[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire announced a slate of four candidates for its sixth bishop. They are:

• The Rev. Robert B. Clarke, priest-in-charge, Holy Apostles’ Church, Oneida, Wisconsin (Diocese of Fond du Lac);
• The Rev. Richard E. Craig III, former rector, St. John the Baptist, Portage, Wisconsin (Diocese of Milwaukee);
• The Rev. Arthur B. Hancock, vicar, Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Hayward, Wisconsin (Diocese of Eau Claire); and
• The Rev. W. Jay Lambert, rector, St. James Episcopal Church, Leesburg, Florida (Diocese of Central Florida).

The search process has run exclusively by application. There will be no nomination process and no petition process.

All candidates will be in the Diocese of Eau Claire for public gatherings, known as “walkabouts,” during the week starting Oct. 7.

The election is scheduled for Nov. 9 during a meeting of the Diocesan Convention in Chippewa Falls.

Under the canons (111.11.4) of the Episcopal Church, a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan Standing Committees must consent to the bishop-elect’s ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of the election.

The sixth bishop’s position will be part time, averaging roughly 20 hours per week. “The ideal candidate will be able to support himself or herself through a part-time position, provide vision for new ways of working in the Episcopal Church, and an energetic spirituality that will nurture the wide variety of people to whom we minister,” according to information posted on the diocesan website.

Eau Claire’s fifth bishop Keith B. Whitmore left the diocese in April 2008 to become assisting bishop in the Diocese of Atlanta. The diocese has since been served part time by Provisional Bishop Edwin Leidel.

The Diocese of Eau Claire includes 21 congregations, most of which are small and rural, throughout the northwestern third of the state of Wisconsin.