Beloved in the Lord,

June should be a very exciting month for us at St. Philip's.  June 4 will be Pentecost and our Diocesan Administrator and friend Brian Nordwick will be with us.  Later in the month we have graduations, and the end of the Church School year.  Toward the end of the month I will celebrate ordination to the diaconate and forty years of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.  All of this plays second fiddle to the calling of our new Vicar.

First let me give you some background in canon law.  As a mission congregation our Rector is the Bishop.  Because the Bishop cannot actually be in every mission congregation every Sunday the Bishop appoints a Vicar (which is Latin for substitute).  Because we are a large and healthy mission the Bishop has given us the opportunity to conduct a search like a parish.  So, early this month when the Bishop's Committee chooses the candidate we want they will actually be nominating this person the Bishop appointment.

When I was appointed Vicar of the first mission Church I served the Bishop told me he wanted me to go there and he told the congregation I was the one coming.  That was all there was to it.  When Martin came to be our Vicar there was no St. Philip's Church and the Bishop simply appointed Martin as missionary to Scotts Valley.  In many cases the Bishop still makes appointments on the best information the Bishop and Diocese have.  In our case he allowed us to participate in choosing.

When the Bishop's Committee informs the Bishop of their nomination the Bishop will review the information we have been given and do whatever other research he may want to do.  If the Bishop has or finds information that is negative the Bishop will not make the appointment.  It is most likely that the Bishop will make the appointment but it will not be a "rubber stamp."  Only when the Bishop has appointed and the candidate has agreed to come here will we be told who the person is.  The time between selection by the Bishop's Committee and the official appointment will be an awkward one.  The Bishop's Committee and the Search Committee will be dying to tell us all who the person is and how wonderful they are, but they will not be able.  We can all pray that the time will be short, and we can all be good about not trying to get information we shouldn't have yet.

Once the appointment is made it will be a while before the new Vicar is actually here among us.  The person will have to make closure with their current congregation and deal with the logistics of getting to Scotts Valley.  It is difficult for us to estimate that time, but having been on the other side I know our new Vicar will be trying to finish up with all due haste and make the move to St. Philip's.  We simply need to support in prayer.

Let us thank God for St. Philip's, for everything that we have and let us look forward to an exciting June.

             In Christ's love,

                                       The Reverend John L. Duncan