Narrative Biography        Answers to Questions       Resumé

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All candidates were asked to submit a professional resumé, a 200-250 word narrative biography and answer the same 4 questions.

Questions Answered

Essay #1:  Describe a time you led others through a variety of choices to develop a vision, and what were the results.

To begin with, I believe that the best way to collaborate and work together with other leaders – the best way to support and inspire the lives and ministries of other people - is to first know their hearts and minds. This can only be learned through personal contact, conversation and listening.  Jesus was an astute listener, with keen perception about what people needed as opposed to what they may have wanted.  My skills as a perceptive visionary and collaborator are built upon His foundation blocks of listening and observing.

I arrived as Rector in Oakville, Connecticut in 1978. After spending a couple of years in ministry at All Saints Church, it became clear to me that the greater Waterbury area lacked affordable, low cost counseling for those individuals, couples and families in need of counseling and therapy.  I had strong connections with the leadership of the Foundation for Religion and Mental Health (an organization with centers in NY, NJ and CT.).  Working with them as well as with the community and religious leaders in the Waterbury area, I founded and directed the Waterbury Pastoral Counseling Center, a center of the Foundation for Religion and Mental Health.  Its mission is to provide sliding scale, low cost counseling to those who otherwise would not be able to afford this type of support.  The center’s growth was immediate and soon we established satellite offices in Trumbull and Watertown. This center still thrives today fulfilling its original mission.

When I arrived in Nashua in 1986, the outreach ministry of the parish was overwhelmed with needy people, with inadequate resources to meet their needs.  I brought Vestry and staff together at a retreat to determine how to address the problem.  After listening and observing I worked with them to develop two visions: 1) Grow the outreach ministry by separately incorporating it from the parish, so that it could receive funds from many sources; and 2) Create an outreach response that would systematically change people’s lives, and not simply offer band aids that result in a revolving door of problems and need. 

I practice Martin Luther King’s admonition that “a leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus”.  I shared the stories of those in need to key clergy and influential business leaders in the community, discussing how the vision met those needs.  Gathering support, it was time to act.  In 1987 the Nashua Pastoral Care Center (www.nashuanpcc.org) was incorporated with a budget of $50,000.00. Every three years since, a long range planning committee I lead establishes new goals and the strategies to accomplish them. 

Today the Care Center is a premier outreach agency responding to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised, particularly single women with children.  Its mission is to help clients create self-sufficiency. Its programs include Transitional Housing, Homelessness Prevention, Security Deposit Loans, Crisis Response, Food Pantry, Financial Literacy, and Advocacy.  Its budget is now one million dollars annually with an endowment fund of $500,000.00. It also owns three Transitional Housing buildings.  The parish, Church of the Good Shepherd, still gives 10% of the church’s annual budget to the Care Center and over 200 parishioners volunteer each year in support of this ministry Because of the efforts creating and supporting the Care Center, which have been ongoing, Church of the Good Shepherd has been a designated Jubilee Ministry Center of The Episcopal Church since 1988.

Both of these examples are the result of what you can expect in my leadership style: listening, observing, perceptively creating a vision, and strategizing so that action and implementation yields results.

Essay #2: Describe how you led a congregation or a diocese to grow both spiritually and numerically, the associated conflicts and “bumps in the road” and as a result, what new understanding of God emerged with the final outcome.

I have been blessed with the experience that every church community I have led has experienced a dramatic increase in church size. My ability to live a life of faith, articulate it, and inspire others begins with my personal belief in Jesus Christ.  My leadership is based on first loving God, and allowing myself to be open to accepting God’s love.  Second, it is based on loving the people I have been blessed to serve, and being open to accepting their love.  Third it is based on identifying and developing strong lay and clergy leaders.

In my 32 years as a priest and pastor, I never cease to be in awe at how powerful the Pastoral Ministry influences a person’s membership, integration and involvement in the life of the church. Spending time with people develops trust and gives them a sense of the supportive, saving power of Christ through our presence.  My intuitive insight and skills as a compassionate pastor to clergy, lay people and their loved ones have been sharpened by my Doctorate of Ministry in Psychotherapy, 26 years as a psychotherapist in AAPC, and membership on the Pastoral Support Team for Congregations and Clergy in Crisis. This has enhanced my understanding of individuals, groups, and congregations so that I can effectively lead through conflict and change. Whether it is unsolicited visitation, responding in times of crisis, or counseling, I have learned that people’s immense gratitude for what they have received inevitably inspires them to give thanks to God by offering their service to the Lord through the ministries of the church.

