Diocese of Quincy Struggles with Small Parishes and Theological Ferment
Episcopal News Service. November 9, 1995 [95-1296]
Jerry Hames, Editor of Episcopal Life
(ENS) Bishop Keith Ackerman views his episcopal ministry as one of "servanthood" to the 3,500 baptized Episcopalians in Quincy, one of the smallest dioceses in the church.
"If only we would wash more feet," he told House of Deputies President Pamela Chinnis and Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning on a three-day tour of the diocese in October.
The two senior church officials, along with the senior executive for program, Diane Porter, and Browning's information officer, Barbara Braver, traveled 500 miles, meeting with many clergy and several lay leaders in what was the last of five diocesan visits that also took the team to Nevada, Mississippi, Olympia and Connecticut in 1995.
The visits were designed to determine what national programs would be most helpful for dioceses and preceded church-wide visitations to all dioceses by Executive Council members and national staff in early 1996.
Ackerman, who at age 49 is one of the church's youngest bishops, brings his own brand of infectious evangelism to a diocese that has been staunchly Anglo-Catholic since its inception in 1878. A graduate of Wisconsin's Nashotah House as is 80 percent of Quincy's clergy, Ackerman shares their Anglo-Catholic roots, but he also travels with a briefcase from which he sells church memorabilia ranging from lapel pins to bumper stickers.
Ackerman says his goal is to be a minister of reconciliation. That should be good news for many in this part of Illinois who have come to believe that both the world, and the church, is passing them by.
Quincy was shaped more than a century ago by natural boundaries -- the Illinois River on the east and the Mississippi on the west -- divisions that have no meaning today. The city of Quincy on the Mississippi, once the diocesan seat with a stately episcopal mansion, has faded from its former glory and the city of Peoria, where the cathedral and diocesan office now stand, is split by the Illinois River between the dioceses of Quincy and Springfield.
The region is the story of struggling farms, lost blue-collar jobs and a steady migration of young people to the cities. The diocese's own story, according to its bishop, is one that includes a steady loss of funds and closed churches.
"We have churches where we have no people and people where we have no churches," Ackerman said. He has urged the diocese to set up a capital fund drive and last year encouraged each parish to develop a mission statement and long range goals. The majority, but not all, have done so.
"The bureaucracy of the church perpetuates systems which so often must be served. And this is wrong," Ackerman told his convention. "It is Jesus who must be served."
More than half the parishes in the diocese are missions, most of them staffed by retired priests which make up the majority of Quincy's 50 canonically resident clergy.
At several points in the visit, Diane Porter said that the national church wants to serve small congregations in small dioceses more efficiently. "We want to look at how our programs can be of greater service to you," she told clergy. "We want to provide the best tools possible to enable you to do what you want," she said.
Porter suggested introducing programs tailored for small churches before launching any new initiative. A covenant with Quincy, similar to those negotiated with the other dioceses visited, is under discussion.
Throughout the visit, Browning and Chinnis heard the need for dialogue within the diocese -- both from "traditionalists," distressed and angry that non-celibate gays are being ordained, and from "liberals," who want a change in a diocesan policy that does not recognize the validity of women priests.
Ackerman said that just four clergy, two of them from St. Paul's Cathedral, support women in the priesthood and episcopate.
In spite of formidable challenges, some parishes have developed effective programs of which the diocese is proud. Visitors learned first-hand of a newly-emerging Hispanic ministry among migrant workers at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Silvus, Illinois, where a $20,000 United Thank Offering grant will assist in the development of a nursery, food pantry and immigration and naturalization office.
Lay leaders in Quincy described with pride their 45-year-old thrift shop which has a "tremendous outreach to the community," and others at St. Paul's Cathedral in Peoria traced the development of an impressive ecumenical youth ministry, Youth Missions Organization, which has 18 youth leaders in schools and participating each week in Sunday night outreach.
"We've recruited 75 people in the last three years, most of them in the senior high ministry," said YMO director Joel Anderson. Others described how $680,000 in grants from the Presiding Bishop's World Relief Fund provided emergency funds to more than 500 families driven from their homes by the Mississippi floods a year ago. Some low-lying settlements remain as ghost towns today.
"We didn't say 'Are you Episcopalian?'" said Donna Johnston of Quincy, who helped organize the relief aid program. "We said 'Are you flooded?' This experience has restored many people's faith in God and the church," she said.
The visitors also talked with lay people with a deep and unswerving faith. Among them was Donald K. Gnuse of Quincy, who for 32 years was treasurer of the diocese. "We love this church," he told the presiding bishop. "We don't like all the things that are happening, but we are committed to the Episcopal Church."