Diocesan Digest: November 17, 2005
Episcopal News Service. November 17, 2005 [111705-05]
* ATLANTA: Council hears from Tanzanian bishop, revises funding canon
* CHICAGO: Convention says withdraw troops from Iraq, study Windsor Report
* NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: Respond respectfully to Windsor Report, Convention urges
* OLYMPIA: Lights go out on annual convention
* PITTSBURGH: Calls for commitment to action at Network conference
* SAN DIEGO: Nun takes on solitary call
* SOUTHERN OHIO: Delegates celebrate ministry, select leadership
* VIRGINIA: Bishop names members of special committee
* VIRGINIA: South Riding missioner, majority of congregation resigns
* WEST MISSOURI: Delegates reduce assessments for some congregations
* WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA: Convention endorses U.N. millennium goals
ATLANTA: Council hears from Tanzanian bishop, revises funding canon
[SOURCE: Diocese of Atlanta] The Diocese of Atlanta looked within and beyond itself at its 99th Annual Council, held November 11-12 at Holy Innocents' Church and School in Atlanta.
Delegates to the council approved revisions to a canon that guides parish funding of the diocese and gave a platform to a Tanzanian bishop who called the Anglican Communion to unity in God.
"The church has a message of peace for the world. Jesus calls his disciples to go out into the world and build bridges and destroy the dividing walls that exist between people and nations," Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo of Central Tanganyika in Tanzania said during one of his two addresses.
The revision of Canon 20, which outlines how the parishes fund diocesan ministries, provides for an assessment review board for parishes having difficulties meeting a 10-percent commitment. The change will take effect in 2007.
Delegates approved a $3.5 million budget and, in principal, a proviso asking parishes not giving 10 percent to raise their pledges by one percent for 2006. If successful, this would ward off dramatic diocesan program and staff cuts for next year.
In his address, Bishop J. Neil Alexander said he does not expect the General Convention, meeting in 2006, to accept all the provisions of the Windsor Report "as though we have received a new law that must be followed in every detail. The very thought of such a thing is contrary to the spirit of classical Anglicanism. The Windsor Report is not a piece of legislation passed by an authoritative body. It is a report of immense importance in the spirit of which the Anglican Communion can find a way forward together."
Alexander also pointed to four initiatives that have extended the diocese's strategic plan to "connect, grow and transform": an expanded diocesan communication effort, the new Fresh Start program for clergy development, a partnership with the Episcopal Church Foundation for legacy planning, and planning for a yearlong celebration of the diocese's 100th anniversary. The observance will begin at the Annual Council meeting next year at Christ Church, Macon.
Alexander concluded his address by reminding the gathering: "We are God's people; this is God's church. The mission is not ours, but God's alone. The wonderful thing is that God in his mercy lets us come along and see for ourselves what love and grace can do."
Delegates also authorized a study of liturgies for military personnel returning from war, a study committee on environmental stewardship, and passed a resolution calling for diocesan support of a proposed moratorium on capital punishment in Georgia.
Convention participants raised more than $4,000 for Episcopal Relief and Development. Nearly $3,000 from the eucharistic offering will go to the diocese's Episcopal Charities Foundation, and an additional $1,700 was added to a clergy fund to build a guest house for the Diocese of Central Tanganyika.
CHICAGO: Convention says withdraw troops from Iraq, study Windsor Report
[SOURCE: Diocese of Chicago] Delegates to the 168th Annual Convention of the Diocese of Chicago, held November 11-12, called for a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq and for adequate care of veterans and their families.
The resolution says Congress and the President should "develop and implement a plan to begin the expeditious withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces from Iraq, to provide for a transfer of peacekeeping functions to Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard through an international peacekeeping force, to work through international and Iraqi organizations develop and implement a plan for in the reconstruction of Iraq's civil and economic infrastructure, to facilitate the achievement of Iraqi sovereignty." The resolution passed 203-134.
The Convention also said Congress and the President should "provide aid and assistance to the men and women of the armed forces, National Guard, and reserve who were on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to their survivors and dependents, through adequate veterans' benefits, medical assistance, [and] rehabilitation."
The delegates said this care could happen by passage of legislation now before Congress to increase death benefits, health insurance and educational assistance for survivors and dependents of veterans who are killed or 100 percent disabled while serving in the armed forces, or who die of a service-related disability.
Chicago delegates defeated three resolutions aimed at putting the diocese on record about the controversies in the Anglican Communion. In the end they passed a resolution that affirms the diocese's "deep and abiding commitment to the Anglican Communion as well as to the diversity of cultures and canonical structures within that communion."
