Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Greetings from the 2016 Jurisdictional Conference delegation of the Upper New York Conference. We pray God’s richest blessings on you during this busy fall season!

One of the great privileges of the delegation is to identify episcopal candidates for possible endorsement by UNY to the Northeastern Jurisdiction. Through prayer and discernment, the delegation has developed a process whereby nominations may be received for potential candidates for the office of bishop.

• All clergy and local church lay representatives to the Annual Conference session are invited to submit the name of a qualified elder they feel led to nominate as a candidate for the episcopacy. Please state why the candidate has the gifts to become a bishop.
• All elders in full connection who have not reached the age of 68 on or before July 1, 2016 are eligible for nomination.
• There will be no self-nominations accepted.
• Nominations may be received via email or U.S. postal mail.
• Email nominations must be received by the end of the day on Nov. 25, 2015.
• U.S. postal mail nominations must be postmarked by Nov. 23, 2015.
• Dr. Scott Johnson and Ms. Hudda Aswad have agreed to receive nominations on behalf of the delegation; you may submit nominations to either Johnson or Aswad at:
  Scott Johnson – scottphd@gmail.com, 310 Baynes St., Buffalo, N.Y. 14213
  Hudda Aswad – haswad@stny.rr.com, 17 Sunset Ave., Binghamton, N.Y. 13904
• Eligible individuals nominated will receive a letter indicating they have been nominated as a potential episcopal candidate. If the nominated individuals desire to pursue episcopal candidacy, they will be asked to submit a statement of call, biographical information, and other documentation of experiences, skills, gifts, graces, etc. to the delegation.

All submissions will be reviewed and prayerfully considered by the delegation before nominees are asked to meet with the delegation for an interview.

Please be aware that this process may or may not lead us to the point of endorsing a candidate or candidates for the episcopacy for this quadrennium. In the event that no names are endorsed as episcopal candidates, please note that this does not reflect that our Conference does not have people gifted for the episcopacy. It simply means that no names emerged for us at this particular season in the life of the Church. It is the hope of the delegation that this process will be sufficient for the determination of episcopal candidates and that the need to nominate from the floor at the Annual Conference session will not be necessary.

The delegation appreciates your participation in this vital process. Please pray for us as we move forward in this important task of identifying possible candidates for bishop. If you have any questions concerning this process, please feel free to contact one of us at any time.

Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. Bill Allen
billallen@bpumc.com
(716) 386-3401
Head of the Delegation

Dr. Scott Johnson
scottjphd@gmail.com
(716) 440-7354
First Lay Delegate