Committees, Commissions, and Boards: Standing Committee

The Standing Committee acts as a council of advice for the Bishop and also functions as a check and balance. Their advice and consent is needed for various appointments made by the Bishop and for the expenditure of certain trust funds.

They must approve all candidates for ordination to the diaconate and priesthood, and they vote on behalf of our Diocese in the process for approving the election of all bishops of the Episcopal Church. Their consent is needed before any church can sell or mortgage property. If any priest or deacon is charged with an offense, the Committee acts like a grand jury in deciding whether the case should be brought to trial.

Lay members of the Standing Committee must be communicants of a parish in union with the Convention. Clergy must be canonically resident in the diocese.

The Committee meets monthly, usually during the day.

Minutes
Below are the minutes from 2012 and 2011.

Archives
If you'd like to read Standing Committee minutes from prior years, choose the year that interests you:

2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004

Materials regarding real estate, a Standing Commitee concern:

• Real Estate Memorandum from the Standing Committee regarding procedures for consent regarding real estate
  
• Real Estate Memorandum from the Standing Committee regarding the leasing of parish properties by nursery schools and outside organizations

Minutes (The most recent are first)

2011

Summary of the meeting of the Standing Committee on November 17, 2011

• Concurred with Bishop Councell’s appointment of the Rev. John Sosnowski as Canon to the Ordinary effective February 15, 2012.
• Completed Bishop Councell’s evaluation for 2011.
• Endorsed the Very Rev. Ronald H. Clingenpeel as the Consultant for the Episcopal Election Committee. 
• Recommended Matthew Bollinger for Ordination to the Priesthood.
• Recommended Melinda Hall and Peter Helman for Candidacy.
• Approved the Resolution for the 2012 housing allowance for clergy employed at Diocesan House who are not provided housing.
• Received and approved the Aged & Infirm Clergy Fund Report for 2011.
• Received and approved the Report of the Relief of Widows, Widowers and Orphans Fund for 2011. 
• Approved the request for a three-year lease between Grace Church, Pemberton and Tuesday’s Child Preschool beginning September 1, 2012.

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Kirk, Secretary

Summary of the meeting of the Standing Committee on October 20, 2011

• Consented to the Election of John McKee Sloan as Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of Alabama.
• Recommended Amy Susan Cornell for ordination to the transitional diaconate. 
• Recommended Kathleen G. Bishop, Jennifer Leigh Replogle, and Jonathan Ryan Thomas for ordination to the priesthood. 

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Kirk, Secretary

Summary of the meeting of åthe Standing Committee on September 28, 2011

• Consented to the Election of a Bishop Coadjutor for the Diocese of New Hampshire.
• Consented to the Ordination of Mariann Edgar Budde as Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of Washington.
• Consented to the Ordination of Joseph Scott Barker as Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of Nebraska.

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Kirk, Secretary  

[There were no meetings in June, July, or August]

Summary of the meeting of the Standing Committee on May 19, 2011

• Recommended Amy Cornell for candidacy.
• Consented to the sale of real property by Trinity Church, Rocky Hill, said premises being known and designated as 5 Montgomery Avenue, Block 4, Lot 9 and 10 in the Borough of Rocky Hill, Somerset County, New Jersey, to BAJ Realty, LLC for the agreed to sum of $180,000.

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Kirk, Secretary  

Summary of the meeting of the Standing Committee on April 14, 2011

• Affirmed the action taken via e-mail to endorse an application to the Episcopal Church Building Fund to refinance their current ECBF loan to a principal totaling $554,555. 
• Recommended Lisa Ann Hoffman for ordination to the priesthood.
• Recommended Kathleen Bishop, Matthew Bollinger, Jonathan Thomas, and Jennifer Replogle for ordination to the transitional diaconate. 
• Approved the 2011 Financial Aid Awards as presented.
• Consented to the Election of a Bishop Coadjutor for the Diocese of New York.
• Consented to the Election of a Bishop Suffragan for the Diocese of Virginia.
• Consented to the Ordination of George Dibrell Young III as Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of East Tennessee. 
• Consented to the Election of a Bishop Suffragan for the Diocese of Haiti. 

Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Kirk, Secretary

Summary of the meeting of the Standing Committee on March 5, 2011

• Welcomed the newly elected members: The Rev. C. John Thompson-Quartey (Class of 2013).  The Rev. Carolyn H. Eklund and Mr. John B. Ackerman (Class of 2015 were not present).
• The Very Rev. René John was elected President and Ms. Deborah Kirk was elected Secretary of the Standing Committee for the coming year. 
• The Rev. Sunil Chandy will coordinate the real estate business for the Standing Committee for the coming year.

Respectfully submitted,
The Very Rev. René John, Secretary

Summary of the meeting of the Standing Committee on February 24, 2011

• Voted to support all necessary actions to be taken by Bishop Councell to have William Guerard removed as a priest in the Diocese of New Jersey and in The Episcopal Church, in accordance with Title IV, Canon 16(B), Section 3 - Abandonment of The Episcopal Church.
• Voted to support all necessary actions to be taken by Bishop Councell to have Greg Ventura removed as a deacon in the Diocese of New Jersey and in The Episcopal Church, in accordance with Title IV, Canon 16(B), Section 3 - Abandonment of The Episcopal Church.
• Concurred with Bishop Councell’s recommendation to lift the suspension on the Rev. Stephen Rozzelle. 
• Concurred with Bishop Councell’s recommendation to lift the suspension on the Rev. Frederick Baldwin. 
• Recommended Henry P. Bristol, II, Janet Daniels, Carlton W. Dunn, Jr., Theodore A. Foley, Sally Beth Maurer and Clive O. Sang for candidacy.
• Approved the lease between St. Luke’s, Metuchen, and Gupta/Petits Enfants.
• The acreage being sold by All Saints’ Church, Princeton to the D&R Greenway was misstated in the Consent.  The church is selling a 35 acre portion of it to the D&R Greenway.  The church will also be conveying a 0.204 acre parcel to Mr. Scott C. Howes and Ms. Jamie Howard in order to resolve an existing encroachment situation.  This was an essential element to the D&R Greenway transaction.  A revised consent form for the D&R Greenway sales transaction to reflect the fact that approximately 35 acres is being sold to that organization for $750,000.00 was approved as well as consent for the Howes/Howard sales transaction. 
• Consented to the sale of real property formerly known as St. Luke’s, Roselle, 202-210 East Fourth Avenue, Roselle, New Jersey, now property owned by St. John the Baptist Church, Linden, for the agreed sum of $2,100,000.00 to Iglesia Christiana Pentecostal “El Shaddai”.

Respectfully submitted,
The Very Rev. René John, Secretary

Summary of the meeting of the Standing Committee on January 20, 2011

• Approved the compensation package for Bishop Councell for 2011 as proposed by the Finance & Budget Committee and approved by Diocesan Council subject to approval of Diocesan Convention.
• Endorsed re-appointment of Canon John Wood Goldsack, Esq. as Chancellor for a one-year term.
• Consented to Associated Parish Status under Canon 52 for St. Stephen’s Church, Beverly and St. Stephen’s Church, Riverside. 
• Consented to the Ordination of R. William Franklin as Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of Western New York.
• Consented to the Ordination of Martin Scott Field as Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of West Missouri.
• Consented to the Ordination of Daniel Hayden Martins as Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of Springfield.
• Consented to the Ordination of Rayford Jeffrey Ray as Bishop Diocesan of the Diocese of Northern Michigan.
• Consented to the sale of real property by All Saints’ Church, Princeton, said premises being known and designated as Block 4401, Lot 3 on the Princeton Township Tax Map, consisting of approximately 51.11 acres for the agreed to sum of $750,000.00 to D&R Greenway Land Trust, Inc. 

Respectfully submitted,
The Very Rev. René Rory John, Secretary

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