The resolution urges congregations to study both the Windsor Report and, as suggested in paragraph 18 of that report, "the spiritual, liturgical, cultural, and canonical differences among ourselves, within our congregations, our diocese, our American church, and the member churches of the Anglican Communion."
The resolution asks that the next diocesan convention "provide a forum in which parishes can share their experiences and perspectives on both reports, in furtherance of the twin goals of unity and tolerance for divergent views."
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: Respond respectfully to Windsor Report, Convention urges
[SOURCE: Diocese of Northern California] Delegates to the Diocese of Northern California's annual convention, held November 11-12, passed a resolution urging the next General Convention "to reaffirm its constitutional obligation to be a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, with the See of Canterbury, and to respond respectfully to the findings and recommendations of the 2004 Windsor Report."
During debate on the resolution, entitled "Proposal to Remain in the Anglican Communion," delegates substituted the word "respectfully" for the motion's original wording of "to respond positively to the findings and recommendations of the 2004 Windsor Report."
The delegates also passed a resolution allowing withheld apportionment money for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 be used to offset the cost of retired clergy health benefits and benefits paid by the diocese to widows and widowers.
The resolution grows out of a motion presented at the 2003 diocesan convention to allow congregations to designate funds that the givers asked to be withheld from diocesan budget due to the action of General Convention of 2003. Bishop Jerry Lamb took the proposal under advisement and began working with congregations that had apportionment withheld by pledging members of the congregation.
According to an explanation accompanying the resolution, Northern California is one of the few dioceses that pays for health insurance for retirees and surviving spouses, and is one of the few that makes a direct contribution to clergy widows and widowers who would fall below the poverty level if they did not receive diocesan assistance.
"There is a significant concern that if the Diocesan budget is not able to fund this program for retirees it may lead to the elimination of this payment for retired clergy, spouses, widows and supplementary support," the explanation said.
The diocese budgeted $80,000 for retired clergy, spouses and surviving spouses in 2005 and $9,060 for direct support of surviving spouses. It is expected that the cost would go up at least five percent in 2006.
OLYMPIA: Lights go out on annual convention
[SOURCE: Diocese of Olympia] At the exact moment the opening gavel should have rapped in the beginning of the 2005 Diocesan Convention, the lights went out. And they stayed out until the last hymn of an evensong that left St. Mark's Cathedral in beautiful, practical candlelight.
As the cathedral in Seattle, Washington, moved toward twilight, the 700 in attendance for the Friday afternoon session heard Bishop Vincent Warner during his address announce his intention to call for the election of his successor.
A November windstorm rendered the cathedral and the convention powerless throughout the 95th convention's opening day. During his 25-minute address, Warner commented on the Windsor Report and announced his intention to reach a signed agreement with the congregations of St. Charles', Poulsbo, and St. Stephen's, Oak Harbor, about next steps in his attempts to restore them to full communion with the diocese. Each had voted to separate from the diocese one year ago in response to the actions of the 2003 General Convention of the church to concur with the election of an openly gay bishop.
"And so, with deep gratitude for our life together, with the knowledge that God has been with us every step of the way, and with a clear sense that it is the right time in my life and yours, I call for the Diocese of Olympia to move into the process to elect a bishop diocesan to become the next Bishop of Olympia," Warner said at the end of his address. "Thank you for the gift of being present with you in ministry these past 17 years. Remember, God has gotten us through and God will lead us on."
PITTSBURGH: Calls for commitment to action at Network conference
[SOURCE: ENS] "Hope and a Future," a national conference sponsored by the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (NACDP) and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, gathered more than 2,000 participants for sermons, speeches, workshops and worship November 10-12 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
As well as Episcopalians, those in attendance included clergy and laity from the Anglican Mission in America, the Reformed Episcopal Church, the Anglican Province of America, other "continuing" groups outside the Anglican Communion, and other Christian denominations. At least seven of the Anglican Communion's 38 primates were present.
Welcoming the group, Network moderator and Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan declared, "Our identity as orthodox Anglican Christians in North America is as exiles, strangers and aliens... This conference is a step, corporately for us all and individually for each one who has sacrificed to come and who is prepared to claim our hope and decide for our future."
"We don't know everything in this uncertain time," said the Rev. John Guernsey, dean of the Network's Mid-Atlantic Convocation and rector of All Saints Church in Dale City, Maryland, during the opening Eucharist. "We don't know what the new alignment will look like, we don't know the answers to so many of our questions. But we know enough. We know enough to obey. We know enough to follow the Lord if we will but trust His revelation given in the Scriptures."
