The idea of his becoming COO “began with some colleagues at the House of Bishops meeting who approached me and said they thought I would be good at this,” he said.
Leaving behind his ministry in Lexington “was a huge part of the questions I had for myself,” the bishop said. “I am going to miss Lexington more than I can express.”
Sauls said he believes the diocese has done groundbreaking work through two programs: the Small Church Ministry Consortium and the Network for Pastoral Leadership and Congregational Development.
how did dio. of Lexington do with congregational development during his tenure? was that really why the other Bishops cajoled him?
and thanks Kendall for allowing comments on a Sauls post.
In my 30 or so years as an Episcopalian, it seems that bishops have gone from being the chief (or assistant) pastors of their dioceses to being free-lance administrators at a marked rate. How many bishops are there who are not in diocesan ministry, but who have been assigned (sometimes after retirement and sometimes before) to a post in the larger organization? It seems to me that many of these positions could have been held by laymen, perhaps with more skills. Perhaps, however, the leadership wants people who have been through the homogenizing process of approved liberal seminaries so that everybody will be thinking alike.
I really wonder what he intends to accomplish at 815. Church grwoth and small church nurturing? Those are great ideas, but I doubt the litigation coordinator, whose salary replaced the Evangelism and church growth desk at 815, is up to the challenge.
I know +Sauls somewhat, having maintained a correspondence with him and engaged him in conversation during the last year he was my bishop. He can be very gracious and engaging one-on-one. He is also thoroughly apostate, cunning and utterly ruthless. He leaves behind a diocese without a single (well, maybe one) remaining orthodox rector and a virulently revisionist standing committee and executive council. Heartbreaking.
The soi-disant “leadership” of TEC is appearing to me to be more and more like an oligarchy. And, of course I know that the Episcopate is an oligarchy, but before I thought it had a generally beneficent tone to it.
“I am going to miss Lexington more than I can express.â€
Wow! That’s really missing something. So why is he leaving that which he will miss more than he can express? What’s his salary going to be at 815?