Discernment and Search
The Discernment and Search journey has come to an end. The Transition Team now takes over. Here’s the end of the story:
Recent milestones:
Fifteen months and two days from the day we launched our Committee with a prayer-filled weekend retreat at the Wapiti Retreat Center in Northeast, MD (ably led by Pastor Pat), we recommended the Rev. Patricia Downing to the Vestry as our next Trinity Parish Rector. As you now know, the Vestry accepted our recommendation.
This 9-member committee operated a little differently from previous committees. We started with 6 candidates, which is pretty typical. All of the candidates were experienced, gifted and well-educated; 4 were women and 2 were men. One candidate dropped out immediately to pursue a non-parish position. We interviewed and visited the remaining 5, after which we conducted a mini-discernment. Three final candidates were invited back to meet again with the Committee, to tour the area, and to meet with Staff. In addition, they met socially with the Vestry.
One candidate withdrew from our consideration after our second round of interviews.
In a six-hour Saturday evening discernment session (it was the only time we could all find when we could block out that much time), we carefully, prayerfully, and thoughtfully chose our recommended candidate.
What is in the works now?
We are all relishing our new-found free time.
The Transition Committee is refining their plans; we have volunteered our help.
What are our next milestones?
To celebrate this opportunity to learn about Trinity Parish’s deeply spiritual DNA and to explore our own personal faith in the process of this search,
We will do a “lessons learned” exercise via email, which information will be archived with copies of the profile and process data for the next time. All personal data in any of our files is being carefully shredded.
A celebratory dinner with committee members, their spouses and significant others, and with our new Rector and her husband, will be held at a future date to be determined.
We are grateful to all of you for the prayers and support that you gave us during this process. The most useful lessons learned were the value of the Parish Forum and of regular communication. No one who belongs to this parish should ever doubt how important this community is to each of our lives. We care passionately about our own and our family’s spiritual path.
Please do everything you can to support and welcome our new rector to Trinity.
D&S Team: Hughlett Kirby, Chair; Jim Bray, Martha Diver, Steve Dooley, Drew Fennell, Niki Ingram; Marie Smith, Bid Schreppler
