Greetings from your Search Committee!

The Search Committee is the group that will review resumes, conduct interviews of potential candidates, and recommend final candidates to the Vestry for the new Rector to assume the clergy leadership of the parish after Father Brad’s retirement.

The most important news to report in this month’s update is that the Vestry has approved the Search Committee members, each of whom accepted the invitation to serve on the Search Committee. The members of the Search Committee are Biff Baker, Kitty Crary, Carol Harvey, Len Hightower, Lamar Hill, Jean Hollingshead, Janet Hryniewicki, Janette Lange, Larry Reddel, Bill Turpit, Leonora Will, and me, Nancy Whitehead, as Committee chair.

In March, the Search Committee met for an introductory meeting. At the meeting, the sentiment of each member of the group was how honored and humbled we are to have been requested to serve Messiah at this important time. “Each of us love this parish and are intent on discerning God’s will in calling a Rector who will care for this parish and its people.”

The first step for the Search Committee will be to attend a retreat in early June, with the Vestry, to prepare for the search process. Over the next months, the parish profile will be approved, and the Diocese will provide us with names of potential candidates. At that time, which we estimate will be sometime in Fall 2011, the work of the Search Committee in evaluating candidates will really begin.
      

Thank you for entrusting us with this important task. You will continue to be informed at each step of the process through the newsletter, regular announcements at services, the church website (www.messiah-santaana.org), and through regular mailings. Please feel free to ask me, or other members of the Search Committee or Vestry, if you have questions about the process. Please continue to pray for the Search Committee and the Vestry, that we may ultimately call a Rector who will lead Messiah in the direction God chooses.
       

                            Respectfully,
                                    Nancy Whitehead, Search Committee Chair