[Episcopal News Service] When the 77th General Convention met July 5-12 in Indianapolis, the bishops and deputies elected people to a number of churchwide boards, and confirmed appointments to others.

The convention elected two bishops, seven lay and two clergy members to the church’s Executive Council, which carries out the programs and policies adopted by the General Convention, according to Canon I.4 (1)(a). The council is composed of 38 members, 20 of whom (four bishops, four priests or deacons and 12 lay people) are elected by General Convention and 18 (one clergy and one lay) by provincial synods for six-year terms, plus the presiding bishop and the president of the House of Deputies.

Information about the newly elected members of council is here.

As happens at every General Convention, the gathering elected the members of the Joint Standing Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop. The 27 people elected will be joined by two persons, aged 16-21, who will be appointed by the Rev. Gay Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, according to the election process outlined in Canon I.2.1.

The 2013-2015 iteration of the committee will be in charge of nominating at least three bishops to succeed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, 58, whose nine-year term ends Oct. 31, 2015. The 27th presiding bishop will be elected at the 78th General Convention to be held in July 2015 in Salt Lake City.

In the past, the nominees have been announced prior to the start of the convention during which the election will take place. The names are formally placed into nomination at convention during a joint session of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. Nominations from the floor are allowed during that session. There is no limit to the number of terms a presiding bishop may serve. The only requirement is that the presiding bishop must tender his or her resignation to the General Convention that occurs closest to his or her 72nd birthday. All Episcopal Church clergy are required to resign their position when they reach that age.

On the day following the joint session, the bishops traditionally meet apart from the convention to elect the next presiding bishop. The bishops then report to the House of Deputies the results of the election, including with the votes cast for each nominee on each ballot. The deputies must then vote to confirm or not confirm the bishops’ choice.

The people elected by convention (a bishop, cleric and lay person from each province) to serve on the election committee are:

Massachusetts Bishop Thomas Shaw, the Rev. Canon Mally Ewing Lloyd and Dante A. Tavolaro (Province I),

Western New York Bishop R. William Franklin, the Rev. Canon Sandye A. Wilson and Diane B. Pollard (Province II),

Central Pennsylvania Bishop Nathan Baxter, the Rev. Ruth Lawson Kirk and Nina Vest Salmon (Province III),

Mississippi Bishop Duncan Gray, the Rev. Canon Amy Real Coultas and Josephine H. Hicks (Province IV),

Michigan Bishop Wendell Gibbs, the Very Rev. Ellis Clifton and William Fleener, Jr. (Province V),

Wyoming Bishop John S. Smylie, the Rev. Devon Anderson and Sally A. Johnson (Province VI),

Oklahoma Bishop Edward Konieczny, the Rev. Lowell Grisham and Diane P. Butler (Province VII),

Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Glasspool, the Rev. David Hilton Jackson and Pauline (Polly) Getz (Province VIII) and

Honduras Bishop Lloyd Allen, the Rev. Jose Francisco Salazar and Luis Eduardo Moreno (Province IX).

Other elections during General Convention included:

Church Pension Fund board of trustees
Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine (Virgin Islands),
Barbara B. Creed (incumbent, California),
Vincent C. Currie, Jr. (incumbent, Central Gulf Coast),
Gordon Fowler (Pennsylvania),
Delbert C. Glover (Western Massachusetts),
The Rt. Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce (Los Angeles),
Mr. Ryan K. Kusumoto (Hawaii),
Canon Kathryn Weathersby McCormick (Mississippi),
Diane B. Pollard (incumbent, New York),
The Very Rev. George L. W. Werner (incumbent, Pittsburgh),
Sleiman (Solomon) Owayda (Massachsetts) and
Cecil Wray (incumbent, New York)

Disciplinary Board for Bishops
(called for in Canon 17 of the church’s rules for disciplining clergy and bishops known as Title IV)
The Rev. Canon Angela F. Shepherd (Maryland),
The Rev. Peggy E. Tuttle (Hawaii),
A. Joseph Alarid (Rio Grande),
William J. Fleener, Jr. (Western Michigan),
Connecticut Bishop Ian T. Douglas,
Texas Bishop Suffragan Dena Harrison,
Southern Virginia Bishop Herman Hollerith,
Northwest Texas Bishop J. Scott Mayer and
Rochester Bishop Prince Singh.

General Board of Examining Chaplains
Frederick W. Gerbracht, Jr. (Long Island),
Sandra D. Michael (incumbent, Central New York),
Janet Powers Roth (Oregon),
the Rev. Stephen C. Holmgren (incumbent, Western Michigan),
the Rev. Danielle Tumminio (Connecticut),
the Rev. Peter Vanderveen (Pennsylvania),
Frank G. Kirkpatrick (Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.),
The Rev. Dr. Patrick Malloy (incumbent, General Theological Seminary),
Paula D. Nesbitt (University of California, Berkeley, Calif.) and
Western New York Bishop William Franklin

General Theological Seminary board of trustees
Anne Clarke Brown (incumbent, Vermont),
E. Bruce Garner (Atlanta),
The Rev. Yamily Bass-Choate (New York),
The Rev. Matthew John Moretz (New York)
East Carolina Bishop Clifton Daniel III and
Milwaukee Bishop Steven A. Miller.

Convention also confirmed appointments by the presiding bishop and outgoing House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson to the Board for Transition Ministry.

Anderson’s appointments were the Rev. Stuart Wright (Maryland), the Rev. Ann Normand (Texas), Paul Cooney (Washington) and Susan Czologosz (Chicago).

Jefferts Schori appointed Arizona Bishop Kirk Smith.

Finally, convention confirmed appointments to the Board of the Episcopal Archives. Anderson appointed Byron Rushing (Massachusetts), Lawrence Hitt (Colorado), Kay Bishop (California) and the Rev. Robert Sessum (Lexington). Jefferts Schori appointed West Texas Bishop Gary Lillibridge.

— The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter for the Episcopal News Service.