Diocesan Profile Published, Now Accepting Nominations
November 8, 2021

Download the full Diocesan Profile

Welcome Letter

Who We Are

The Bishop We Seek

Nomination Forms

The Bishop Search Committee is pleased to announce the Diocesan Profile has been published and requests nominations for the election of the 12th bishop of Louisiana. The Diocesan Profile articulates who we are as a diocese and where God is calling us to go. Download the Diocesan Profile

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Completed nomination packets should be emailed to  nominations@edola.org or mailed to Jay Albert, dcn., 335 Carr Drive, Slidell, LA 70458, for arrival no later than Friday, December 31, 2021.


The Reverend Jay Albert & Ms. Carolyn Douglas
Co-Chairs
Search Committee

Application and Nomination Process

Download the Fillable Nomination Forms


Nomination Qualifications

Any priest or bishop in good standing of the Episcopal Church who

  • has obtained the age of 30 years
  • has been ordained a minimum of seven (7) years
  • If recovering from an addiction will have had ten (10) years of continuous sobriety and will be actively working a program of recovery
  • No candidate will be excluded because of sex, race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or disabilities.

Nomination Requirements

Each nomination must be made by one (1) canonically resident clergy, one (1) lay person, both resident in the Diocese of Louisiana and one (1) bishop. Other communicants in good standing or members of the Search Committee may not nominate or second. Any clergy member of the Search Committee who is nominated will resign from the committee and its subcommittees.


How to Make a Nomination

The Co-Chairs of the Search Committee will receive nominations from Monday, November 8 through Friday, December 31, 2021. Each person proposed for nomination must give his/her written consent in order to participate in the election process and give permission for a background check to be made by the Oxford Document Management Company. Copies of the official nomination form will be available online on November 8 or from the Co-Chairs. Nominations from the floor are not allowed. Completed nomination packets should be emailed to nominations@edola.org or mailed to Jay Albert, dcn., 335 Carr Drive, Slidell, LA 70458, for arrival no later than Friday, December 31, 2021.


Candidates

The committee will continue its confidential work by reviewing the applications, subsequent questionnaires, interviewing, holding a group retreat and selecting a final slate to present to the Standing Committee.

You belong. You are children of God. No exceptions.

Bishop Duckworth’s sermon called us to remember the UpStairs Lounge fire in the French Quarter, a violent act of deadly arson that killed 32 gay men in nineteen minutes. In the aftermath, no church in the city would bury the dead. The exception was St. George’s Episcopal Church. Its rector, the Rev. Bill Richardson, did what he knew Jesus called him to do — he buried those men. He did so not without cost: he faced active condemnation from the larger community, but also from within his own congregation and from within our own diocese.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of two pivotal resolutions from the 1976 General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Resolution 1976-A069 and Resolution 1976-A071 declared that “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church,” and that LGBTQ+ persons “are entitled to equal protection of the laws with all other citizens.” While we can celebrate many clear advancements for the full inclusion of our LGBTQ+ community in church and community life, the work is ongoing.

It has not always been a straight path. The church is human, and humans stumble. But consider how far we have traveled: from a church being rebuked for praying over the dead, to bishops wearing rainbow stoles given as gifts by LGBTQ+ Episcopalians at ordination. From closed communion tables to fully open sacramental life. From whispered exclusion to the joyful, public, Spirit-filled worship we offer tonight.

In our own Diocese of Louisiana, the transformation has been remarkable. Inclusive Louisiana, our network of LGBTQ+ Episcopalians and their allies, has been a light in this region for years — marching in Pride parades, offering pastoral care, and equipping congregations to proclaim God’s all-inclusive love. And here at St. Anna’s, you have led the way: becoming the first congregation in this diocese to celebrate same-sex marriage.

Bishop Duckworth’s conclusion made plain that actively creating a joyfully inclusive church is what we are called to do:

Not someday. Not when things are more comfortable. Not when the political climate improves. Today. The work of liberation is always a present-tense call.”

To speak that truth in this moment is not a partisan act. It is an act of Christian faithfulness. It is what prophets do. It is what the Church, at its best, has always done — even when it cost us something.

We serve a God who said: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” That includes everyone. Everyone is a child of God.

The Rt. Rev. Shannon Rogers Duckworth

Bishop Duckworth offered the Prayer for Travelers from the Book of Common Prayer for Deacon Luigi, who is relocating to Chicago. His contributions to Inclusive Louisiana, St. Anna’s, the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, and the broader community have been immeasurable. We are grateful for all he has given us, and we trust that though he leaves us physically, what he has created here will continue to grow.

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