The Elective Assembly, as Synod is called when meeting for election purposes, met last Saturday, December 11, 1999, and considered guidelines given to them by the Diocesan Council for continuing the process to elect a Coadjutor Bishop in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago.
An electoral saga which started as early as Saturday September 4 when the Assembly met and voted in favour of its members carrying out the election of a Coadjutor, rather than delegate the selection to a sub-Committee of the Elective Assembly.
The process continued on Saturday October 2nd, and again on Saturday October 30, when on each occasion the Assembly failed to elect a successor to the Right Reverend Rawle Douglin, Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago.
At last Saturday's meeting, the Assembly accepted all of the guidelines given by the Diocesan Council, except a recommendation that the two original nominees, Canons Dr Noel Titus and Winston Joseph, who had failed to gain the needed majority to be appointed Coadjutor, not be considered for election as Coadjutor Bishop.
The Assembly agreed that their names should not be omitted. And so any priest above age thirty who has served, will be eligible for consideration. Although it was not specified, a highly placed source in the Anglican community, says that nominees could come from any part of the Province of the West Indies.
The Assembly also agreed that a Selection Committee comprised of eight persons, four lay members of Synod and four clergy, to be chaired by the Chancellor of the Diocese, Madam Justice Paula Mae Weekes, who will have a casting vote, is to be selected in January. The laity in the Diocesan regions: northwest, northeast, south and Tobago, will select the four lay members, while the regional priests will select their four representatives.
According to Diocesan Regulations, the selection of a Coadjutor Bishop must be completed by March 2000, and submitted for approval by the House of Bishops of the Province.
In the meatime the Diocesan Council and Synod have approved an extension of one year for the incumbent, Bishop Rawle. This has been forwarded to the Archbishop of the Province of the West Indies, His Grace the Most Reverend Drexel Wellington Gomez for provincial approval.
Bishop Douglin, who will be sixty-seven on January 17, 2000, has been a priest since 1960. He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop to Bishop Clive Abdulah in 1992 and was enthroned as Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago in 1993.