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Search Committee Update - Discernment and the Rector Search

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The Great Fifty Days of Easter, Eastertide, Easter Season, Paschal Season; by any name, this is a most joyous and uplifting time of year. It seems quite fitting, during this season celebrating the gift of new life in Christ, that the Search Committee begins interviewing our candidates! Between now and the Feast of Pentecost, the Committee as well as our candidates will be dedicated to discerning a call for our next rector.

After our detailed review of letters, resumes, and applications from our original pool of candidates, we have spent the last two weeks tuned into online sermons, reviewing social media pages and Parish websites. We have now selected those with whom we will engage in a one-hour Zoom interview. Following these interviews, the pool of candidates will again be narrowed as we discern who we want to invite to participate in in-person interviews, and decide how to safely do so in a pandemic.

It sounds like there will be an awful lot of “discerning” happening in Eastertide, doesn’t it? Discernment: the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure: skill in discerning. While Merriam Webster gives us this simple definition, things get a little more interesting when we make room for God in our discerning.

As Christians, we seek God’s guidance in decisions like calling a new rector. We pray. We seek to trust that the Holy Spirit will inspire us, that God will act to guide our hearts and minds in deciding. There are many biblical references to discernment, e.g., 1 Samuel 3:1–10, Acts 1:12–26, Acts 6:1-7, that help us understand it as a process we undertake in relationship with God. Discerning asks us to be patient, to trust one another and God, to quiet our minds to listen. And, as the Committee is prayerfully discerning, our candidates will be likewise engaged. We ask for your prayerful engagement as well!

During this Eastertide, please keep your Search Committee and all our candidates in your prayers. Be with us in the Spirit as we conduct initial and call back interviews to help us discern who God is calling to be St. Peter’s next rector. Thank you for your continued support!