In 1998 the Nashua Pastoral Care Center, outreach arm of CGS, outgrew our space and made plans to move.  This coincided with our need for more Sunday School space.  The opportunity resulted in a $250,000.00 Capital Fund Drive to renovate offices into classrooms.  I spent considerable time with 50 lay leaders, preparing and training them for the canvassing they would do.  I then withdrew myself from the process, letting the lay people take over the work.  The campaign was successfully completed without my help, exceeding its goal. Their experience was a powerful lesson for them that the ministry of the church is the ministry of all people, lay and clergy together.  This “financial” example of empowering others is really about stewardship and evangelism.  I believe good stewardship is a matter of conversion.  Conversion usually best takes place in response to hearing another’s story of faith, which is evangelism.  The training focused on helping the lay leaders learn how to tell their stories of faith and share why the church is important to them.  Asking others to give financially became secondary, a task more easily accomplished once people’s stories of faith and involvement had been shared.  My ministry strives to empower by nurturing and building on evangelism, knowing that service and stewardship follow close behind!

I believe that the most effective evangelism takes place AFTER someone asks a question. I have designed a simple Evangelism training program called “Episcopal Speed Dating” that has had a huge response and success in several parishes in this Diocese.  I also developed a spiritual growth and renewal program called “Walking in the Light” which is modeled after the Biblical example of Jesus sitting with his disciples responding to their questions about God and life.  Five “spiritual giants” are invited to be in residence in the parish to do just that.  Chosen are people renown for the faith and spirituality that oozes from their very being.  In this program parishioners and people from the public sit in small groups with these leaders, questioning and discussing life and faith.  The Diocese of NH has just decided to use “Walking in the Light” as the model for spiritual renewal programs around the Diocese.  The most powerful impact I witnessed was on Laura, a young woman of 18 years old.  After a week of having her questions and doubts respected and nurtured, her faith was awakened!  She joined the parish.  In the next year she was confirmed and a year later she became a wonderful, inspiring teacher/advisor in the youth program.

I become most energized, inspired and animated as a Christian teacher when I lead a question/answer “Stump the Rector” sermon format once per month.  I have done this for the past 25 years.  Most of my colleagues think I am crazy to stand in front of several hundred people and invite them to ask me any question they want – about anything.  No preparation.  No advanced warning.  No putting them off until the next time so I can look up the politically correct, or should I say, religiously correct answer. It is one of the most meaningful, fun things I do – for myself and for my congregation. It emphasizes my conviction that our faith does not grow unless we question it.  It is also a gold mine for helping people deal with change and conflict and helps them to discover religion’s most missing value – respect and tolerance for the different beliefs of others. Learning people’s feedback, feelings and questions helps inform the rest of my preaching.  Most enjoyable to me is people’s observation that this experience “makes church fun”!  This has also culminated in my authoring a book of the 4500 questions asked over the last 25 years, “What People in the Pew Really Want to Know”.

Essay #3:  Describe when you were a community leader, for what purpose or vision, and the final outcome.

There is a rapidly growing multi-cultural population in Nashua, NH.  As a leader in the community I am fortunate to have the opportunity to meet people in a variety of settings.  Those contacts lead to conversations that on occasion contribute to corroborative efforts which improve life in the community for various organizations or groups of people.  In the last seven years the Church of the Good Shepherd has been involved in two different efforts to form congregations of foreign speaking populations. 

The first was offering sanctuary space to a group of Anglicans from Kenya.  This group began to grow and ended up finding space in a building that had more desirable meeting times available to them on Sundays.

A year later we were successful at working with a Portuguese speaking group of people from Brazil. Unfortunately, there were dozens of Portuguese speaking communities vying to develop worshipping communities.  They ended up competing with one another.  After a year of little growth we were finally successful at helping two of these groups consolidate with the group meeting at Church of the Good Shepherd.  This successful merger resulted in the group finding a different space to worship. These efforts reflect our congregation’s priority to develop meaningful ministry to and with the growing minority populations in our community. 

Hurricane Katrina was not an event that could be ignored.  At the annual meeting in 2006 I proposed that Church of the Good Shepherd established a companion parish relationship with a church devastated by the hurricane. The parishioners responded immediately with enthusiasm and support.  After some thoughtful investigation we entered into a relationship with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Picayune, Mississippi, which had suffered considerable damage from the hurricane. CGS was very clear that we did not want to just “help” a church in need, but that we wanted to establish a long term connection so that ongoing relationships and sharing could develop.  We were interested in cultivating an opportunity to learn from one another.  There is additional significance in this relationship as St. Paul’s had lost many parishioners after the election of our Bishop, Gene Robinson.  Several trips and people exchanges have taken place with clergy and lay people, allowing us to share our lives, faith, and affirm that we are “united in Christ.”

Essay Question #4: Having read our profile, name three major challenges/opportunities upon which you would base your episcopate.

