Calgary sets episcopal election for June

The diocese of Calgary, recently shaken by the prolonged resignation of Bishop Barry Hollowell, is preparing in several ways for an episcopal election expected to be held in June. Meeting in December, the diocesan executive committee heard that the diocese is projecting a 2005 operating deficit of about $51,000, but that there has been an operating surplus for several years and the surplus stood at more than $300,000 as of the end of September. Several task groups reported on the process of preparing for the election, including sharing information about candidates, preparing a diocesan profile and a document outlining the expectations of a bishop. The exact date for the election has not yet been set, but a search committee will be formed in March and the diocesan newspaper, The Sower, reported that the likely date for the election is June 24. The executive committee voted to continue talks with St. Edmund, King and Martyr, a parish that was ordered disestablished in 2004. The committee, under Bishop Hollowell, had also threatened to remove the cathedral designation from Cathedral Church of the Redeemer, but that issue is now “off the table,” according to an account published in The Sower. Archdeacon Barry Foster, executive officer of the diocese, said there will soon be a full-time clergyperson at the church, but that person will not be designated dean.