Eastern Michigan diocese elects Todd Ousley as bishop coadjutor

The Rev. Steven Todd Ousley, missioner for congregational development and clergy deployment for the Diocese of Eastern Michigan, was elected as its bishop coadjutor May 6.  Ousley, 44, was elected on the fifth ballot, his consecration is set for September 9.

The results of the balloting are available at http://www.eastmich.org/Profile/Voting5.

The results do not show voting in the clergy and lay orders separately. They give totals for each nominee and a total needed to win on each ballot. The total is a supermajority of two-thirds of the votes cast on that ballot. On the final ballot, Ousely earned 171 of the 248 votes cast, or 69 percent.

Ousley will succeed the Rt. Rev. Edwin M. Leidel Jr., the first bishop of the diocese, who retires at the end of this year.

Prior to joining the diocesan staff, Ousley was the rector of St. Francis Church and School in Temple, Texas, and of Holy Comforter Parish and School in Angleton, Texas. He had also been assistant to the rector at Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, Texas.

Ousley -- who uses Todd as his first name -- is a native Texan and holds degrees from Baylor University and Texas A&M. He earned the master of divinity from Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and a doctor of ministry degree in congregational development from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He was ordained to the priesthood February 1, 1992. He and his wife, Ann, have three sons.

California diocese elects Mark Andrus as bishop

The Rt. Rev. Mark Handley Andrus, bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Alabama, was elected May 6 to be the eighth bishop of the Diocese of California. Andrus was elected on the third ballot to replace the Rt. Rev. William Swing, who will retire this year. Andrus is scheduled to be installed on July 22.

To be elected on the third ballot, based on the number of votes cast, a nominee needed 131 votes in the clergy order and 148 in the lay order. Andrus received 188 clergy and 161 lay votes. The results of the balloting are available at http://www.bishopsearch.org.

Andrus, 49, has been bishop suffragan in Alabama since 2001. He initiated the Task Force for the Stewardship of Creation and established the Jonathan Daniels and the Martyrs of Alabama Pilgrimage for Peace. Daniels was an Episcopal seminarian who was murdered in Haynesville, Alabama while a volunteer during the civil rights movement. The group also commemorates all those who died during that era.

In his episcopate, Andrus has been responsible for diocesan college chaplaincies and the diocese's camp and conference center, along with episcopal ministries.

He serves on national steering committees for Bishops Working for a Just Society, Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, and the Executive Council Committee on the Status of Women. Bishops Working for a Just Society is a coalition of Episcopal bishops who work on behalf of public policies that benefit the nation's poor.

Andrus has a bachelor of science degree in plant and soil science from the University of Tennessee and a master's degree in urban and regional planning from VPI&SU (Virginia Tech). Prior to ordination, he worked as a regional planner on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Andrus received his master of divinity at Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood on April 1, 1988. He was rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Middleburg, Virginia; chaplain and teacher at Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia; and curate at the Church of the Redeemer, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Andrus is married to Sheila, a researcher and educator. They are the parents of two daughters, Pilar and Chloe, who are both college students.

Northern California elects Barry Beisner as bishop coadjutor

The Rev. Canon Barry Beisner, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Northern California, was elected May 6 as bishop coadjutor of his diocese.  Beisner, 54, who was chosen on the fourth ballot, will succeed Bishop Jerry Lamb, who called in late 2004 for a coadjutor to succeed him when he retires January 1. Beisner's consecration is scheduled for September 30.

To be elected on the fourth ballot, based on the number of votes cast, a nominee needed 56 votes in the clergy order and 131 in the lay order. Beisner received 79 clergy votes and 145 lay votes. The results of the balloting are available at http://www.dncweb.org/votingresults.htm.

The convention had to declare its second ballot null and void due to an error with its vote-counting machines.

Beisner served parishes in the dioceses of Northern California, California and Southern Ohio before becoming canon to the ordinary in Northern California in 2002. He is a frequent facilitator for vestry planning retreats, clergy retreats and mutual ministry reviews. He has taught a parish leadership course at Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), the Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, California.

He has a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley. He earned a master of divinity degree from CDSP and is nearing completion of a doctor of ministry degree there. Beisner also has a master of sacred theology degree from General Theological Seminary in New York. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 19, 1979.

Beisner is married to the Rev. L. Ann Hallisey, national coordinator of Fresh Start, a program of the Church Deployment Office. They have six grown children.

The Episcopal Church's General Convention will be asked to consent to all the elections because they occurred within 120 days of the convention, which runs from June 13-21 in Columbus, Ohio.

Tennessee convention adjourns without election; new search envisioned

The Diocese of Tennessee, after casting a total of 36 unsuccessful ballots, adjourned its convention to elect a bishop coadjutor May 6 and will begin the search process again.

Bishop Bertram Herlong, who intended to retire at the end of this year, will now have to meet with his staff to decide how to proceed.

The coadjutor, when elected, will eventually become the 11th bishop of the diocese.

This was the third time that the Diocese of Tennessee convened to elect a successor to Herlong. The first meeting of the electing convention on March 18 recessed after 14 ballots. The lay and clergy electors returned to Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Nashville March 25. They cast 11 more ballots without success. The delegates cast another 11 ballots on May 6.

The May 6 results had been available at http://www.tnbishopsearch.org/election.html for most of the day but were not posted later in the afternoon.

The results of the March 25 Tennessee balloting can be seen at http://www.tnbishopsearch.org/election-old2.html.

The March 18 ballots are available at http://www.tnbishopsearch.org/election-old.html.

It is not unusual for Tennessee bishop elections to require a number of ballots. Herlong was elected after 15 ballots and it took 39 ballots to elect his predecessor.

One reason for the length of the process is that both the lay order and the clergy order must cast two-thirds (66.7 percent) of their votes in favor of a single nominee on the same ballot.

On the 36th ballot on May 6, delegates were essentially split between the Rev. Canon James B. Magness, 59, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Kentucky, and the Rev. Canon Neal O. Michell, 53, canon missioner for strategic development in Diocese of Dallas. Magness had 40 votes in the clergy order and 42 votes in the lay order. Michell had 33 votes from clergy and 78 lay votes. A total of 76 clergy votes and 126 lay votes were cast on that ballot.

At that point, according to Jill Zook-Jones, canon to the ordinary, the electing convention had several options, including

• recessing the convention to a time certain or to an unspecified time;
• vote to change the special rules of the convention to allow nominations from the floor or by petition to be considered at a fourth meeting of the convention;
• adjourn to a time certain and ask that the search committee be reconstituted; or
• simply adjourn, requiring the diocesan office to determine how to proceed with a new search.

A motion from the floor called for the last option and was approved.

Article from: ENS  By Mary Frances Schjonberg