It is very clear in your profile, that the people of the Diocese have identified congregational growth and lay and clergy leadership as your biggest challenge.  Reading the materials and the statistics presented I would concur wholeheartedly!  I would begin first by saying that there is no need to totally “recreate the wheel”.  I would want to build upon the initiatives the Diocese is emphasizing under the leadership of Bishop McKelvey. 

The efforts begun with “Leadings”, the four major objectives in the mission statement, and the financial resources that are being funneled to congregations through grants need to be evaluated and re-affirmed.  I would bring my gifts as a perceptive visionary into the mix.  In addition I am excited and invigorated by the possibility of spending considerable time in my ministry with you strengthening, supporting, encouraging and mentoring clergy and lay leaders.  One of my priorities would be to make the Diocese an even more appealing place to serve and minister in order to attract the very best leaders the church has to offer.

The second challenge in your Diocese that would be important to my episcopacy are the issues of diversity and justice:  There are many “labels” and “categories of differences” that cause diversity and oppression.  There is race, language, gender, sexual orientation, age, educational level, economic levels etc, etc.  It is my observation that while there are significant differences and reasons for diversity, there are some significant common denominators all people share.  St. Paul, in Colossians 3:11 is very clear, “There is neither Jew and Greek, circumcised and uncircumcised, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.”  The human endeavor is the struggle to find meaning in life and to work out the relationship between God and life. 

Wrestling with life’s questions is universal to all people – we all struggle to deal with our own sin, the sin and oppression of others and somehow through it all find salvation, unconditional love, acceptance, and new life.  I have discovered that these common denominators mean that most people respond positively to the Good News I try to preach of compassion, radical hospitality, unconditional love, full inclusion of all people, and sincere efforts to “seek and serve Christ in all people, respecting the dignity of every human being”  (BCP 305).  I will strive to continue to live out these themes of the Baptism Covenant, which has also been the mission statement for the Church of the Good Shepherd.

The last challenge I see is related to the much publicized conflicts in your Diocese (All Saints’, Irondequoit), and around the world, over recent decisions in the Episcopal Church. I am proud to be an Episcopalian and vigorously support our Church’s current mission and stances on issues affecting church and society.  It is time to move forward boldly in a culture that desperately needs to hear our version of Christianity. I also approach this from a more universal perspective.  For these problems are only representative and symbolic of the challenges individual Christians and churches have faced since the time of Christ - dealing with change and conflict. Change and conflict are the constants in life and much of what you describe in your profile is about these issues. 

I believe processing change and conflict in a productive way is the constant challenge.  More important than the specific issue that brings change and conflict to the forefront, which may vary from year to year, are the qualities of the person responding.  While in 11th grade, I went before my Bishop, Jonathan Sherman of L.I., to become a postulant in the process toward priesthood.  He gave me these words of advice, “You have a long way to go. Do not be afraid of change.”  Fortunately I have been able to embrace this powerful wisdom. I suspect that no one likes conflict and change. A deeper understanding of our ministry develops when we comprehend that discipleship is about positively facing the crosses of change and conflict in order to experience the new life of ministry and service.   Honest communication by “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians), practicing Martin Luther King’s admonition that “a leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus”, and being what Edwin Friedman describes as a “non-anxious presence” are some of the ways that I help lead others through any change.  At every step of the journey I will always respect differences, emphasize what we all have in common is Jesus Christ, and share the bread and wine of communion to help us experience our unity.  I try to live into the Good Friday prayer to preach the Gospel with “grace and power”.

It has been my fortunate experience and blessing to accomplish much with others in the name of Christ.  While I will certainly trust in the power of the Holy Spirit and I will continue to work diligently to overcome challenges and to accomplish important things for the spread of the Gospel, in the end it is NOT about our accomplishments.  Christianity is first and foremost about RELATIONSHIPS.  It is about our individual and corporate relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and it is about our relationships with one another, which are to reflect our relationship with God.  For me it is these relationships that I value most in life and for which I give humble thanks each and every day of my life.

Key elements of my spiritual life are a vigorous prayer life, joy, hope and laughter!  My favorite picture of Jesus, which hangs in the hallway of my home, is with His head tilted back, eyes and mouth alive, in a huge, belly laugh (The “Laughing Jesus” by Praise Prints)!  Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10); and “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). I believe that my faith, spirituality, boundless energy, enthusiasm and humor are contagious because they are based on these promises.

The Diocese of Rochester is seeking a “Spiritual Guide and Teacher”, a “Community Leader and Bridge Builder”, and an “Experienced Administrator”.  In the book, “The Leadership Challenge” by Kouzes and Posner, the authors identify five key qualities of healthy leaders: 1) challenge the status quo; 2) inspire a shared vision; 3) enable others to act; 4) encourage the heart; 5) model the way.  I believe my ministry embodied these characteristics, long before I read these words, and they are leadership qualities you can count on if it is God’s will I become your next Bishop.