At a joint meeting on September 14, the Standing Committees of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania unanimously chose a four-person consultant team to conduct an evaluation of our diocesan partnership.
The team is led by Bishop Ian Douglas, retired bishop diocesan of Connecticut, and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, former president of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies. Dr. Michelle Holmes, a lifelong Episcopalian who is an epidemiology researcher and principal consultant with VISIONS, Inc., will conduct the evaluation of the partnership’s racial justice and reconciliation ministry. Bishop Larry Benfield, who will retire as bishop of Arkansas in January, will evaluate the partnership’s financial strategy.
Douglas and Jennings will attend the upcoming diocesan convention on Friday, October 20, to make an afternoon presentation on their proposed evaluation format and seek feedback from conventiongoers. They plan to collect data for the evaluation beginning in 2024 and present their findings in the spring of 2025.
To identify an evaluation consulting team, the dioceses issued a request for proposals in May to eight consulting groups and several other entities that, in turn, distributed it more widely. Four consultants expressed interest in the project, and after preliminary conversations, two submitted proposals. A group that included Western New York Standing Committee President Saxon Deck; Northwestern Pennsylvania Standing Committee President the Rev. Stacey Fussell; Western New York Standing Committee members the Rev. Nick Evancho and Denise Clarke-Merriweather; and Northwestern Pennsylvania Standing Committee member Joseph Croskey reviewed the proposals and interviewed both consulting teams. They recommended the selection of Douglas, Jennings, Holmes and Benfield unanimously to the full Standing Committees.
“We are delighted at the prospect of working with Bishop Douglas, the Rev. Jennings, and their team,” Saxon Deck, president of the Western New York Standing Committee, said. “After an extensive search, we determined that their expertise and understanding of our context will deliver a comprehensive evaluation that will help us move forward with confidence.”
The original timeline for evaluating the partnership was delayed by the COVID pandemic, Fussell said, but she is confident that moving forward now will provide each diocese the perspective it needs to consider options for the future.
“Our partnership is an experiment for the sake of the gospel, helping us learn new ways to transform our congregations and communities through the power of Jesus Christ,” she said. “I am eager to work with our evaluators to learn more about the impact of our ministry and how we can strengthen our witness even more faithfully.”
