George Conger has written an article in the Living Church about happenings in Tennessee. That article can be found here. George graciously posted some information that didn’t survive the editing process, which I’ve included below the selection from his Living Church Article.

The Diocese of Tennessee’s history of multiple ballots over two days to elect a bishop was repeated on March 18. Clergy and lay delegates to a special convention at Christ Church Cathedral in Nashville failed to elect a successor to the Rt. Rev. Bertram N. Herlong after 14 ballots spread over 10 hours. According to the election procedure, the winning candidate must achieve a two-thirds majority in both the clergy and lay orders. {read it all}

Here’s the information that George shared:

The 1986 Tennessee election went to 38 ballots, while the 1993 election took 15, and both followed the same pattern as Saturday’s voting with the clergy and lay orders initially supporting separate candidates.

At the close of the first day’s voting in 1986, the Rev. Canon Robert G. Tharp led in the clergy order with two thirds of the votes after 28 ballots, ahead of the Rev. George L. Reynolds who ran first in the lay order and the Rev. James M. Coleman, who ran third. On the second day, Reynolds received two thirds of the lay order on the 31st ballot and was elected bishop on the 38th ballot after gaining the clergy vote. Canon Tharp later was elected second Bishop of East Tennessee while Fr. Coleman was to become the second Bishop of West Tennessee.

In 1993 the Very Rev. Bertram N. Herlong was elected Bishop of Tennessee after 15 ballots spread over two days. Herlong lead in the lay order for 14 of 15 ballots, finally gaining the lead in the clergy order over the Rev. Walter L. Krieger, rector of Christ Church, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on the 13th ballot.

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