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Volume 7 Number 28 - Tuesday, July 12th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY

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Published by the Orthodox Church in America, July 5, 2005

New England Diocese asks Holy Synod to fill Episcopal Vacancy

HARTFORD, CT [OCA Communications] — Fifty-eight clergy and lay delegates representing parishes of the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of New England participated in an extraordinary assembly at All Saints Church here June 23, 2005, to nominate a candidate for the diocese's vacant episcopal see.

The diocese has been without a ruling bishop since the transfer of Bishop [now Archbishop] Job to the Diocese of the Midwest in the early 1990s.

His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, locum tenens of the diocese, chaired the assembly.

Protopresbyter Robert Kondratick, OCA chancellor, explained that the Holy Synod of Bishops, in response to a resolution passed by the 2004 diocesan assembly, declared the see of Hartford and New England vacant at its spring 2005 session, after which the diocesan council petitioned Metropolitan Herman to convene an extraordinary assembly to move forward on filling the vacancy.

Each of the 58 voting delegates placed his or her ballot in a chalice, after which they were tallied. Twenty-five delegates abstained, while the remainder of the ballots were cast for five different candidates and two ballots were deemed invalid. No candidate received the required two-thirds of the vote.

In response, the Very Rev Michael Westerberg, diocesan chancellor, moved that "the diocesan assembly of the Diocese of New England petition the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America to elect a ruling hierarch for the see of Hartford and New England and to prayerfully act in the best interests of the diocese and the whole Church.” The resolution passed by a wide majority.

Metropolitan Herman announced that the resolution will be presented for consideration to the Holy Synod of Bishops during its session at the 14th All-American Council in Toronto, Ontario in July 2005.

Click here for photos of the New England Diocesan Assembly.

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