The Rev. Herman (Holly) Hollerith was elected on the sixth ballot as the Tenth Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Virginia.
Hollerith’s biography and answers to the Diocesan Search questions are here.
According to the local news sources:
The six candidates collectively represent the full spectrum of views – from opposition to support – around the national Episcopal Church’s 2003 endorsement of the ordination of a gay man, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, as bishop in New Hampshire.
Positions on gay ordination and marriage, and how to interpret Scripture, divide the Episcopal Church from much of the rest of the global Anglican Church of which the denomination is a part.
Bane, who became bishop in 1998, voted against allowing the Robinson ordination, while the Southern Virginia parish and clergy delegates at the 2003 national meeting voted in favor.
The internal fight that grew around Bane in 2004 and 2005 was more about personality and management than gay issues.
In 2004, a diocesan review panel sharply criticized his leadership and cited “major ineptitude” in financial management and a near-total absence of accountability in diocesan operations.
Bane disputed the critique, saying detractors opposed his leadership style and his stance on Robinson. In 2005, two top diocesan boards called for his resignation.
A report in fall 2005 by a panel of outside bishops said dysfunctional relations among clergy, lay leaders and bishops had plagued the diocese for decades and required “deep systemic change.”
Bane announced shortly before the report that he would retire in February 2006.
… most of the candidates cited the diocese’s past feuding and described themselves as bridge-builders and uniters.
“That was certainly something we were aiming for that, whoever was nominated would come in as a healing presence,” said the Rev. John A. Baldwin, who was on the candidate nominating committee. He leads Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach.
Read it at Pilot Online
Nominees for bishop were:
The Very Reverend Edward H. Harrison
Dean, St. John’s Cathedral, Jacksonville, FL
The Rev. Herman “Holly” Hollerith, IV
Rector, Bruton Parish, Williamsburg, VA
The Rev. Dr. Ladson F. Mills III
Rector, Christ Church, Saint Simons Island, GA
The Rev. Canon E. Daniel Smith
Canon to the Ordinary, Diocese of Missouri
The Rev. L. Murdock Smith
Rector, St. Martin’s, Charlotte, NC
The Rev. Mary C. Sulerud
Canon for Deployment and Vocational Ministry,
Diocese of Washington, DC