Explanation

Much consternation went into presenting a full slate for the General Board of Examining Chaplains over the biennium (2022-24).  The Joint Standing Committee on Nomination’s mission is to nominate specified numbers of lay people, clergy, and bishops to the General Board of Examining Chaplains, in addition to seminary faculty. With the decreasing numbers of dioceses utilizing the General Ordination Exam and so many of our seminaries in flux, locating Episcopalians both qualified and willing to serve proved onerous. The Episcopal Church is not the same church it was when these numbers and expectations were deployed into the canons. Extensive effort was invested by the JSCN over a full calendar year as far as recruitment, discernment, and invitations to apply. While it was able to meet its mission, the JSCN feels it is past time to reassess the composition, membership, need and role of the General Board of Examining Chaplains and to entertain creative options for locating qualified applicants.