Episcopalians to elect bishop Friday in Bangor

BANGOR – Episcopalians will elect a successor Friday to the Right Rev. Chilton R. Knudsen, who will retire as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine next year.

Representatives of the state’s 17,000 Episcopalians will select a new bishop from three candidates at the Bangor Civic Center on Friday during their annual convention.

To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of votes from both clergy and lay people attending the special convention as delegates. That process often means more than one round of balloting takes place.

Knudsen has announced she will retire in July after a decade as the first female Episcopal bishop in Maine.

The new bishop is expected to attend the Lambeth Conference next year in Canterbury, England. Bishops from around the globe are expected to decide if action will be taken against the Episcopal Diocese of the U.S. for the election of a gay bishop in New Hampshire three years ago.

Other business to be decided at the Bangor convention includes the election of representatives to the national convention, the annual budget for the diocese and consideration of several resolutions.

One of those resolutions calls on the Archbishop of Canterbury and Queen Elizabeth II of England to revoke the 1496 Royal Charter issued to John Cabot and his sons by King Henry VII. The charter sanctioned Cabot and his sons to take the land of the indigenous people of North America by whatever means necessary.

The candidates for bishop met last month with church members in Augusta, Bangor and Portland. Episcopalians met with and questioned the candidates, all of whom are from the Northeast.

There is no candidate from Maine.

The three candidates are:

. The Rev. Linda L. Grenz, assisting priest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. She served as publisher and CEO of LeaderResources, a consulting and publishing firm that she founded in Leeds, Mass. She has taught at the General Theological Seminary in NYC and was the national staff officer for adult education, lay ministry and leadership and development for the Episcopal Church. Raised on a farm in South Dakota, Grenz was ordained in 1977 and has served parishes in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Delaware.

. The Rev. Debra Kissinger, member of the diocesan staff for the Diocese of Bethlehem, Pa., where she has oversight of the diocesan children’s ministries and has been liaison to the evangelism and stewardship committees. Kissinger is the first and only child advocate to come from a diocese after the adoption of the “Children’s Charter for the Church” in 1997. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and the Pennsylvania Legislature on children’s issues. Ordained in 1992, Kissinger has served in parishes in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Ohio before joining the diocesan staff in 2001.

. The Rev. Canon Stephen Lane is the canon for Deployment and Ministry Development in the Diocese of Rochester, N.Y. He is responsible for formation, ordination and deployment of clergy, the Safe Church training program and social justice issues for the diocese. He also served for six years as a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church. Ordained in 1978, Lane has served in a number of congregations in upstate New York.

Profiles of the candidates and video interviews with them are posted on the diocesan Web site at www.bishopofmaine.org.