St. John's Episcopal Cathedral - Knoxville, Tennessee
Dean Search Process & Timeline
A video message from:
The Very Reverend John C. Ross
Dean of St. John's Episcopal Cathedral - Knoxville, Tennessee
Video sent via email to Parish: Friday, April 5th, 2024
Prayer for the Election of a Bishop, or other Minister
from the Book of Common Prayer
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Almighty God, giver of every good gift; Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose a bishop for this Diocese (or, rector for this parish), that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Letter to Parish from Senior Warden
Senior Warden letter emailed to Parish: Monday, May 6th, 2024.
Senior Warden letter Included in Cathedral Update weekly email: Thursday, May 9th, 2024
Dean Search Committee Applications
Invitation to apply to join the Dean Search Committee extended by Meg Sprouse in Morning Services:
Sunday, May 19th, 2024.
Paper applications available in service and link for online application sent via email:
Monday, May 20th, 2024
Applications were accepted through Sunday, June 2nd, 2024
Dear Cathedral Parishioners,
“It is with incredible gratitude that I share notes from the applications to assist in the Call of our next Dean of the Cathedral. We received an incredible and overwhelming response as  62 people raised their hand, ready to step up and serve.  St. John’s is a very special place, indeed!  This result is an indication of both the health of leadership in our church and the passion for serving our St. John’s community.  Thank you to everyone for coming together to start this process.”  - Meg Sprouse
I am excited to announce that the Dean Search Committee has been selected and voted in by the Chapter.
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The Search Committee is comprised of the following people:
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Julia Connor
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Jessica Wilds
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Meg Sprouse
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Sharon Pryse
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Braxton Hunter
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David Jones
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George Baddour
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Rusty Russell
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Steve Bailey
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I want to thank these folks for agreeing to serve.
The next step will be focus groups and parish profile. We need all the participation we can get. So please get involved when the time comes.
Thank you for your support and prayers as we move forward.
My best,
Steve Bailey
Senior Warden
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Committee Meeting Schedule:
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Friday, June 28th, 2024 4:00-6:00 pm
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Monday, July 22nd, 2024 5:00-6:30 pm
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Monday, August 12th, 2024 4:30-6:00 pm
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Click the image above to view the video announcement made in services on Sunday, July 7th, 2024. Email was sent to parish on Monday, July 8th and information was included in the weekly Cathedral Update email on Friday, July 5th, 2024
Dean Search 2024 Focus Groups
Sunday, July 14th - Sunday, July 28th
We are ready to move onto the next step on our search for the new Dean of St. John’s Cathedral with our focus groups. These meetings will begin July 14th and extend three weeks - through July 28th. There will be multiple times to attend on Sundays as well as a few midweek zoom meetings. We will include childcare for many meetings.
The goal of these congregational conversations is to gather the thoughts, hopes and needs of our congregation and to learn what values we want in a new Dean. Contributions collected will be used to draft a parish profile and will guide the search committee through the call of candidates.
We hope each of you will join us. This is a critical part of our search and your stories, reflections, thoughts and wishes are valuable.
To St. John’s Parish,
The Search Committee had its 2nd meeting with our Parish Consultant, Rev. Michael Spears-Jones, this past Monday, July 22nd. He is instructing us on the various materials that the Diocese & National Church recommend. We are moving at a decent pace, but much more in front of us. We will meet again in early August. If there were more to report , I would be happy to report it!
My best,
Steve Bailey
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Message shared with Parish in weekly Cathedral Update email on Thursday, July 25th, 2024
The Reverend Canon Michael Spear-Jones preached in the 10:30 am worship service on Sunday, August 4th, 2024. He shared a Summary of Tasks and Benchmarks for the Dean Search. They are listed below.
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Summary of Tasks and Benchmarks for the Search
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There are 3 Stages to this Search, and we are in the First One:
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Stage One: Create a web-based Parish Profile available for anyone to see, but especially your candidates. Create a document for the Episcopal Church Database.
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Stage Two: Assemble, review, and interview Candidates.
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After Candidates are presented by the Canon, Review Candidate materials, listen to sermons, and decide who will be interviewed. Then present a Candidate(s) to the Chapter.
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Stage Three: Background checks, Chapter interview, Making a Call, Negotiating a Letter of Agreement with incoming Dean, Final approvals and paperwork.
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Then there is a final vetting, a Chapter interview, A call to come here, Offered and accepted, A Chapter vote, The Bishop's approval, and a Letter of Agreement (Think of it as a kind of contract), and then the Call can be announced and a start date is set.
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Dear Fellow Parishoners,
The Search Committee had another meeting this week with our consultant, Fr Michael Spear-Jones, and we continue to work through the various steps laid out for us. We are making progress.
Thank you to everyone who showed up and contributed to the Focus Group process. We exceeded all expectations with our participation. We have the Focus Group Data in a condensed and very professional form thanks to Jennifer Tyrell. When you see Jennifer, please thank her as she analyzed and organized all of the results from the Focus Group data. Her analysis of all the data and her professionalism brought a high level of integrity to this process.
We are currently working on the parish profile and hope we can report on it’s completion in a timely manner.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
Steve Bailey
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- Sent to the Parish via email on Friday, August 16th, 2024
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
Please take a moment to review the information that was collected from the Focus Groups. This has been such a valuable part of the process. We thank you for taking the time to share your stories and opinions. This data helped us develop the job requirements for the next Dean.
The Search Committee would like to thank all who helped in this process! Especially, Jennifer Tyrell, Ronda Reitz, Kathy Burrow, SJC Staff and our Chapter members.
My best,
Steve Bailey
Senior Warden, St. John's Cathedral
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- Sent to the Parish via email on Thursday, September 12th, 2024
Click the image above to view the announcement made in services on Sunday, September 15, 2024.
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
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I wanted to give you all a current update of our search process. As Rusty Russell told the Courtyard/Bluegrass Church congregation on September 15th, we have finished our Parish Profile, submitted it to the Diocese, it was approved and is now uploaded on the Office of Transition Ministry website. We are ready to begin receiving names of candidates.
Here is a link to the St. John's Parish Profile. Also, you may find it on the Cathedral website stjohnscathedral.org. Many thanks for your contributions and support, which has been such a great help through this process.
There are two ways we can receive names, applicants through the Diocese of East Tennessee and recommendations from the congregation. These will be kept in confidence. The diocesan office vets each and every name before they send to our search committee. If you have a name you would like to have considered, please send to me at sbailey@volunteerlumber.com.
Many thanks for your contributions and support which has been such a great help through this process.
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If there are questions or concerns, please feel free to call me at 865-804-8134.
My best,
Steve Bailey
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- Sent to the Parish via email on Tuesday, September 24, 2024