Slate of Four Announced for Rio Grande Coadjutor
Episcopal News Service. September 3, 2004 [090304-1]
Jan Nunley
Four priests form the final slate of nominees for Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, announced September 1 by the Rev. Canon Brian C. Hobden, president of the diocesan Standing Committee.
They are the Rev. Canon F. Brian Cox IV, rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California; the Rev. Dr. Ronald W. Jackson, rector of St. Luke of the Mountains in La Crescenta, California; the Rev. Martyn Minns of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia; and the Very Rev. Dr. Graham Michael Smith, rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Glenview, Illinois.
The four were chosen from an original field of 24, which was then narrowed to 11 semifinalists. Further nominations by petition will be announced after September 15. Deanery "meet and greet" sessions with the nominees will be held October 7-10, and the electing convention is scheduled for October 16 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Consecration of the next bishop will be held January 15, 2005. Bishop Terrence Kelshaw is expected to retire no later than July, 2005.
All four nominees are conservative evangelicals, and all but Smith's parish are currently listed as affiliates of the American Anglican Council (AAC) on the group's website [www.americananglican.org/Issues/IssuesList.cfm?c=14]. Both Cox and Jackson recently told the Los Angeles Times that their parishes would not join three other AAC-affiliated Los Angeles-area congregations in renouncing the Episcopal Church to come under the Ugandan Diocese of Luweero. The two have said they and their parishes will await the outcome of the Lambeth Commission report, rather than seek other action at this time.
The Rio Grande diocese is relatively young. In 1892, General Convention established the Missionary District of New Mexico; at the 1895 Convention, nine Texas counties were added to form what became the Missionary District of New Mexico and Southwest Texas in 1923. In 1973, the name was changed to the Diocese of the Rio Grande.
Varieties of experience
[Note: At press time, biographies submitted by the nominees were not yet available online at http://riogrande.0catch.com/diocesan/Election%20of%20a%20Bishop%20Coadjutor.html]
The 54-year-old Cox, a Chicago native canonically resident in Los Angeles, is rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California. He holds a master's in dispute resolution from Pepperdine University Law School, is the president and founder of the Reconciliation Institute and the author of Reconciliation Basic Seminar (1996) and Faith-Based Diplomacy and International Peacemaking (2000). He has been a vicar, associate rector and a rector in the dioceses of Los Angeles and Virginia, including nine years as associate rector of St. James' in Newport Beach, California, one of three AAC congregations that has aligned with Uganda's Luweero Diocese. In the Diocese of Los Angeles, Cox is a founding co-chair of Bishop J. Jon Bruno's diocesan-wide Reconciliation Task Force. Cox is married to Ann and has two children.
Jackson, 56, born in Frankfurt, Germany, is rector of St. Luke's of the Mountains in La Crescenta, California, where he also served as a curate in the mid-1970s. The parish assists with relief work in Uganda and was visited recently by Uganda's Archbishop Henry Orombi. Canonically resident in Los Angeles, and a member of the diocesan council there, Jackson has also served congregations in Cape Town, South Africa; Akron, Ohio; and Nashville, Tennessee. He and his wife Patricia have four children.
Minns, 61, is the English-born and American-ordained rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia, one of the oldest and largest parishes in the Episcopal Church. A former Mobil Oil executive, Minns has also served congregations in Connecticut, Louisiana, and New York. He has been in a number of episcopal elections, is a frequent preacher and speaker at conservative and evangelical gatherings, and addressed the Lambeth Commission on Communion at Kanuga earlier this summer as part of a delegation of those opposed to the actions of General Convention 2003. Minns has invited Lord George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, to Truro September 15 to confirm candidates from 11 Virginia parishes that reject diocesan bishop Peter James Lee because he voted to ratify the election of openly-gay priest Gene Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire. Minns' parish is also withholding money from the diocese and national church programs to protest Robinson's consecration. The father of five, Minns is married to Angela and has 11 grandchildren.
Smith, 56, is Canadian-born and the rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Glenview, Illinois. He has served congregations in Ohio and Illinois. His name appears on the board of the conservative Institute for Religion and Democracy [www.ird-renew.org/Feedback/FeedbackList.cfm?c=12]. He is married to Sharon and has two children.
Some polarization
Retiring bishop Terrence Kelshaw has a history of strong support for conservative positions in the Episcopal Church. Before his election as bishop in 1989, the Manchester, England, native was a member of the faculty of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. In 1995 he was one of 10 bishops who presented charges -- later dismissed by a court -- against Bishop Walter Righter for ordaining a gay man living in a committed relationship. In 1999, Kelshaw and the bishop of the local Reformed Episcopal Church diocese, the Rt. Rev. Royal U. Grote, Jr., jointly ordained two young men as deacons for Bishop Samuel Ssekkadde of Namirembe (Uganda), to serve, not in Uganda, but under Kelshaw. In 2000 Kelshaw granted Bishop Charles Murphy, of the breakaway Anglican Mission in America, permission to visit and confirm at a parish within his diocese.
At the 2003 General Convention he joined some 20 bishops in disassociating from the convention's decision to ratify Robinson's election, and called for the intervention of Anglican primates under the authority of Lambeth Conference resolution III 6(b). He also signed the memorandum of agreement establishing the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (NACDAP) [www.anglicancommunionnetwork.org/home/index.cfm], which is seeking "realignment" in the Anglican Communion, on January 20. Seven days later, its Standing Committee joined Rio Grande to the Network.
But while Kelshaw's views are apparently shared by a majority in the diocese, a significant minority disagrees. At the annual diocesan convocation following last summer's General Convention, 35 percent of clergy and lay representatives declined to support a resolution condemning Robinson's election and upholding marriage between a man and a woman as the only appropriate place for sexual relations. That fall, a group of clergy and laity formed Via Media Rio Grande (VMRG) [www.viamediariogrande.org] in response to what they called "an atmosphere of polarization" and to oppose what they saw as "alienation from ECUSA by diocesan leadership," including Kelshaw.
In early December VMRG asked for time on the agenda of the Standing Committee to plead for an interim bishop instead of a coadjutor election, in light of diocesan divisions. But the committee refused, later stating concerns that granting the time "would encourage every special interest group in the diocese to seek a similar hearing and thus politicize this season of discernment."
In response, VMRG sent a letter on December 23 to bishops and standing committees, requesting that they withhold canonical consent for the election. Only one bishop and three standing committees declined consent, but the letter clearly stung. Both Bishop Kelshaw and the Standing Committee protested in letters sent to the diocese and to the bishops and standing committees of the Episcopal Church, complaining that the VMRG request was "mischievous," "reprehensible," and "destructive." Tensions remain.
"Our concerns reflect those voices heard in numerous meetings across the diocese," VMRG spokesperson Diane Butler responded to news of the nominations. "Primary concerns expressed include a strong desire to remain within ECUSA and for a bishop who will encourage openness, inclusiveness, and harmony, and who will maintain a positive relationship with those who hold diverse personal and spiritual values." Meanwhile, the group has proposed a resolution for the upcoming annual convocation, committing the diocese to "the discipline, faith and unity of the Episcopal Church USA as the American expression of the rich and diverse Anglican tradition."