Loading...We, the nominees for the fifth bishop of East Tennessee, write with deep gratitude for the time we have spent this past week in discernment with you about whom God is calling to be your next bishop. Hundreds of you have taken part in our journey. In our conversations, you have sparked an even greater sense of hope for our beloved Episcopal Church.
We have immense appreciation for the time everyone has given to this process across the past year and a half. Your Search and Nominating Committee and your Transition Committee are good and faithful people who have worked hard on behalf of the diocese.
St. Paul’s-Chattanooga, the Episcopal School of Knoxville, and St. Paul’s-Kingsport, pulled out all the stops in hosting the three walkabout sessions, which welcomed hundreds of you each of those three nights. We are grateful for the lunches and a dinner lovingly prepared by St. Luke’s-Cleveland, St. Christopher’s-Kingsport, the diocesan staff, and Church of the Good Shepherd-Lookout Mountain. Along our journey, we were also welcomed with gracious hospitality at Grace Church-Chattanooga, Christ Church-South Pittsburg, the University of the South (Sewanee), Church of the Nativity-Fort Oglethorpe (Georgia), St. James-Knoxville, Church of the Ascension-Knoxville, St. John’s Cathedral, St. Thomas-Elizabethton, and Grace Point Camp and Retreat Center.
As we have traveled together in these holy hills of East Tennessee for the Walkabouts, we have also come to a deeper connection and appreciation for each other. As nominees, we and our spouses—Susan, Kristin, Victoria, Jenness, Bob—have spent much time together, talking, praying, and laughing. We have enjoyed each other’s company and the fellowship with those who traveled with us on the bus: Chris Harpster, Maggie Zeller, R.J. Powell, Jay Mills, Christopher Hogin, Walter Puckett, Kim Smith, Jim Anderson, Jennifer Dunn, and our able bus driver Mike Portillo.
While we each feel called to this process and would be overjoyed to serve as your bishop, our deepest desire is that your discernment leads you to a holy clarity. Our hearts are full as we pray with you for the Holy Spirit to enliven the hearts of those who will vote on July 28. As we enter these last two weeks of discernment, each of us is praying for nothing less than God’s will.
We offer this prayer from the ordination rite, which we have prayed together:
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Grace be with you all in Christ Jesus,
The Rev. Brian Cole
The Rev. Hendree Harrison
The Rev. Frank Logue
The Rev. Lance Ousley
The Rev. Marty Stebbins
