. The committee’s first task will be to meet with Canon Hunn and begin developing a Parish Profile.

The names and biographies of St. Peter’s Search Committee members can be found at on this website.

The New Parish Profile

The Search Committee will begin gathering information for the Parish Profile at its first meeting with Canon Hunn. No longer a thick booklet of information, the new Parish Profile will answer the questions:

1. What makes St. Peter’s different/unique?
2. What is God calling us to do in the next three years? (We can’t see farther out than three years.)
3. What sort of leadership do we need to help us do the things God is calling us to do?

Using the diocesan process for devising a Parish Profile, the Search Committee will answer a series of narrative essay questions set forth by the diocese. Once the profile is completed, it will be available for all to see online on St. Peter’s website, and on the diocesan and national websites.

In yet another departure from past practice when clergy wrote extensive curriculum vitae, clergy candidates now answer a series of narrative essay questions about their experience and interests.

To learn more about the new models for both parish and clergy profiles, visit the diocesan website.

Once the profile is built, the diocese, over a period of eight weeks, will send the Search Committee the names of all clergy who are seeking rector positions at the time. The committee will reduce the list to 8-10 candidates after talking to interested priests to discern which ones might offer the best fit for St. Peter’s.

Canon Hunn’s office will then conduct prescreening checks of the candidates via conversations with his counterparts, seeking any information that would be pertinent to the search. Bishop Curry must be comfortable with each name on the list.

The candidates and their spouses will be invited to visit Charlotte as early in the process as possible. They will be asked to conduct a Eucharist for the Search Committee and likely will meet briefly and informally with the Vestry, e.g., for an hour-long social gathering. On-site visits are important to both the candidates and the church as they help all parties discern whether there is a fit, and tend to naturally reduce the number of candidates.

This helps reduce travel costs if the Search Committee decides to do on-site visits of its own. While Search Committee teams likely will visit the parishes of top candidates, such visits are not as common as they once were, in part because recorded sermons and other information often can be found on the internet.

Finally, the diocese recommends under the new process that the Search Committee bring only one name to the Vestry for its approval. Once the Vestry accepts a candidate, it will ask Canon Hunn to initiate an Oxford Document Background Check, which includes a criminal and credit check and is sent to each parish in which the priest has served along the way.

As with many other professions, springtime is the major job-seeking season for Episcopal clergy. If all goes well, the Parish Profile will be completed and the Search Committee will be in a position to consider clergy profiles and conduct personal interviews with an aim toward hiring a new rector by the end of a year-long interim period.