Name: The Rev. Donna Ross - Elected, Fourth Deputy
Church Affiliation: St. Paul’s, Cambria

1) What can I contribute?
In addition to serving as the rector of two congregations, I have also served on the Standing Committees of two dioceses in transition between bishops. In this role I have seen the many problems experienced by congregational and diocesan leaders, and their need for guidance and support from the national church. In my present role as President of Standing Committee, I have gained a greater understanding of how the national church interacts with local dioceses. I believe I can help voice diocesan and parish needs to Convention and, working with many others, contribute to the future of our Episcopal Church.

2) Church activities
Rector, St. Paul’s, Cambria
President, Standing Committee
Spiritual director and writer

3) What major issues face the church today?
Understanding the treasures of the Gospel passed on to us through our Anglican tradition of Word and Sacrament, and learning how to communicate those treasures to spiritual seekers in our society.

Understanding our call to unity in Jesus Christ, as we continue to welcome the great variety of God’s people into our beloved church.

Understanding that the Holy Spirit is now moving our church into its future. The Anglican Church around the world is in a time of change and transition. These changes are affecting every congregation and diocese as well as the national church and world-wide Anglican Communion. Trusting in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and treasuring our Anglican traditions, we need to respect differing viewpoints and work together to discern which changes are being wrought by the Holy Spirit.

Name: The Rev. Dcn. Jo Weber - Withdrawn
Church Affiliation: Deacon, St. Luke’s, Los Gatos

1) What can I contribute?

• A deacon’s point of view
• Depth and breadth of experience in the Episcopal Church, both lay and ordained
• Time: I am officially retired, holding part-time and volunteer positions

2) Church activities
Current: Deacon and Finance Administrator, St. Luke’s, Los Gatos; Membership Director, North American Association for the Diaconate; Admin. Asst., Sojourn Chaplaincy (California); Volunteer Prison Chaplain, CSP/Solano, (Northern California); Faculty, School for Deacons
Past: Standing Committee (Northern California); Mission Treasurer; Delegate, Diocesan Convention; Commission on Liturgy & Music (Northern California); Multicultural Ministry Task Force (California); Stephen Minister (ECR); EFM Mentor (Northern California); Volunteer hospital chaplain (Northern California); 50 years of sacred music leadership

3) What major issues face the church today?

• Vision, leadership, and resources for mission work in our diverse communities within the diocese
• Leadership and resources for small parishes and missions
• Preoccupation with parochial issues and problems with reduced sense of diocesan unity and purpose
• A history of distrust of diocesan leadership and authority
• Demographics: an increasingly aging body of laity
• Preoccupation in our national church and in the Anglican Communion with divisive “issues” at the expense of mission and ministry

Name: The Rev. Nayan McNeill, Ph.D. - Withdrawn
Church Affiliation: St. Luke’s, Los Gatos

1) What can I contribute?
I contribute a long history of experience in the Episcopal Church and in this Diocese, both in the Lay and Ordained orders. I am dependable and articulate, and have professional experience in teaching, management, and writing. I love our church and am concerned about the integrity of ECUSA in its own ministry and history as well as its place in the wider Anglican Communion. I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in the fall of 2003 at St. George’s House at Windsor Castle in England and there engaged in reading, study, and discussion in the area of personal and ecclesiastical Trust, with 13 other Anglican priests. This experience helps me better understand the place and role of our church. And the opportunity to tell others about [the] our rather unique organization and operations. We concluded that Trust was not obsolete!

2) Church activities
LAY: vestry member, senior warden, chair of rector search committee, choir member, LEM, acolyte, lector & lector trainer; Diocesan Council, Standing Committee, Chair of Commission on Ministry, reader for General Ordination Examination, and Deputy to General Convention (three times),
ORDAINED: Commission on Ministry, Vocations’ secretary, assisting priest, supply priest, member of ECCO Board & currently President of ECCO (Diocesan Clergy Organization), alternate Deputy to General Convention (once), Diocesan Examining Chaplain.

3) What major issues face the church today?
The issue that has consumed the most national and international attention is that of human sexuality. I believe the energy spent on this has far outweighed its relative importance in furthering the mission and message of Our Savior. The issues are spreading the Good News of Jesus’ gifts to us of forgiveness and salvation, love and justice. The church must return to the business of love, peace, feeding the hungry and finding safety and ease for those who are ill, hungry and afraid. We must each, one-by-one, care and help. We must be models of Christian love and see Jesus’ face in every face. I we must not stand by and allow government powers to speak in our name. The Christian Right is not our national representative. And I earnestly hope that ECUSA will make that clear. General Convention is the place to assert that.

