wfn.org | [ENS] Fall special conventions, meetings ponder church's

["mika larson" <mini.mika@verizon.net>]

direction

9/25/2003 

Fall special conventions, meetings ponder church's direction

by Jan Nunley 
 
[ENS] In July and August, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church
spoke in Minneapolis. In September and October, it seems, part of the
Episcopal Church is talking back. 
While most Episcopal dioceses hold regular pre- and post-General
Convention briefings for their clergy and laity, the bishops of five
dioceses have called for special diocesan conventions this fall to
consider resolutions disassociating from some actions of General
Convention. The actions at issue are the ratification of the election of
the Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay man in a committed relationship, as bishop
of New Hampshire, and the recognition that the practice of blessing
same-gender relationships exists in some dioceses of the church
"operating within the bounds of our common life."

Albany and Central Florida held their special conventions September 20;
Fort Worth and Pittsburgh will hold theirs September 27; and South
Carolina will hold its meeting October 2. The dioceses of Springfield
and Quincy will consider disassociation resolutions at their regular
diocesan conventions in October. 

Distancing, but not leaving

In the Diocese of Central Florida, delegates to the special convention
in Winter Park overwhelmingly endorsed four out of five resolutions
distancing the diocese from the 74th General Convention of the Episcopal
Church. (See http://www.cfdiocese.org/gencon/speccon.html for complete
texts.)

Gathered in the auditorium of the Trinity Preparatory School were 152
clergy and 242 lay delegates, along with over 100 spectators. Bishop
John W. Howe said that he had assured the clergy of the diocese that he
would not act unilaterally on these matters but would bring the issue
before the diocese. 

Howe asked the Convention to "decide whether we agree with the majority
who voted at General Convention, or whether we uphold the belief and
teaching of the majority of the Anglican Communion, and the majority of
the Church catholic." By a margin of 4 to 1, the diocese voted
throughout the day in support of the stance taken by Howe.

After the meeting, Howe acknowledged that there are strong feelings on
both sides of the debate, but added, "This Convention did not say we are
in disunity with the Episcopal Church. We are not leaving the Episcopal
Church."

An amended resolution declared that the diocese desires "to remain at
unity and in continued participation with the See of Canterbury and the
Anglican Communion." The original resolution, presented by a coalition
of 55 clergy, included the Episcopal Church along with Canterbury and
the Anglican Communion.
 
"I want to reiterate my firm conviction that a decision not to say
something is not the same as saying its opposite," Howe said. "We have
not voted in any way to sever our relationship with the Episcopal
Church, USA. Nor, I hope, will we ever do so."

Endorsement of schism?

Those assurances apparently were not enough for Howe's canon to the
ordinary, the Rev. Ernest Bennett, who announced his resignation on the
Tuesday after the special convention. "Please know that my resignation
is not a protest action," Bennett wrote in an email to diocesan clergy.
"I have, however, come to the realization in the aftermath of our
Special Meeting of the Convention that I can no longer serve in the best
interest of the majority of our clergy. Even more to the point, I do not
feel I can serve our Bishop as I would want and as he deserves. I have
the utmost respect for Bishop Howe, even in my deepest pain over where
we are and where it seems to me we are heading as a diocese." 

Other clergy in the diocese objected to the process and the outcome,
saying conservative clergy set the agenda and tone of the meeting. The
Rev. Paul McQueen of the Canterbury Retreat and Conference Center in
Oviedo expressed disappointment with the convention, noting that there
was "not one vote in support of unity within the Episcopal Church."
Along with the Rev. Margaret Ingalls of Holy Trinity, Fruitland Park,
McQueen saw the convention's actions as an endorsement of schism. 

Depending on the results of an American Anglican Council gathering in
Dallas and the meeting of the primates at Lambeth, both to be held in
October, Ingalls' parish vestry will consider a resolution at its
October 21 meeting authorizing her to request alternative episcopal
oversight from the Presiding Bishop "as expediently as is possible" and
putting the bulk of the parish's $5500 pledge to the diocese in escrow,
while sending 21% to the national Episcopal Church.

Asking primates' opinion

Some 650 people gathered at the Camp of the Woods in Speculator, New
York, for the Diocese of Albany's special convention.

The resolutions presented in Albany were slightly different from those
of Central Florida. In addition to disassociating from the General
Convention's actions, the resolutions affirmed sexual intimacy only
within the framework of marriage as "the life-long union of one man and
one woman," and rather than requesting "episcopal oversight," asked for
the 38 Anglican primates' opinions as to whether the Episcopal Church
"exceeded the limits of Anglican diversity" in the disputed decisions. 