A panel composed of seven Anglican primates from Africa, Asia and the West Indies challenged the gathering to choose between the Episcopal Church and fellow conservatives in the Anglican Communion.
"Many of you have one leg in ECUSA and one leg in the Network," declared Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. "You must let us know exactly where you stand - are you ECUSA or are you Network?"
"We will stand with you as long as you remain faithful, biblical, evangelical and orthodox," added Bishop Datuk Yong Ping Chung of South East Asia. Later, he indicated that conservative primates "will have to assess their own position whether Lambeth 2008 is a place we want to be" if the Episcopal Church does not "repent and follow what the primates have asked" and is still invited to the decennial meeting of Anglican bishops.
Best-selling author and Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren delivered the keynote sermon, during which he warned conservative Episcopalians not to fight over property. "It's your faith, not your facilities," Warren admonished. "Jesus didn't die for buildings. He died for people, not a steeple."
Across the Episcopal Church's total 110 dioceses and similar geographic regions, 10 U.S. dioceses have voted to affiliate with NACDP, according to statistics. Reports also list another 128 domestic congregations outside these 10 dioceses as NACDP-affiliated. Overall, Episcopal Church domestic membership includes more than 2.2 million members in 7,200 congregations.
Conference participants were given a 20-minute DVD entitled "Choose This Day" to distribute in their dioceses and congregations. The presentation begins with a dramatic depiction of verses being torn from the Bible and alleges that "a different gospel" characterizes the Episcopal Church.
At the conference's closing Eucharist, Bishop Frank Lyons of the Iglesia Anglicana de Bolivia, a diocese of the Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, ordained three Americans as deacons and one as a priest in his church. The ordinations were the first conducted under the auspices of the NACDP. The deacons will not serve in the Bolivian church but in start-up congregations in the Episcopal Church's Dioceses of Connecticut, North Carolina and Washington. The Bolivian church, with four congregations in Bolivia, now has 18 church plants in the United States.
The priest, the Rev. Eliot Winks, was ordained for the Iglesia Anglicana de Chile, though he will head a new congregation located in the Diocese of Maryland. Winks was a deacon in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and said he had initially been called to do campus ministry in Baltimore but was refused licensing by Maryland Bishop Robert Ihloff.
"This is a violation of the Windsor Report," said Ihloff of the ordination. "To introduce churches that claim to be Anglican means that this church ...cannot be recognized in the Anglican Communion, despite the posturing of the bishop of Pittsburgh."
SAN DIEGO: Nun takes on solitary call
[SOURCE: Diocese of San Diego] On November 2 during the celebration of the Feast of All Souls at All Souls Episcopal Church in San Diego, California, Bishop James Mathes set Gloriamarie Amalfitano apart for a special vocation.
"While God calls me to be a Christian solitary, he does not call me to be a hermit," Amalfitano said. "The faith community of All Souls Episcopal Church is the community within which this monastic vocation will be lived. The bishop, our clergy and our parish witnessed God claiming my life as his own. God has been nudging me in this direction for no little time but of course I thought I knew better than he so I resisted. But once he started shoving, I finally paid attention."
The Episcopal Church recognizes three sorts of vowed religious life: those in orders; those living in communities, and solitaries-those not in an order or community. Those called to a monastic life but not to an order or community are established in their calling through the service "Setting Apart for a Special Vocation" found in the Book of Occasional Services.
Amalfitano has spent the last few years exploring religious communities both canonical and emerging within the Episcopal Church as well as some ecumenical ones. Her novitiate began on All Souls Day.
After much prayer, study and reflection, with the assistance of her spiritual directors and others, she has written a Rule in which she promised to abide by the three Benedictine principles: stability, conversion of life and obedience. Her rule is based on the Rule of St. Benedict.
The Benedictine monastic life models a life of balance between prayer and work, study and recreation. Her rule contains a list of books that will be studied during the novitiate both to test the vocation and as formation for the next step in this faith journey.
As far as any can remember, no one in the diocese has been set apart in this manner before.
SOUTHERN OHIO: Delegates celebrate ministry, select leadership
[SOURCE: Diocese of Southern Ohio] Delegates to the Diocese of Southern Ohio's 131st Convention, meeting November 11 in Cincinnati, joined Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Southern Africa, and Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold in celebrating 17 years of ministry and leadership by Bishop Herbert Thompson Jr.
The first African-American bishop in Southern Ohio, Thompson will retire on December 31.
Delegates approved placing Bishop Kenneth L. Price Jr. as bishop for the diocese beginning January 1. Price is currently bishop suffragan of the diocese. He will head the diocese until the consecration of the Ninth Bishop of Southern Ohio, scheduled for April 2007. He will then resume his duties as suffragan.