Name: The Rev. Silvestre E. Romero - Elected, First Deputy
Church Affiliation: St Philip’s, San Jose

1) What can I contribute?
I have been a translator at tree General Convention, translating from English to Spanish and vice versa. The process of translating at General convention is not only to translate words but also to help new deputies that are Spanish speakers to understand the legislative process that is used, in order to help others understand the process is necessary for translator to understand the process themselves. Currently I’m a member of the Standing Commission of Domestic Mission and Evangelism of General Convention. The work on this commission has been to me an opportunity to learn not only the work that happens at the time General Convention meets but also the work that happens between each General Convention.  I’m the Convener of the Latino Caucus for General Convention.

2) Church activities:

• President of the Latino Clergy and Leadership.
• Member of the Joint process committee.
• Member of the Conferences planning team.
• Member of Inter-Cultural Ministry Development Steering Committee

3) What major issues face the church today?
We are a growing church, yes we are growing. Our growth is at many levels, one of this is in the inclusiveness and intentional outreach to the diverse communities. The Latino population is one of the fastest growing communities in America; the term “minority” is not applicable to Latinos in some parts of America. In our Diocese a great effort is being put into reaching out, we are still far from getting were we need to be, and in reaching out we are responding to the call to mission that through General Convention the Episcopal Church has said we need to respond to. This call to mission has been called 20/20. 20/20 is a movement that calls on the Episcopal Church to double its membership by the year 2020.  We need to ensure that we provide opportunities for everyone to be at the table, the table for the Lord’s Supper and also at the table were conversation, planning, decisions, and other aspects of community development take place.

Name: The Rev. Vincent S. Raj - Elected, First Alternate
Church Affiliation: St. George’s Church, Salinas

1) What can I contribute?
The 2006 General Convention will be faced with ECUSA’s definitive response to The Windsor Report. I will probably be a “minority voice” at this Convention, but a voice nevertheless that needs to be heard. It is my hope that ECR will accord me the privilege of speaking my conscience in the spirit of “speaking the truth in love”.

2) Church activities:
Rector, St. George’s Church, Salinas (2002 – Present)
Clergy-member of Diocesan Council (2004)
Lay-member of Diocesan Council (2000 - 2001)
Member of DIEM (2001)

3) What major issues face the church today?
(A) Our Diocese is in a state of transition as we move forward towards calling our Third Bishop; this is a crucially important time in our Diocesan life. It has both the promise of new beginnings, and the challenge of not repeating past mistakes.
(B) The Anglican Communion faces the possibility of rift and rupture over the issue of homosexuality and same-sex blessings. Even within ECUSA we are faced with the probability of separations over this issue.
(C) Dwindling Episcopal Church membership both in our Diocese and in ECUSA.

Name: The Reverend Ernest W. Cockrell - Elected, Second Deputy
Church Affiliation: Saint Andrew’s, Saratoga

1) What can I contribute?
On behalf of the Diocese of El Camino Real I have served as your Deputy to General Conventions at Philadelphia, Denver, and Minneapolis, serving on the Committee on National/International Concerns at all three conventions, and chairing the Subcommittee on Warfare in Minneapolis. From those experiences I know the procedures needed for serving effectively at hearings and at the debates on the floor of the House of Deputies, and knowing many of the bishops, and lay and clergy deputies from those experiences, a level of trust has built up through the years, allowing me to serve this diocese in many areas of concern. I also contribute to the ongoing debate on the “HoB/D” website through the years between conventions.

2) Church activities
I’m in my 13th year as rector of Saint Andrew’s Church, Saratoga, and serve as an unofficial consultant to a number of priests and lay persons around the diocese.

3) Major issues facing the church today
I believe the major issues facing the Church are
1) learning to live together with varying points-of-view while we are carrying out our major task of being Christ’s Body in the world, 2) keeping our focus beyond ourselves to serve a hungry, hurting world, 3) affirming our position as an intelligent alternative in the way we approach the Bible and history; 4) healing in the diocese, learning from the past, and looking toward the future together; 5) affirming our position as an inclusive Church, welcome to all people; 6) serving as peace makers in the world.

Name: The Rev. Wendy Smith, Ph.D. - Elected, Third Deputy
Church Affiliation: St. Thomas, Sunnyvale

1) What can I contribute?
Ability to listen to all sides; ability to find the middle ground; ability to articulate the issues and understand the nuances. Commitment to keeping the church together, even as we disagree on the interpretation of scripture. Concern that we not get sidetracked by the issues of our generation, but keep our focus on the ministry of the Gospel. Big interest in discerning how we keep our Anglican identity, while we find ways to speak today's language. Desire that General Convention include prayer, Bible study, and worship. Openness to new ways of doing things.

