When the six nominees to be the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada toured the diocese recently, anyone with an Internet connection could get a sense of what happened by reading "The Desert Shall Rejoice" blog.

The day before the tour began (September 13), the Rev. Karen Johanns, aka The Reverend Reporter, associate for youth and young adults at Trinity Episcopal Church in Reno, Nevada, told her readers what would and would not be included in her blog.

"I will only blog the proceeds of the walkabout visits. Anything that happens on the bus, at meals, during prayers, and in hotels is strictly off limits. Not only do the candidates and their spouses deserve privacy, I don't want to spend a week on a bus with everyone being afraid to talk to me. In other words, if you're looking for gossip, you ain't gonna get any," she wrote.

"I will not offer my opinion on how the visits went, the theological finesse of the candidate's answers, or who I think would be the best person for the job of Bishop of Nevada. My opinion doesn't matter: yours does.

"I will only say nice things about the food and coffee at each stop."

She also promised to describe the settings in which the tourist found themselves and warned that the promptness of her posts would depend upon the availability of an Internet connection in the vast and mostly rural diocese.

The nominees visited 22 of the diocese's 35 congregations between September 14 and 21.

At the end of the walkabout, The Reverend Reporter wrote that "chronicling this journey has been an incredibly informative and deeply spiritual experience."

"As a native Easterner and a long-time San Franciscan who only moved to Nevada last year, I have learned as much about the land, the church, and the people of Nevada as the candidates did," she wrote. "I have also come away from the tour with a realistic portrait of the state of our diocese, its strengths, and the work that still needs doing."

The six nominees are:

• the Rev. Dr. Susan Burns, 60, rector, Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Bethesda, Maryland (Diocese of Washington);
• the Rev. Dr. Cathy L. Deats, 57, rector, St. James Episcopal Church, Hackettstown, New Jersey (Diocese of Newark); 
• the Very Rev. Dan Thomas Edwards, 57, rector of St. Francis Episcopal Church, Macon, Georgia (Diocese of Atlanta); 
• the Rev. Dr. Charles Eric Funston, 54, rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Medina, Ohio (Diocese of Ohio);
• the Rev. Albert John Keeney, 62, rector, St. John's Episcopal Church, Canandaigua, New York (Diocese of Rochester); and
• the Rev. Jeffrey D. Paul, 52, rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Carson City, Nevada.
   
  Biographical information about each nominee is available here.

The bishop, to be elected during the diocese's October 12-14 convention, will succeed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who was elected presiding bishop on June 18, 2006 during the 75th General Convention and left her Nevada ministry on October 25, 2006.

Nevada's 10th bishop will be ordained and consecrated on January 5, 2008.

The Diocese of Nevada comprises about 6,000 Episcopalians worshipping in 35 congregations, including one in the neighboring state of Arizona.