God of wisdom, fill us with your vision and open our hearts and minds to your voice; that we may, with patience, confidence, and love, discern your will for our church. Direct, sustain, and empower the person who will become our rector to hear your call and accept the joys and challenges of our community. Lead us together into a relationship in which we will love, serve, and care for one another and will be equipped to do the work to which you have called us. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

With the retirement of The Rev. Connie Delzell in 2007, the Vestry appointed the Rector Search Committee to engage in a search for a new rector.  The search process has two phases.  The first, developing a parish profile, is complete.  Second, we will focus on screening applicants and ultimately recommend to the Vestry the person we believe God is calling to lead St. Andrew’s into the future.

The Search Committee began its work on July 14, 2007, with a retreat facilitated by Rev. George Magnuson and Rev. Canon Bill Martin (our Diocesan Transition Minister).  During the summer and fall of 2007, we developed an on-line congregational survey and held 10 congregational meetings to obtain input about the St. Andrew’s community and our vision for its future.  The committee compiled the information from the survey, meetings, and other sources to develop a parish profile, which is available for potential candidates for the position by clicking here:  St. Andrew’s Parish Profile.  Our thanks to all in the congregation whose input through the parish survey, numerous meetings, and other suggestions provided the content for what we believe accurately portrays our parish.

In addition to our twice-monthly committee meetings, we held a retreat at the Diocesan Center in April 2008 to look closely at the search process.  The Vestry joined us for a dialogue about our views and plans and Canon Martin led us in a discussion of the search guidelines of the Episcopal Church.

Our rector vacancy was posted on the website of the Church Deployment Office (CDO) of the Episcopal Church.  We received a significant number of applications and nominations, in response to that posting, plus the names of a number of clergy whose career information, as posted by them on the CDO website, generally matches our needs.

A preliminary review by our Diocese and the Dioceses of prospective candidates was completed. This was followed by our further screening of the resumes of 28  applicants and profiles from 13 clergy whose qualifications matched our CDO listing.   We have invited 20 of those candidates to provide further information. Each brings a different set of talents and experience for our evaluation. Our task this summer is to continue narrowing the list to a manageable number.  We will then tackle the challenge of more thoroughly considering the candidacy of each of these clergy through background checks, references, telephone interviews, visits to their churches, and visits to St. Andrew’s by one or more finalists.  We are not bound to a rigid timetable, but we hope to have a short list of finalists to recommend to the Vestry early next year.

We will continue to report our progress in the Sunday Bulletin, the weekly e-ministry, this website, and at least once each month during the 10:00 summer service.  We ask the congregation to continue sharing  their ideas with the committee, as we move prayerfully through the search process.

Committee Members:  Jim Anthony, Susan Backus, Jennifer Barker (co-chair), Martha Bollenbacher, Bill Campbell, Sue Glassmacher, Julie Jarvis, Sue Kilgore (co-chair), Steve Medema, Lisa Sisneros

Updated 7/1/08