2) Church activities:
Active involvement in all levels of the life of the church, from parish ministry to Commission on Ministry ('89 to '96), Examining Chaplain ('90 to '96 and '99--), Diocesan Council ('97 to '03), Diocesan Corporation ('04--), and General Convention Deputy (2000 and 2003).

3) What major issues face the church today?
Agreeing on what our core values are; deciding whether we can serve in the same church as people whose theology is different from ours; recognizing that society in general may perceive the Episcopal Church primarily as a place of in-house controversy; returning to our vocation of following Jesus in the Anglican way; recognizing the spiritual needs, and planning for ministry to people in the later years of life; finding ways to respect, include, and learn from the children among us; incorporating ethnic ministries into the mainstream of the church.

Name: C. Jeff Kraemer - Third Alternate
Church Affiliation: St. Dunstan's, Carmel Valley

1) What can I contribute?
As your first alternate clergy deputy to the last General convention, I observed a lot of "digging in" by deputies on the far right and far left on issues facing our church, and a lack of voices from the middle.  For our church to move from the crisis that she is in, that stalled us, to one of mission and purpose we are going to need voices of moderation and consideration. I will be that voice.

2) Church activities
I have served on Diocesan Council, Commission on Ministry, Commission on Episcopal Schools, and several renewal ministry teams.

3) What major issues face the church today?
I believe that the major issue that is facing our church is that we are dying on the vine. In 1930, when the U.S. population was 123,202,624 the Episcopal Church had 1,939,000 members, with 6,304 clergy serving. In 2000, the population was at 281,421,906 of which 2,297,000 were Episcopalians with 17,326 ordained. What went wrong? I think we have been so focused on issues that we have failed to honor the "Great Commandment" and the "Great Commission." If we can move beyond ourselves and begin living sacrificial lives for the lost, I believe that we can be assured of a bright future!

The second great issue deals with the Anglican Communion and our place in it. How can trust be reclaimed? That must be the work of the General Convention that lies ahead.

Name: Harriet B. Linville - Second Alternate
Church Affiliation: St. Peter's, Morro Bay

1) What can I contribute?
In my ninth year in the Diocese of EI Camino Real, I have been privileged to serve in a number of leadership roles. Primary is as rector of St. Peter's, Morro Bay. Now in my second term on the Standing Committee, I have served as its president and secretary. For several years, I worked on Cursillo week-ends in San Luis Obispo Deanery, as spiritual advisor and kitchen team. When the current Strategic Planning Commission was formed, I was appointed; then was elected by Diocesan Convention. Formerly a member of the Mission Advisory Board, I am well aware of the various needs for and media available for always essential communication. These are some of the areas of mission and ministry here of which I am a part, giving me a wide appreciation for the breadth of life in this diocese. As a member of the Diocese of Eastern Oregon, I served as Lay Deputy to the General Convention in 1979 and 1982, then as Clerical Deputy in 1985, 1988, and 1991, the last as chair of the deputation. From 1985 on, I was a member of the Ecumenical Relations Committee at General Convention. As a member of Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers, in 1994 and 1997, I acted as ecumenical host to official ecumenical visitors to the General Convention. Through these experiences, and others in Province VIII, and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, I have made many friends throughout the Episcopal Church.

2) Church activities
In addition to the Church activities mentioned above, I am also the Ecumenical Officer of the diocese, was appointed the convener of the San Luis Obispo Deanery two weeks after I arrived, was co-chair of diocesan nominations several years ago, and have worked with the Canon Educator on various projects. The members of the San Luis Obispo Clericus have designated me "mom," as the one who gathers the troops, does some pastoral care, and hosts the occasional
dinner party for members of the deanery clergy and spouses/partners. Since ordination, I have participated in a weekly text study and a colleague group.

3) What major issues face the church today?
First we are called to do our very best as followers of Jesus the Christ to carry out the mission and ministry that he gives us, wherever and whenever we are. Our oft-noted diversity leads us to exciting arenas for this. Our relative newness as a diocese means that we can formulate patterns and structures that enhance our life here. Another issue is the apathy that creeps into our lives, both sacred and secular. This calls for intense measures to stimulate members and potential members to go more deeply into our faith journey and our lives as members of the community in which we live. My prayer and work is that the breadth and depth of the Episcopal Church will continue to draw the circle so that all feel invited. Through prayer and study and conversation, we are finding our way as we strive to seek and serve Christ in all persons, as well as to work for peace and justice. In our diocese, I believe that we are truly moving forward, living into these baptismal promises. As stated above, my life in the church so far has prepared me to be part of this process, nationally, in the diocese, as well as the deanery and parish.