NORTHERN MICHIGAN: Bishop-elect, election process scrutinized
Episcopal News Service. March 10, 2009 [031009-01]
Joe Bjordal
The process used to elect a bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan and the bishop-elect's meditation practice have come under scrutiny as diocesan bishops and standing committees are being asked to consent to the election.
Blogs, emails, open letters and news articles -- including one in the London Times -- are taking issue with the fact that the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester, Northern Michigan's bishop-elect, was the single candidate presented to a special diocesan convention and that he devoutly practices Zen Buddhist meditation.
Delegates on February 21 overwhelmingly elected Thew Forrester as bishop on the first ballot. The delegates also created what is being called an Episcopal Ministry Support Team of up to 10-12 people, including the bishop. Team members will share responsibility for oversight of the diocese.
Under the canons of the Episcopal Church (III.16.4 (a)), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to Thew Forrester's ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of his election.
The Northern Michigan convention concluded more than a year of discernment based on the Mutual Ministry model in use in congregations in Northern Michigan for more than 20 years. Other dioceses, including Nevada, South Dakota and Wyoming among others, use the model.
Mutual Ministry, sometimes called Total Ministry, is based on the belief that baptism unites all people equally in ministry and that each person is given specific gifts for ministry. Mutual Ministry attempts to move congregations away from a primary focus on ordained ministry and towards a model in which a congregation is led jointly by a team of people, in which a priest might have only a sacramental role.
In January, the Rev. Rayford Ray, a member of the diocese's Episcopal Ministry Discernment Team, told Episcopal News Service the process was "risen up from our congregations."
"Our job," he said, "was to take this model of shared ministry that has been so successful in our congregations and raise it up to the diocesan level."
In announcing the results of the discernment process, the team said the Episcopal Ministry Support Team was its "vision of a form of leadership that encompasses the gifts and skills of a diverse group of people that will work collaboratively to guide and support the mission and ministry of the people of God in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan." The team model would allow for "a broadly collaborative approach to supporting apostolic ministry in the diocese."
Ray told ENS that while Thew Forrester has served the diocese since 2001, names of potential candidates for bishop were received from "throughout the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion." A diocesan report said that names of 28 people had been received, 11 of those people completed the paperwork, and one person eventually dropped out.
He said there is "precedent" for putting forth only one name as candidate. In the most recent instance, in 2007, Mark Lawrence was the only candidate to be bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina. Lawrence was first elected from among several candidates on September 16, 2006, but Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori later declared that election "null and void" because of defects in six of the needed 56 affirmative responses from diocesan standing committees. Required to hold a second election, the diocese nominated only Lawrence.
Ray noted that it is standard operating procedure in congregations looking for a rector, where a call committee typically discerns a number of candidates and, in the end, submits one name for the vestry's final approval.
Others don't see it that way.
A letter, posted online, addressed to the bishop and standing committee of the Diocese of Southern Ohio and signed initially by the Rev. Jeff Queen, All Saints Church, Portsmouth; the Rev. Dave Halt, St. James Church, Westwood; and the Rev. Dr. David Bailey, St. Stephen's Church, Cincinnati, suggested presenting a single candidate "raises immediate issues about the transparency of this process."
"Why was a single candidate presented? Was no one else seen as qualified to stand for election? And of course the perception of this makes one wonder whether there is a small group of people trying to control the process," the group said in the letter.
The Southern Ohio signers said that if the House of Bishops had been asked to elect a bishop for Northern Michigan, it would have been required by the canons of the Episcopal Church to present a minimum of three candidates. "If it is appropriate for the House of Bishops, why is it not appropriate for the Diocese of Northern Michigan?" they said.
Linda Piper, chair of the standing committee of the Diocese of Northern Michigan, also interviewed in January, said that the election of Thew Forrester complied with both the canons of the diocese and the national Episcopal Church.
Episcopal Church canons allow (in Title III.11.1(a)) the diocesan convention to establish rules for the discernment and election process, which the Northern Michigan convention did in 2008.
