{"id":732,"date":"2012-05-20T14:22:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=732"},"modified":"2012-05-20T14:24:33","modified_gmt":"2012-05-20T18:24:33","slug":"leadership-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/leadership-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I present my homily for today (May 20, 2012 – 7th Sunday in Easter, Year B<\/a>) here because, building from the first reading<\/a>, I talk about how we select leaders in the church and government.\u00a0 If you have never heard about how pastors or bishops are selected you might enjoy reading this.\u00a0 If you are reading this from outside the Diocese of Rochester please note the process for selecting pastors can be different from diocese to diocese.<\/p>\n

7th Sunday of Easter, Year B
\nActs 1:15-17, 29a, 20c-26
\n1 John 4:11-16
\nJohn 17:11b-19
\nMay 20, 2012<\/p>\n

Jesus has been crucified, rose, spent forty days with his disciples, and just ascended to the Father.\u00a0 The disciples have been a mission but told to wait for the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

120 of them are gathered together when Peter stands up and begins to speak.\u00a0 Peter is now leader of the disciples and he realizes what must be done.\u00a0 The Apostles are not complete.\u00a0 From scripture, Peter realizes they must replace Judas.<\/p>\n

Peter could have picked someone himself but he doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 He does not act unilaterally.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 prayer in the gospel, Jesus prays that we all be one.\u00a0 Peter seeks to work as a team.\u00a0 He takes the initiative and states that Judas\u2019 successor must have seen Jesus for himself.<\/p>\n

Then the text changes from Peter \u201cacting alone\u201d to \u201cthey\u201d propose two candidates and then draw lots, praying for God to name the twelfth Apostle.<\/p>\n

Right now, we have a lot of leadership selection happening in different ways.\u00a0 In the secular world, we have the election of a president that is all over the news (has been for a while and will continue to be).\u00a0 The president is elected by majority vote (although this vote is distorted by the Electoral College process).<\/p>\n

Here at Our Lady of the Lakes we are starting the process to select new members for our Parish Pastoral Council.\u00a0 You can read about in the bulletin.\u00a0 This will not be a majority vote.\u00a0 We will be taking nominations from anyone in the parish.\u00a0 The people nominated will be contacted to see if they are interested.\u00a0 They will be an opportunity for them to learn what the Parish Pastoral Council does and how it operates.\u00a0 Then, we will draw lots to select the new members.<\/p>\n

Another leadership change we see is the selection process our diocese uses to name new pastors.\u00a0 Sometimes people think the bishop decides unilaterally who to send, calls them up and gives them the order.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how it works.\u00a0 In our diocese, a list of open pastorates is sent to all the priests and administrators.\u00a0 Anyone interested can inquire and then submit a letter of interest.\u00a0 There is a Personnel Board that meets, discusses the openings, and makes a recommendation to the bishop.\u00a0 Then, the bishop is free to accept the recommendation or select another person.\u00a0 Then he calls the person.<\/p>\n

Of course, another leadership change we are looking at is our bishop.\u00a0 Bishop Clark will turn 75 this July and will be retiring.\u00a0 Some people think the Pope unilaterally selects the new bishop at his discretion.\u00a0 The Pope does make the decision but it is a very involved process.<\/p>\n

After Bishop Clark submits his letter to retire, all the bishops of our province (New York State) will be asked to submit nominations for the new bishop.\u00a0 Each bishop can consult with whom he chooses but it is kept confidential.\u00a0 The lists from all the bishops are assembled together.\u00a0 Then, through the Apostolic Nuncio, the process continues by reviewing all the nominees for qualifications and the list sent to Rome.\u00a0 On average it takes eight to fourteen months for the naming of a new bishop.\u00a0 It is not a simple unilateral act by the Pope.<\/p>\n

The selection of secular government officials like the president, the selection of a Parish Pastoral Council, a pastor, or a bishop are all very different processes.\u00a0 But they do (or at least should) have something in common \u2013 discerning the truth.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s gospel, Jesus asks the Father to keep and consecrate us in the truth.<\/p>\n

The truth we seek in the selection of any of these positions is what does God want.\u00a0 Where is God leading us?\u00a0 Who is the right person to lead us there?<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t about what we want or what we think the Church should be doing.\u00a0 It\u2019s about what God wants.\u00a0 No majority needed.<\/p>\n

Before I was appointed to be the next pastor at Immaculate Conception in Ithaca, I knew the position was open.\u00a0 So, I thought about applying.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I asked myself what do I need to do to decide if I should apply.\u00a0 I thought about all the human questions that I might like to ask to find out about the little \u201cdetails\u201d of the parish.\u00a0 Then, I realized what I really needed to discern was not whether it was a good human match (the people liking the same things I do) but to know if it is God\u2019s Will for me to go there.<\/p>\n

I spent a lot of time praying about it and thinking about it.\u00a0 In the end, I believe it is God\u2019s Will for me to go there.\u00a0 Since the bishop called me I have been over to see the parish and get to know more about it.\u00a0 It will be a challenge but God will provide.<\/p>\n

So I invite you to make God part of your decision-making process in the government elections this year.\u00a0 Who will lead the country in accord to our morals and beliefs?<\/p>\n

Pray about the people you know in our parish here and who might make a good Parish Pastoral Council rep.<\/p>\n

Pray for the everyone who will be involved in the selection of our new bishop in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Pray that God\u2019s Will be done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I present my homily for today (May 20, 2012 – 7th Sunday in Easter, Year B) here because, building from the first reading, I talk about how we select leaders in the church and government.\u00a0 If you have never heard about how pastors or bishops are selected you might enjoy reading this.\u00a0 If you are …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Leadership Changes’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-bO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}