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

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

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church was a small congregation with a typical “country club” mindset that has become quite common among mainline churches around the country when I was called to be its rector in the Fall of 2000.  Over a span of three years I was able act as a catalyst that set in motion a series of processes that led to a comprehensive vision that emerged as the ‘Open New Doors campaign,’ which resulted in expanding our physical space as well as our capacity for ministry.  We raised nearly half a million dollars and built totally accessible new facilities including an education wing, parish hall and narthex that cost over a million dollars. 

My initial actions were liturgical and pastoral in that I encouraged and challenged the congregation to faithfully believe in themselves as children of God and not just see themselves as members of a church that was trying to make ends meet.  I was just being myself, extending non-pretentious and warm hospitality.  I also was intentionally pastoral to parishioners as they tested out their comfort levels with me, their first clergy of color.  In fact, I may be the first rector of color west of Interstate 287 in the Diocese of Newark.  I invested my time preaching “missional theology” that looked at church not just as an institution, but as a dynamic organism/body of Christ responding to people who are desperately looking for spaces of meaning, safety, and inspiration.  I also began building disciples by meeting people where they were.  I was not afraid to preach and teach about Christ as a bearer of solutions to life’s critical problems.  I challenged my leaders in the Vestry and outside the vestry to see their role as ministry instead of an obligation or a chore.  I spent countless hours one-on-one with several key leaders to start seeing a bigger picture than just a building expansion that involved mortar and a mortgage.  Very soon, I found that Vestry meetings became more than engagements about the fiduciary needs of the church.  We set in motion a visioning process over 2001 and 2002 that culminated in a visioning document that was foundational to our 2003 Capital Campaign.  This process began with the vestry and expanded into the congregation in the form of intentional congregation meetings around vision and strategy.  Eventually it led to the hiring of a consultant, with initial reluctance from some who became more comfortable later, which led to a revealing and realistic parish-wide feasibility study.  By this time, the leadership was able to galvanize the congregation to lead a historic ‘Open New Doors Capital Campaign.’

Over the past few years, St. Alban’s has grown from being a small parish with sporadic aspirations to a growing-missional-parish buzzing with excitement and a big vision.  Slowly, the country club is fading away and a dynamic, warm and compassionate church is emerging.  Not only have we started articulating a dynamic vision for the future, we also now know that there is a shared desire in the parish to pursue this vision.  It is clearly reflected in the faithful engagement and bold decisions made by the Vestry at strategic points in our journey—the Vestry is currently engaging the congregation with a five-year plan.  Time-tested ministries have found new leaders stepping in and several new ones have grown.  St. Alban’s is not reticent about thinking “big” anymore because we now feel like the little church that could!  It also has resulted in a clear and simple articulation of our common vision, which we call our Albanessence: Welcoming all to share God’s Love.  This vision sentence is now being embraced by young and old because it is accessible, understandable and most importantly, doable!

Question 2:  Describe how you led a congregation 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?

Growing spiritually and numerically was not seen as a priority of the congregation as much as it was a wish that everyone had but no one really wanted to do anything about.  The E word (evangelism) is/was as controversial in our parish as it is in every mainline church.  We have struggled with the word and its essence over the past few years.  

One of my initial efforts was to name the strengths of past leaders.  I do not feel the need to have a “savior” mentality and truly believe in standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before; watering seeds they have sown, etc.  I did hone-in especially on one of the strengths of my predecessors, which was strategic thinking.  I spent time dreaming and thinking strategically with some of the key leaders.  We discussed many aspects of church life, but especially the opportunity to be open to the community.  Gradually, intentional evangelism through events that brought people into the church became palatable and contemporary liturgy was not seen as threat to the rubrics.  The road bumps were a few, chief among them was the fact that some members of the church were not totally comfortable about the reality of “new comers,” even though theoretically they were.  A few left when we started imagining the possibility of expanding with a larger vision for what God was calling us to be and do.  Many, however, stayed with the conversation.  I did spend time with those who had questions about the “changes” that were taking place and was often able to assuage their anxieties with honest dialogue, disclosure, and pastoral assurance that we were not throwing out the baby with the bath water.  It was a truly challenging time of transition.

I would confidently proclaim that over sixty percent of our congregation is currently involved in some form of ministry through the church.  Recently, we have added several new ministries especially to reach out to the community.  ‘Parents’ Night Out’ is a monthly ministry that reaches out to parents in the neighborhood by offering them free and safe child care so they can take an evening out.  The ‘Women’s Interactive Network’ (WIN) meets every quarter bringing women in the neighborhood together for an evening of inspiration, fellowship and an opportunity to network and enhance personal wellness in a context of safety and care.  We hosted a Vacation Bible School for over 120 children with a Habitat for Humanity theme.  Our youth group took mission trips to West Virginia and Rutland, VT where they repaired houses, built a nature trail, served in Nursing Homes, and made new companions in ministry.  We now have a vibrant companionship with a Dalit Church in India that is providing opportunities to teach and learn from the poorest of the poor in that part of God’s vineyard.  Organizationally the vestry has never been stronger with each member on the vestry taking responsibility to monitor an area of ministry.  These are refreshing signs of health for a congregation.  The increased interest/enthusiasm overall is only an indication of a better grasp and greater ownership of the ministries.  Over the past four years we have experienced increasing enthusiasm in discerning creative mission and purpose, as well as, a surge in numbers at St. Alban’s.  Our average Sunday attendance increased from 75 in 1991 to 104 in 2006.  Most of our new members are families with young children.  Our average plate and pledge has also grown from 60,936 in 1991 to 145,953 in 2006.  Bear in mind that we have congregants who have been honoring their half-a-million dollar pledge toward the Open New Doors Capital Campaign during this period of growth.  Over the past two years our giving to support mission outside the parish has experienced a monumental increase.  We have discovered that we are indeed living into 50/50 giving without really focusing on it.  The Evangelism Committee is currently experimenting with a new name: Share the Joy Ministry—to help articulate that the primary purpose of sharing the good news is not to proselytize as much as it is for every one of the baptized to be faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Question 3:  Describe when you were a community leader, for what purpose or mission, and the final outcome.

