Selection passes to the House of Bishops

The diocese of Barbados has failed to elect a bishop after four meetings and 11 ballots, passing the selection to the House of Bishops of the Church of the Province of the West Indies. At the four meeting of synod on 30 July 2018 at Church Church Parish Church clergy and lay delegates deadlocked four the fourth time between two candidates. As in the three previous meetings, the Dean of the Cathedral of St Michael and All Angels, the Very Rev. Jeffrey Gibson, (left) received a majority of clergy votes with the rector of nor the Rector of St George Parish Church, the Rev. John Rogers, (right) secured a majority of lay votes. To be elected the candidate must win two thirds of both the lay and clergy delegates.

After the eleventh ballot showed no change in support for either candidate, the convention approved a motion to ask the House of Bishops to appoint the next Bishop of Barbados. Speaking to Barbados Today after the vote, the diocesan secretary, the Rev. Canon Wayne Isaacs said that only one ballot was needed for delegates to conclude that neither candidate would be elected.

“After the first ballot nobody received the required votes, then the synod adopted a motion to send it to the House of Bishops to make the appointment,” he said, adding that “I don’t think either of the two candidates would be eligible because normally they [The House of Bishops] will not chose anybody that was nominated before”.

In 2015, the Rt. Rev. Cornell Moss was appointed Bishop of Guyana after its synod failed to agree on a candidate.