Recommending a Superintendent

Over the past several months, the Superintendent Search Committee has been working under the care of NWYM Administrative Council to discern a recommendation for our next superintendent. The committee recently concluded their work, submitting Becky Ankeny’s name as their selection. The Administrative Council subsequently approved Becky as the person they will recommend as superintendent as we meet for our annual sessions in July. A complete report follows:

Recommendation: The committee recommends that the Administrative Council bring the name of Rebecca Ankeny to the Yearly Meeting for approval as yearly meeting superintendent. According to Faith and Practice, “on nomination by the Administrative Council the Yearly Meeting appoints a person to serve as Superintendent, one who is well qualified by maturity, experience, and executive ability to exercise general supervisory care over all work in the Yearly Meeting.”  The committee has concluded that Becky Ankeny brings a very strong set of abilities, experience and understanding to the position, as well as a genuine and dynamic faith in Christ, and is the most highly qualified applicant to perform the duties of superintendent.

In its evaluation of the candidates, the committee paid close attention to the qualities described in the superintendent’s position description, and distilled them into six emphases, which provide the categories for this report:

1. Spiritual commitment and discernment

Becky Ankeny described for the committee the spiritual practices that are life-giving for her: openness to God, obedience, Bible reading, community, and solitude. In our conversations, she shared with us some of her personal spiritual history of letting God transform her difficult experiences. In her written responses, we discovered a rare ability to read scripture with insight, freshness, broad understanding, and perceptive cultural relevance – qualities that have made her a highly-regarded preacher. Her references spoke highly of her pastoral gifts and experience.  These comments drew from her interim pastoring at Vancouver, her leadership of a care team in the case of a moral failure, and her strong leadership of the YM Board of Elders in their prayer and care for churches and individuals. Beyond these expressions, several references spoke of having received pastoral care from her directly. Her references also spoke of her sensitivity to the leading of the Spirit in worship, and speaking out of the silence. Her messages were characterized as honest, appropriate, helpful, constructive, marked by “wisdom and balance,” and faithful even when painful to express. She also shared her particular vision for effective evangelism, which engages both the person and the culture, and provides a welcoming place for new seekers.

2. Commitment to Friends’ faith, practice, and worldwide ministry

Becky is a recorded Friends minister, a daughter of Quaker missionaries, who has served actively in Friends institutions, but who has had her own experience of personal convincement.  She speaks of the need for Quakerism to be born again in every generation, for each Quaker to pay careful attention to what the Spirit might be saying, and of her eagerness to “spread widely the important truths that Quakers bring to the contemporary religious world” as well as to the culture. We deem this to be a particular strength: incorporating Friends truth into her life and witness, a practice that is strongly evident in her conversation as well as her writing. One of her interests is in promoting Friends’ values and truths at George Fox University, and for several years she taught Quaker distinctives to new faculty members. She has served as clerk of elders in her local church, with NWYM Young Adult Friends, with the editorial staff of Evangelical Friend, and on the following boards and commissions: Communications, Ministerial Service (now Leadership Development) and Elders. Her references commented upon her deep commitment to Friends, her love of the mission of Friends, and her knowledge of Friends on different levels: social and intellectual as well as theological.

3. Ability to communicate truth effectively

Becky’s gifts of both written and oral proclamation are highly developed, practiced and effective. The committee appreciated her ability to say much in few words and to draw others into the conversation. Strong writing is a particularly important tool for a superintendent, whose ministry over a large geographic area depends greatly upon clear and compelling written communication. Her writing is marked by simplicity, depth, humor, freshness and honesty. She is capable of adapting her communication to her audience, which will permit her to address both familiar and not-so-familiar readers and listeners, including those outside NWYM and even outside the circle of the Christian faith. She contributes regularly to her personal blog, which attracts not only readers, but active and appreciative commenters — evidence of her ability to challenge and inspire. We have already noted her vocal ministry of preaching and speaking out of open worship, both ministries strongly affirmed by her references. She is also an excellent and experienced teacher whose gifts have been recognized by her university (through a teaching excellence award) and by others.

4. Demonstrated transformative leadership

Becky spoke to us of the need and her willingness to confront both persons and issues when necessary, to speak truth to power and culture. She gave examples, as did her references, of her experience delivering difficult news and enforcing accountability; but also of leading in works of reconciliation and recovery. Her year’s work with the elders at a local church under the care of the NWYM elders and her continuing leadership of a care team are recent examples of both kinds of message, requiring both courage and compassion. Her references point to both these responses as transformative in the process and the outcome. She has also given evidence of more proactive engagement, in articulating a vision and in preparing for hard conversations. Her vision for NWYM, as consistently expressed in her conversation with the committee and her written responses, involves building community within and between churches, developing a shared sense of identity, finding a transformational stance toward our culture, and developing a culture of increased generosity. Sub-themes are the active engagement of young adults, the importance of talking to each other and listening to what the Spirit is saying to the church. The Board of Elders, under her leadership, has been actively engaged in praying for the Yearly Meeting and “strategically planning how to help the YM fulfill its mission.” This strategic planning includes active engagement around potentially divisive issues in order to frame the questions in ways that are loving and compassionate, pastoral rather than legislative. Her discussion of strategies for dealing with controversy were practical and thoughtful, and based upon compassion as a starting place, a willingness to face the issue, a shared commitment to each other, and “rules of engagement” that protect the community and relationships.