Unlike the Florida proposals, the Albany resolutions did not include a
call to withhold funds from the national church's mission and programs,
but directed the Albany General Convention deputation to attend the
American Anglican Council's special meeting in Dallas October 7-9 "for
the purpose of fact-finding." 

Nevertheless, a group of more than 50 clergy and laity calling itself
"Albany Via Media" released a commentary on the resolutions before the
meeting that questioned the motives for the special convention. "This
special convention appears to be no accident or impulse, but part of a
well-planned, nationally orchestrated effort to create a power-block of
ultra-conservative fundamentalist dioceses who give away their
decision-making power to their leadership who then could make them part
of a new AAC realignment," the commentary stated.

Alternative structure?

This weekend in the dioceses of Fort Worth and Pittsburgh, delegates to
special conventions will entertain resolutions even more strongly worded
than those passed in Albany and Central Florida.

The Fort Worth meeting, to be held at the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul
in Arlington, considers five resolutions. The first two nullify actions
of General Convention, while the fourth asks the primates for episcopal
oversight. The final resolution commits the diocese to funding mission
work in areas "adversely affected by reduced national church resources."

But the third resolution-virtually identical to Pittsburgh's-apparently
asks the primates to supplant the Episcopal Church and put another
structure in its place.

"We seek recognition by the international Primates Meeting as the
legitimate expression of the Episcopal Church in the United States of
America, and, together with those other dioceses, bishops, clergy and
congregations who continue to uphold and propagate the historic Faith
and Order, seek acknowledgment as the bona fide expression both of the
Episcopal Church and of the Anglican Communion in the United States of
America," the resolution reads.

Resolutions for the Pittsburgh gathering, set for St. Martin's Church in
Monroeville, Pennsylvania, closely follow the Fort Worth resolutions,
but the one related to mission funding "directs that no assessment funds
received from parishes for work beyond the diocese any longer be sent"
to the Episcopal Church. The Pittsburgh resolutions allow for "interim
disassociation" by dissenting congregations in the diocese, but only
"until the Primates have rendered judgment" on the status of the
Episcopal Church. 

The final resolution declares that all property in the diocese-which
under current national canons is held in trust by the diocese for the
entire Episcopal Church-instead belongs to individual congregations or
the diocese itself. "No adverse claim to such beneficial interest by The
Episcopal Church in the United States of America or any other body is
acknowledged, but rather is expressly denied," the resolution states.

Delegates to an October 2 meeting in South Carolina will consider three
resolutions which call for much the same actions, but include one
resolution which expresses "profound disappointment" with the leadership
of the presiding bishop.

Springfield and Quincy will consider resolutions at their regular
diocesan convention meetings, but at least one Quincy parish, Christ
Church in Limestone Township, has already told a local newspaper that it
plans to stay in the Episcopal Church regardless of what is voted upon
at the diocesan meeting. 

A family matter

Bishops and deputies from other dioceses around the country have already
heard from clergy and laity at regular post-convention public meetings
during September.

- In Atlanta, Bishop Neil Alexander faced some angry parishioners, but
reporters from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that in 53 of the
diocese's 93 congregations, there was no evidence of "mass defection or
financial crisis." A single parish in Columbus announced it was
withholding funds from the diocese in protest, but the next week the
parish's associate priest resigned in protest against the action, citing
"the conservative and schismatic direction" in which she said the parish
was going. 

- In East Tennessee, Bishop Charles vonRosenberg assured concerned
parishioners at one gathering that clergy in his diocese "do not have my
permission" to conduct same-gender blessings. 

- Kentucky Bishop Edwin F. Gulick praised Robinson as a "tremendously
competent person" and told parishioners, "In the short term, things are
strained, but we have an ever-widening, inclusive embrace." 

- Northern Virginia Episcopalians meeting at Virginia Theological
Seminary expressed anger at the diocesan deputation for voting in favor
of Robinson's election. One parish reportedly disinvited Bishop Peter
Lee from an upcoming confirmation service in response to the votes. But
another praised the deputation's decision as one that "goes a long way
toward moving our church out of the darkness of its own heart." Lee told
the audience that unhappy congregations should stay in the Episcopal
Church because "this is your family."

-- The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News Service. Joe
Thoma, communications director of the Diocese of Central Florida,
contributed to this report.