An open letter to the bishop, standing committee and General Convention deputies of the Diocese of South Dakota from the Rev. Timothy Fountain and members of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Sioux Falls, also questioned an Episcopal election with only one candidate, saying the process was "tightly managed by a small group" and that there was no "true election."
"This questionable 'process' is being justified as Mutual Ministry, which corrupts an important model that we use here in South Dakota," they said. "While we completely respect and participate in Mutual Ministry, we see it as totally inappropriate for selecting a Bishop. By definition, bishops serve the wider church, not just one part of it. This is why you are called on for consent, which you should not grant in this bizarre case."
Bishop Bruce Caldwell of Wyoming has a positive view of Northern Michigan's election process and has written to bishops and standing committees voicing his support. Caldwell was one of three "reflectors" who observed the discernment process in Northern Michigan, along with Bishop Tom Ely of Vermont and Dr. Fredrica Harris Thompsett, professor emeritus at Episcopal Divinity School (EDS).
"The Diocese of Northern Michigan was scrupulous in checking in with the office of pastoral development to insure that diocesan and national canons were followed," said Caldwell. "They set up a fair process of affirmation and received overwhelming support from the people in the diocese for the process and the outcome. A number of well-qualified individuals engaged in the process of discernment for the position of Bishop. The process was diligent, careful, open and respectful."
"I have no hesitancy in honoring both the process and the outcome," he said.
Bishop-elect defends practice of Buddhist meditation
The other issue that has caused concern and criticism of the Northern Michigan election is that Thew Forrester practices Zen Buddhist meditation.
In his 2004 convention address, Northern Michigan's late Bishop Jim Kelsey announced that Thew Forrester has received "Buddhist lay ordination" and is "walking the path of Christianity and Zen Buddhism together."
Confusion surrounding the term "Buddhist lay ordination" has caused several to believe that Thew Forrester is practicing two faiths, which would present difficulty for him in taking Episcopal vows declaring allegiance to Christ and assuring defense of the Christian faith. Some bloggers referred to him as "the Buddhist bishop."
In a statement issued on February 26, Thew Forrester said he has been trained in the art and practice of Zen meditation but that he is neither a Buddhist nor an ordained Buddhist priest.
"I am an Episcopal priest eternally grateful for the truth, beauty and goodness, experienced in Zen meditation," said Thew Forrester. "I am thankful for the pioneering work of Thomas Merton in the Buddhist-Christian dialogue. I am also thankful for the current elders in our Christian tradition, such as Thomas Keating and David Steindl-Rast, whose practice of meditation (like that of Merton) continues to deepen their own contemplative life and leads them to explore the sacramental common ground we share with Buddhists through the grace of God."
Thew Forrester said he has practiced Zen meditation for almost a decade and that five years ago a Buddhist community welcomed him as an Episcopal priest in his "commitment to a meditation practice -- a process known by some Buddhists as 'lay ordination.'" He said the ceremony included no oaths and "was a resolve to use the practice of meditation as a path to awakening to the truth of the reality of human suffering. Meditation deepens my dwelling in Christ-the-healer."
In an interview in The Record, the newspaper of the neighboring Diocese of Michigan, Fredrica Harris Thompsett of EDS said that Zen meditation by Christians is nothing new and that "there are a number of bishops in the current House who engage in and have experience of Buddhist practices of mediation."
"Buddhism is a set of practices similar to Christian practices that became the property of monastics in the Middle Ages," said Thompsett. "They are practices about meditation and awareness and compassionate living. They can be practiced without detriment to doctrine, and they are being restored today in all sorts of Christians."
John Cowan, a former Episcopal priest who served the Diocese of Minnesota, said he has seen the faith lives of many Christians deepened and enhanced through the practice of Zen meditation. Cowan is the author of Taking Jesus Seriously: Buddhist Meditation for Christians (Liturgical Press, 2004).
Cowan said in an interview with ENS that the purpose of Zen is to "study the self, to know the self, and to forget the self." He says that in losing a focus on one's self through Zen, it is easier to accept and carry out Jesus' call to focus on others.
Cowan, who has taught Buddhist meditation to Christians for nearly 15 years, says there is a fundamental difference between being a Buddhist and only practicing Zen Buddhist meditation.