5. Administrative effectiveness

Becky has had a distinguished career as a teacher and administrator at three universities.  Her longest service has been at George Fox University as professor of writing and literature, and in an increasingly responsible series of administrative positions including associate provost. She holds several graduate degrees, including a Ph.D in English (University of Oregon) and an MBA (Oregon Executive MBA Program). Her leadership among Friends includes her current appointments as clerk of the NWYM Board of Elders and chair of the Friendsview Retirement Community. Her references have emphasized the quality of her leadership, team building abilities, experience making hard decisions, problem-solving skills, staff development and empowerment, and budget making.

6. Ability to serve entire NWYM constituency

Becky is widely known and respected throughout the yearly meeting and has a broad knowledge of YM churches, individuals and history. She has expressed a vision for the yearly meeting that includes the building of a shared identity. She has also expressed an approach to community that could be described as a fundamental attitude of generosity. The following sayings, taken from her conversations with the committee, are representative of this approach:

Listen carefully to each other.  The most important thing [in our discussions] is to honor all. Value the contributions of all perspectives. The superintendent must build trust.  Shared work builds community.  Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.

She has practiced this approach in her clerking of the Board of Elders, which she characterizes as being a fair cross-section of the yearly meeting’s diversity. One reference offered that she has led this group as well as anyone in the past twenty years. She does not belong to any “camp,” and has close and respectful relationships across the diversity of the yearly meeting.

This is a summary of the qualifications the committee discerned in Becky Ankeny, and for these reasons we are recommending her to the Administrative Council to be nominated to the Yearly Meeting as our superintendent.

Search History

In November 2010 Colin Saxton told the Administrative Council of his intention to resign as yearly meeting superintendent, effective January 2012, in order to accept the position of General Secretary of Friends United Meeting.  In December the AC appointed a search committee with the charge to bring a recommendation in time to be approved at Yearly Meeting sessions in July 2011, if possible.  The AC sought members who are familiar with the needs and vision of the Yearly Meeting and acquainted with those within the yearly meeting and from the broader family of Friends in order to identify who might be considered as superintendent. The committee began to meet in January 2011 by telephone conference call and in person.

Search Committee members:

Leroy Benham (West Chehalem)

C. Wess Daniels (Camas)

Sharon Hayden (North Seattle)

Faith Marsalli (Klamath Falls)

Jay Miller (Newberg)

Jennifer Perez (Newberg)

Vic Peterson (River of Life)

Alan Weinacht (Greenleaf)

Tom Stave, Clerk (Eugene)

Recruitment: The position announcement and supporting documents were posted on a Superintendent Search website: http://nwfriends.org/search.  Announcements were sent out through appropriate NWYM email lists, including pastors, representatives, local meeting clerks, board clerks and members; the NWYM Facebook site; to Friends universities; to email lists of other North American yearly meetings, Friends United Meeting (FUM), Evangelical Friends Church International—North America (EFCI-NA) and Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC); and to QuakerAds.com, which distributes notices to a large number of Friends blogs and websites.  In addition, the committee sent invitations to apply to approximately 20 persons both within and outside NWYM.

Committee information: The committee consulted a number of sources to develop its understanding of the requirements of the position and the needs of the yearly meeting. Key documents included Faith and Practice, the yearly meeting’s mission/vision/core values statements, and the superintendent’s recently revised position description. The committee (or in some cases the clerk) interviewed the yearly meeting staff as a group, each associate superintendent individually, the director of Latino ministries, the President of George Fox University, and the Yearly Meeting superintendent. In addition, the committee met with the yearly meeting representatives during their mid-year meeting, to hear their priorities for a new superintendent; and sent announcements of the search by email to YM representatives, pastors, clerks of local churches, and board clerks. The committee spent a generous amount of time evaluating and processing this information. The committee also sought the prayers of all in the yearly meeting, and spent intentional time in prayer, seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Applicants: From the applications received, the committee selected four for further consideration. All four were persons with long and valued service in NWYM, who brought impressive gifts of ministry to the process. The committee conducted telephone interviews with at least four references for each candidate, including at least one reference not proposed by the candidate. Each of the four was given an in-person interview, using a set of questions provided in advance, including questions for written response. Based upon the information gathered from these sources, the committee invited two finalists who demonstrated the strongest set of qualifications for the position, based upon their strong and evident commitment to Jesus Christ and the work of Friends, their history of ministry and service, their stature and leadership within the Yearly Meeting, and the positive appraisals by their references. At the conclusion of these interviews, the search team felt led to forward Becky’s name to the Administrative Council.

Next Steps and Questions:  The Administrative Council will be working with Becky over the next month to arrange opportunities for you to get to know her better, especially during the week of Yearly Meeting. If you have any additional questions about the process or candidate recommendation, please contact Tom Stave, NWYM clerk, at tastave@gmail.com.

 

by Tom Stave, clerk of NWYM, Eugene Friends