In evaluating the written responses to questions by the rector search committee, we expected that it might take a while to hammer out which candidates to cut, and which to move on to the phone interview stage. The committee is ten folks or so, and all of us have strong feelings about things (which is why we volunteered), and some of us are very vocal about it. And as the group was selected to be a cross-section of the congregation in terms of politics, background, interest, etc., there are a number of areas in which we diverge. We’ve developed a trust over the last year, but there are still the occasional prickly spots, and for something like this, we had a lot of worries, individually and as a group.
To that end, we had reserved a two hour slot tonight, one tomorrow night, and even possible weekend time if need be. I expected some intial discussion, going over how folks had ranked or rated each candidate, discussion of each candidate’s answers, periods of silent prayer (“Waiting Is,” as Valentine Michael Smith would say), some heated debate, etc., etc.
Remarkably enough, we basically were done with the tough part in about half an hour. Of the ten candidates and the ten people voting, there was a clear consensus (not unanimity but a clear majority choice) on a properly-sized cut of them. They each garnered top four votes from most of the committee members, and the scoring made a clear gap between them and the next set down. And, remarkably enough, they were the top candidates I’d selected.
So we spent the rest of the evening discussing logistics for the next phases (phone interviews, visitations), and called it an evening. Which means tomorrow night is “free,” which is certainly welcome.