Price will be the host bishop for the General Convention in June in Columbus. He is also the secretary for the House of Bishops and a member on the Joint Nominating Committee for Presiding Bishop.
The diocese had previously postponed its planned election after the House of Bishops made a covenant to withhold consents for bishop elections until General Convention next year. Because bishops must retire at age 72, and Thompson turns 72 in December, the diocese decided to amend its constitution to allow a bishop suffragan to have ecclesiastical authority in the absence of a diocesan bishop.
Both Tutu and Griswold offered tribute to Thompson's leadership.
Calling him a "consensus builder," Tutu said the chief characteristic of his friend and colleague was inclusiveness. "Being different is the reason why we need each other," Tutu said. "We ought not be scared of diversity. One of the great things about being Christian is our diversity."
"Herb has always been a wonderful colleague and a wise and willing helper in any number of ways, both within our church and across the Anglican Communion," said Griswold at a retirement dinner for Thompson. "He has also, on a number of occasions when the going has been a bit rough, exercised a ministry of encouragement, for which I will always be deeply grateful."
Thompson praised the diocese for its ministry and outreach and talked about the opportunities for ministry that face the diocese.
"God has given us of Southern Ohio the opportunity to host the General Convention of the Episcopal Church at a challenging time," he said. "There's the Windsor Report, the moratorium and threats and rumors of schism. Red and blue statism. The rise of right-wing fundamentalism. Volatile issues, anxious people. What better place for this convention than Southern Ohio? We have the opportunity to embrace the church and to model before the whole church God's call to unity that we have obeyed and that is the hallmark of our life together: Different people of different views, maintaining the spirit of unity in the bond of peace."
Delegates also amended a resolution that called for an affirmation of the Windsor Report. With supporters from a spectrum of theological views, the amended version expresses Southern Ohio's appreciation for the House of Bishops in its response to the other provinces of the Anglican Communion and further resolves that the diocese receive the report "as an appropriate first step in a continuing discussion of ecclesiology and discipline."
VIRGINIA: Bishop names members of special committee
[SOURCE: Diocese of Virginia] The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, Bishop of Virginia, has announced the members of a special committee to help churches continuing in conflict over the decisions of the 74th General Convention in 2003.
The Special Committee will be chaired by Russell V. Palmore, Jr., diocesan chancellor.
At the regular meeting of the diocesan Executive Board with regional deans, regional presidents and members of the Standing Committee, November 10 at Trinity Church, Fredericksburg, Lee announced his additional appointments to the Special Committee:
The Reverend Andrew Merrow, rector, St. Mary's, Arlington; The Reverend Caroline Parkinson, President, Standing Committee, rector, Grace Church, The Plains; The Reverend John Yates, rector, The Falls Church, Falls Church; Hugo Blankingship, Esq., The Falls Church, Falls Church; Tom Yates, Truro Church, Fairfax;
Tom Yates is a former junior warden of Truro. He is not related to John Yates. Merrow chaired the diocesan Reconciliation Commission appointed by Lee in 2004. The final report of that Commission can be found at http://www.thediocese.net/Diocese/reconciliation/index.html. Blankingship also served on that commission and was Palmore's predecessor as diocesan chancellor.
The committee has not yet set a meeting schedule.
VIRGINIA: South Riding missioner, majority of congregation resigns
[SOURCE: Diocese of Virginia] In an afternoon meeting held Monday, November 14, with Bishop Suffragan David Colin Jones, the Rev. Phil Ashey, missioner of South Riding Church since 2002, announced his resignation as missioner effective November 13, 2005. In that meeting and in his letter of resignation, Ashey also stated that a majority of the congregation of South Riding had voted on Sunday, Nov. 13 to leave the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Diocese of Rwenzori of the Anglican Church of Uganda, placing themselves under the canonical authority of the Rt. Rev. Benezeri Kisembo.
News of the congregation's vote was posted to an American Anglican Council Web site at 8:25 p.m., Monday, November 14. It is the first congregation in the Diocese of Virginia to vote on leaving the Episcopal Church.
In his letter of resignation, Ashey also said he was "giving notice that I have been received by the Diocese of Rwenzori."
"I reject the assertion that Mr. Ashey is under any Episcopal authority other than that of the Bishop of Virginia or any canonical authority other than the Canons of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia," said Jones.
In his meeting with the Bishop Suffragan, Ashey returned the parish register, service book, a copy of the congregation's 2004 audit and an inventory of all assets purchased from the operating funds of South Riding Church up to Saturday, November 12, 2005, which he acknowledged belong to the Diocese of Virginia. As a forming congregation, South Riding Church has no canonical status and did not file parochial reports. Financial and membership information could not be readily confirmed.
