Dear friends in Christ,
Thank you to all of you who have completed the survey now underway to help us understand the life and ministry of our diocese as we look toward the search for our next bishop. The initial response has been very strong.
This survey will help the Standing Committee understand the current landscape of our diocese and its needs. Your input will inform the timing of our search process, and it will help us know more about the kind of leader we need as our next diocesan bishop.
If you have not yet completed the survey, please do so. You can find links for the survey in English or Spanish. The deadline for online surveys is February 10.
Please help us by spreading the word in your local congregation. We encourage you to announce the survey during Sunday services and to include it in congregation newsletters. You might like to place the link on your church’s Facebook page, if you have one.
If there are people in your church who cannot take the survey online, there is a downloadable PDF available for printing (in English or Spanish). You may need to mail or deliver copies of the survey to members of your church. You can then collect them back at your church OR have people send them directly to the diocesan office to arrive by February 3.
Some congregations may lack the ability to print the surveys. If you don’t have a printer or copier, please contact Ann Sabo (asabo@diosohio.org) at the diocesan office. She can send copies of the survey – including return overnight shipping labels – to your church. The address for the diocesan office is in the footer of this message.
To ensure timely collection of information, it is important that printed surveys reach the diocesan office by February 3. The US Postal Service has been experiencing delays, so if you are cutting it close, you may want to use UPS or FedEx to ensure prompt delivery. This will allow us to have all data entered by February 10, which is the close of the survey period. If you have questions about the logistics of printed surveys, please contact Ann Sabo.
After we have received the data from the survey, we will announce the details of online listening sessions to take place later in the winter and early spring. These sessions will afford you the opportunity to share insights that may not have appeared in the survey format. Once we have studied the survey data and collected notes from the listening sessions, we will share what we have learned with the whole diocese.
Blessings to you in this challenging time for our nation and our church. May the peace of God which passes all understanding be in our hearts and minds. We are,
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Larry Hayes, president
The Rev. Philip DeVaul, vice-president
Dr. James Allsop
The Rev. Dr. Ellen Cook
Mr. Barry Feist
The Rev. Canon Scott Gunn
