Transition Committee Updates

Transition Website Update July 2010

The site for the Consecration of the Ninth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande will be the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 330 Tijeras NW, in downtown Albuquerque, it was announced at the Transition Committee meeting on July 9. The consecration site had been a question mark in the Transition plans after an earlier venue withdrew the invitation to host the event.
Due to logistical considerations, the consecration time has been moved up to 11 a.m. Friday, October 22 as the closing event for the 2010 Diocesan Convention at the Albuquerque Hilton Hotel. Bus service will be provided from the Hilton to the Hyatt to shuttle Convention attendees to the Consecration. A light reception at the Cathedral of St. John will follow the Consecration of the Rev. Dr. Michael L. Vono as Bishop. The chief consecrator will be the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church.

The Hyatt will provide seating for at least 1,100, which is in keeping with the vision expressed by the Transition Committee to provide for all who wish to attend.

The Consecration follows the April 22 election of Father Vono by clergy and lay delegates who gathered in the nave of the Cathedral of St. John in Albuquerque. Father Vono was elected on the third ballot by both the lay and the clerical orders.

The Electing Convention convened only nine days after the end of the eight-day Walk About that introduced the nominees for bishop to the people of the Diocese. The nominees and the Transition support team traveled 1,751 miles in six days in a 55-passenger bus. The journey traveled from congregation to congregation from Albuquerque to Clovis to Roswell to Carlsbad to Fort Stockton to Alpine to Marfa, to El Paso to Mesilla Park to Truth or Consequences to Socorro to Albuquerque to Gallup and back, to Santa Fe to Taos to Española and finally to Santa Fe.

With a support team of ten, the nominees answered questions at Walk About events at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Roswell, at St. Paul’s in Marfa, at Temple Mount Sinai hosted by St. Francis on the Hill in El Paso, at the Cathedral of St. John in Albuquerque, and at St. Bede’s in Santa Fe. More than 600 men, women and children questioned the nominees to hear their varied stances on the issues concerning congregations, the Diocese, The Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Communion. An evening with youth and young families provided an opportunity to see the nominees explain the episcopacy in the context of Godly Play at St. John’s Cathedral.

On the way to and from the Walk Abouts, the bus stopped and visited at parishes and missions. Delicious lunches were provided at St. James in Clovis, St. Stephen’s at Fort Stockton, St. Paul’s at Truth or Consequences, and St. James in Taos. The nominees, wives and support team were moved by the work with troubled young men at Grace House in Carlsbad, and with the food programs offered by St. Paul’s in TorC and at Church of the Epiphany in Socorro. And all were captivated by the work of Archivist Evan Davies and the volunteers at the Institute of Historical Survey Foundation in Mesilla Park, which houses the Diocesan Archives.

After seven days of meetings and travel, the Walk About tour concluded with early departures from Santa Fe to the Albuquerque Sun Port for a return to the lives that were briefly interrupted for an introduction to the 154,000 square miles of plains and mountains and deserts that make up the Diocese of the Rio Grande.