Election of Our New Bishop

A Letter from the Bishop Search Committee

The people of the Diocese have two tasks coming up in the bishop search process. First, when selecting delegates for the annual 2023 Diocesan Convention, please know that these will also be the electing delegates for a special convention next summer. Second, when the diocesan profile is published in early January, please share it online and with potential candidates to help spread the word across the country. 

During the coming months, the Bishop Search Committee will advertise the open bishop position, receive and vet applications, and then interview applicants. 

Early next summer, the Search Committee will announce an initial slate of candidates to the Diocese. In lieu of nominations from the floor at the Electing Convention, the Standing Committee is planning a petition process that allows additional candidates to be added to the slate while still completing the necessary vetting processes required by our policies. 

A special Convention will be held on August 19, 2023, at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock to elect our new bishop from the final slate of candidates. Lay delegates to the Annual Convention in February 2023 will also be the delegates to the special Convention in August. Thus, the people who elect the fourteenth bishop of Arkansas will include the lay delegates from each congregation, three delegates from the Arkansas Episcopal Youth Community, and the active and retired clergy of the diocese (who are canonically resident in Arkansas and have met the attendance requirements of previous annual conventions). The person elected as the next bishop must receive a majority of votes of both the lay order and the clerical order on the same ballot.

After the election, there is a mandatory waiting period before ordination. In this period, the election must receive majority consent from both the standing committees of all the dioceses and bishops of the Episcopal Church exercising jurisdiction. 

The ordination service of our new bishop is tentatively scheduled for January 6, 2024.