Kimbrough

When dozens of people meet annually for the BACAM (Bishop’s Advisory Committee for Aspirants to Ministry) Conference, there is no weeding out of potential candidates for the diaconate or priesthood. Instead, committee members reaffirm what’s best for the people who have questions about their calling.

This positive-style approach is exactly what has made the BACAM Conference so successful since it first began in 1996.  This year was no exception, as 19 aspirants along with their spouses attended the 2018 BACAM Conference on March 22-23 at the Canterbury Retreat & Conference Center to further discern their calling to ministry in the Episcopal Church.

“It’s not a weeding-out process,” said Orman Kimbrough, the chairman of the Commission on Ministry (COM), whose members constitute the BACAM committee that assesses candidates. “It’s to help people identify the call they have. For some people, the best service to the Lord is through lay ministry. It’s (the BACAM Conference) actually an affirmation of what they do well. We’re looking to affirm someone’s calling.”

Approximately 55 to 60 people were a part of that process this year. A total of 24 people sat on the committee at the BACAM Conference. Of those individuals, about half were ordained and half were lay people, Kimbrough said. The ordained committee members are split fairly evenly between priests and deacons.  The variety of committee members is important for an accurate assessment of the aspirants in the Diocese of Central Florida. At the end of the BACAM Conference, committee members report their findings to Bishop Greg Brewer.

“We give our recommendations of what we think and what we observe to the bishop,” said Kimbrough, who is a lay person at All Saints Episcopal Church in Winter Park. “We pass on to him what we see, and he makes the call.”

The BACAM Conference follows up on the Conference on Ministry, held the last Saturday in August, in which those who are discerning a call to serve God – as lay ministers or possibly as ordained ministers in the diaconate or priesthood – meet with, hear from  and have the opportunity to ask the bishop, the canons and archdeacon, and members of the commission questions about what discernment and training is required. After this conference, aspirants, in consultation with their rector or vicar, submit a nomination/application form to enter the diocesan discernment process.

“Each person on the COM is assigned to someone,” Kimbrough said. “I, for example, might have three or four people I am assessing.  At our regularly scheduled commission meetings, we report on what that person is doing.”

Candidates are assessed in numerous areas at BACAM. Committee members use group observation, group discussion questions, interviews and a rating of sorts to gauge where candidates are as potential deacons or priests.

“It’s tremendously valuable,” Kimbrough said. “But the (BACAM) conference is just one of the steps in the discernment process. It’s actually a helpful exercise. It covers a lot of territory in a short time.”

Several members of the diocesan staff also helped with the process at this year’s meeting. Brewer, along with Canon to the Ordinary, the Rev. Tim Nunez; Canon for Vocations, the Rev. Dr. Justin Holcomb; and Archdeacon Kristi Alday, talked with candidates but are not part of the official committee, Kimbrough said.  Aspirants got to interact with committee members and others in a variety of settings including breakfast, lunch, social hour and dinner. The social setting is a key part of the conference.

“It’s helpful for people to have that kind of contact (when) otherwise they wouldn’t,” Kimbrough said.

For more information on the Commission on Ministry, call Kimbrough at 407-843-7060.