"I am saddened that a member of the body has chosen to break with the body and feel that our community is diminished for it," said Bishop Peter James Lee of Virginia. Lee added that church membership is an individual choice and said he appreciated Ashey's forthright manner in returning congregational documents and property.
Lee also reaffirmed that Ashey remains under his canonical authority and rejected the assertion of property rights made by Bishop Kisembo in a Nov. 13 letter to Ashey purporting to accept his "letter of transfer."
"The Bishop of Rwenzori has no authority in the Diocese of Virginia," said Lee. "Only a diocesan bishop has the authority to transfer a cleric from the Diocese of Virginia. Mr. Ashey remains under my canonical authority until disciplinary action is taken if any."
Since beginning as a church plant in 2000, more than $350,000 in direct financial support has been given to South Riding Church by the Diocese of Virginia. In 2001, the diocese purchased 8.4 acres in South Riding at a cost of $680,000 for the intended benefit of South Riding. That property is titled in the name of the Bishop of Virginia. Ashey was the third missioner assigned to the plant in five years.
Ashey was named missioner of South Riding in 2002 after serving for three years in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Prior to moving to that diocese, Ashey was an associate at Church of the Apostles, Fairfax from 1992-1999. From 1988-1992 he served churches in the Diocese of Los Angeles.
The press release posted to the American Anglican Council blog site on November 14 stated that the congregation will keep its name and continue to worship at Little River Elementary School in South Riding.
The Diocese of Virginia, organized in 1785, is a community of more than 90,000 members worshipping in 195 congregations in 38 counties throughout one-third of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
WEST MISSOURI: Delegates reduce assessments for some congregations
[SOURCE: Diocese of West Missouri] Delegates to the Diocese of West Missouri's 116th Annual Convention and Gathering approved a change in church assessment to the diocese with little discussion during the business meeting November 5.
The event, held in Springfield, Missouri, November 3-5, also featured a series of educational seminars that made up the "gathering" part of the convention and gathering.
The new assessment formula reduces congregations' assessments ranging from less than one percent to more than 14 percent.
Churches with operating incomes between $100,000 and $150,000 will experience the most significant reductions. Churches with less than $50,000 in annual operating income will experience no change in assessment. The new assessment formula arose from a committee's examination of the existing formula.
Delegates also voted on two other resolutions. El Comite Hispano brought forward a resolution that will ensure that certain convention materials are printed in both Spanish and English in acknowledgment of a growing Hispanic population in West Missouri. At the 2006 Convention and Gathering, delegates will see resolutions and budget materials, worship service programs and the bishop's address in Spanish as well as English.
Those attending this year's convention experienced how this resolution will manifest itself in during a worship service at Christ Church, Springfield. The bulletin for that service was printed with both languages side-by-side.
Delegates repealed a diocesan canon regarding ordination and ministry of local priests and deacons to bring those in line with the canons of the national church.
Seminars that comprised Friday afternoon activities included sessions on the American church in the 18th century, Old Testament narratives that function as turning points for a nation, Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, moral questions in health care, and characteristics of organized religion.
WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA: Convention endorses U.N. millennium goals
[SOURCE: Diocese of Western North Carolina] The 84th annual Convention of the Diocese of Western North Carolina, meeting November 10-12, at Kanuga Conference Center, near Hendersonville, North Carolina, committed itself to increasing its annual budget for outreach ministries.
The convention endorsed and embraced the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and challenged each parish to increase their annual budgets to fund nutritional, education, health care and development programs.
Delegates also adopted a ministry with single adults and a pilot inmate mentor ministry.
In his address to the convention, Bishop G. Porter Taylor said the church's relationship with the Anglican Communion is "wrong headed," adding, "We act as if communion were in our hands. We act as if we are in control of the Spirit. We act as if the Church - which is that 'wonderful and sacred mystery' - were some kind of club whose admission policy is in our hands.
"Communion is a gift from God. Communion is the mystery of God's presence in our lives and in our world. It is not about our small ideas of who belongs in or out of the circle because it is about God's circle and not ours."
The bishop called on every member of the diocese to name the church (either parishes or the diocese itself) in their wills, and he pledged his support and encouragement for ministries in small parishes.
The convention adopted a balanced 2006 budget of almost $1.5 million, passed a resolution honoring the late civil rights leader, Rosa Parks, and asked the diocese's Christian formation group to evaluate the churchwide Catechism of Creation for possible use in diocesan Christian formation programs.