India is a country that has demonstrated substantial growth over the past decade.  It is also the country that deals with one of the most horrific social systems in the modern world that has often been referred to as “hidden Apartheid.”  Nearly 200 million people bear the brunt of this shameful system.  Many moral leaders from India hesitate to bring this issue up in public forums since it is controversial in that it is a “shameful” heritage of an ancient civilization otherwise wrapped in mystery and harmony.

Over the past fifteen years, I have worked tirelessly to bring attention to this heinous crime against humanity and a wound to our common soul.  After years of working at the grassroots level with non-governmental organizations, in 1998, along with my wife and a few friends in the Diocese of Newark, we founded the Dalit Solidarity Forum in the US.  Our primary mission was to raise awareness and global attention to the system of Untouchability.  Through the complete cooperation of the youth group at St. Peter’s in Morristown my wife and I helped orchestrate a countrywide signature campaign that bolstered the efforts of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights in India.  I also drafted Resolution D024, for the 2000 General Convention, which passed:  “Resolved, That The Episcopal Church call upon the government of the United States to pressure the government of India through the United Nations to recognize untouchability as a crime against humanity, abolish practices of untouchability, and allow for the inclusion of caste-based discrimination on the agenda of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, 2001.”

The most important result of my involvement in leadership to this issue is raising the awareness in our globalized world that no one is free until everyone is free.  Martin Luther King, Jr’s wisdom that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” is such an important articulation of our baptismal covenant, which calls us to respect the dignity of every person.  The more empirical results are too many to name, because over the past decade the Dalit issue has become recognized as a “credible oppression” even though it cannot be equated with racism.  It has been recognized by the United Nations through its Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination as such.  According to the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, “In its 61st Session in August 2002, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) took a historic step in openly condemning caste discrimination and similar forms of inherited status as human rights violations in a General Recommendation on Descent-based Discrimination, unanimously accepted without a vote. This CERD General Recommendation clarifies and specifies for the first time that descent-based discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of caste, is a human rights violation, and provides a comprehensive framework for addressing it.”  These results are substantial in that they have set in place global scrutiny and growing scholarship on this important issue.  Equally significant is the growing companionship between Episcopalians from the US and Dalits in general and with Dalit Christians in particular.  This summer, seven young people paid their own way to travel to Kothapallimitta, a village in South India, for the inauguration of a school for nearly 300 Dalit Children that, they helped build.  They share a relationship with the children and the believers there, which is like a mysterious secret about the Gospel that transcends language and cultures.  They help us understand that bridges are built by ordinary people who have an extraordinary capacity to pursue friendship, companionship and a common quest for justice and peace

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

I concur with the conclusion of your profile that the greatest challenge facing the Diocese of Rochester is GROWTH. 

I see growth applied as a mindset when we consider small churches.  Since 2/3 of parishes in the Diocese are considered “small church” I believe I have some gifts that relate to your struggles as well as the ability to offer sensitive/listening leadership to discerning and living into creative/prayerful solutions.  I understand “small churches” because I have served in several of them and have helped them change their outlook about themselves.  I begin with the assumption that small is not bad.  In fact, many of the parables of Jesus were about small making a huge difference.  One of my priorities as Diocesan would be to actively discern mission among the least of these small churches helping them plow through their struggles with survival, and blossom into thriving mission stations.  I have a proven track record to back this gift.

I also see growth as a priority and an opportunity to share gifts that are available and discernable.  This includes the sharing of resources across the divides that separate us, such as, urban and rural; male and female; black and white; liberal and conservative; gay and straight; rich and poor; Episcopal and Anglican Communion, etc.  Since my theology of companionship is about the mutuality of ministry, bridge-building is a passion.  I will help coach leaders learn how such sharing can be done in wholesome ways while avoiding the pitfalls of slipping either into a paradigm of dependency or alienation.  I will intentionally empower the laity by inviting and enabling them to live into their baptismal covenant as priesthood of believers and explore opportunities to engage/enhance the ministry of the Deaconate.

My next challenge would be to help continue conversation on the tough issue of numerical, financial and spiritual growth.  I would do this by listening to leaders and parishioners for empirical and descriptive information/stories on history and trends, diligently seeking to understand the way things are done, but quickly moving into actional ways of living into the truth.  I am not much of a navel gazer, but neither do I believe in acting without understanding the complexities well enough to discern truth from falsehood that often pushes us into complacency.  My episcopate would be characterized not by a one-size fits all approach as it would a process of proactive, non-anxious and prayerful discernment of creative mission in each unique context.