Convention in Diocese of New Jersey Spurns Bishop's Attempts at Reconciliation
Episcopal News Service. March 19, 1998 [98-2117]
Jerry Hames, Editor of Episcopal Life
(ENS) A long-festering feud between Bishop Joe Morris Doss and many clergy and lay leaders in the Diocese of New Jersey erupted at the diocesan convention March 13-14 with a resounding defeat of the bishop's supporters on diocesan appointments and committees and a renewed call for his resignation.
The convention, which met at Atlantic City's Sheraton Convention Center Hotel, approved a revised, balanced budget of $1,996,691 for 1998, a drop of $650,000 from the '98 budget approved just a year ago. Newly elected treasurer Peter Hausman told a budget and finance hearing that 34 parishes are now withholding funds from the diocese for a variety of reasons.
The new budget cuts to the bone many diocesan programs and eliminates others, such as evangelism and communications. The budget wipes out all $515,000 once budgeted for the national church, eliminates a $6,000 grant to Province II whose synod the diocese is hosting in May, reduces small grants to diocesan missions from $120,000 to $9,000, and cuts funds to the cathedral from $20,000 to $10,000.
While the diocese suffered without a treasurer and a chief financial officer in the months leading to convention, it now appears that it may now be without legal counsel. The standing committee declined to approve Richard D. Catenacci, the bishop's nominee for chancellor, and Catenacci withdrew at the last minute a resolution, which asked the convention to direct the standing committee to concur in the bishop's reappointment. The chancellor was shouted down at one stage when he attempted to address the convention.
Much of the action taken during the two-day convention centered upon the elections, the budget and several canonical changes, which tighten financial controls, extends auditing to discretionary funds and gives diocesan council the right, with the standing committee's approval, to seek outside legal counsel.
In his address to the 214th convention, Doss said the call from the standing committee and diocesan council last fall for his resignation "is one of the more extreme actions taken in the history of the Episcopal Church." He was adamant in his refusal to resign.
"My decision to stay the course is the result of a desire to fulfill my call and my vocation, " he said. "My decision to stay the course has to do with what it means to be an Anglican now...and what it means to be an Anglican with a sense of mission." He drew upon his experience at the House of Bishops a week earlier in which the bishops engaged in circle dancing and Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold shared an ancient image of the Trinity as "the circle dance of dispossession."
Doss continued, "It is time for us in the Diocese of Jersey to attest to that which is at the center of our Christian identity. It is time for us to join hands and follow the Trinity in a circle of dispossession. Listen, please, if you hear only one thing I say. We do not find our truth in the spirit of division and separation and personal possessiveness. We find truth in communion," Doss said.
Unlike last year, when Doss admitted to convention that he had made mistakes and received a standing ovation, his address was greeted with stony silence. A sprinkling of applause rippled among the 750 delegates and some stood to show their support.
The majority declined the bishop's invitation to dance with him by defeating each and every candidate put forward as part of a "restoration coalition," a widely circulated voter's guide listing that endorsed a list of candidates who support the bishop.
Doss is now faced with a treasurer who does not support him and a diocesan council and standing committee which want his resignation.
During the closing hours of convention, the Rev. Roger Hamilton, who retires as standing committee chair to become a member of diocesan council, reiterated the committee's request for the bishop's resignation. "Many of us rose [last year after Doss' address] to thank God for an opportunity to heal as the body of Christ," Hamilton said. "However, the truth is that as the year progressed we saw not only a greater projection of blame on others, but also an increased exploitation of people and process."
Hamilton continued, "Recent revelations of his contempt toward our black brothers and sisters have made it clear that there is no hope for change. It is evident to me that the bishop uses the faith of the Christian community as a weakness to manipulate and coerce. In Bishop Doss we see one for whom the church has become a means to power and control." Hamilton sat down to sustained applause.
Seven representatives from the diocese, including the former treasurer, former chief financial officer, standing committee chair and former head of the diocesan wellness committee, said that they met with Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold a week before the convention to discuss the impasse. They said after the convention that they would seek a second meeting with Griswold, although the presiding bishop lacks jurisdiction over the actions and behavior of diocesan bishops.
Criticism of Doss increased days prior to the convention when the Trenton Times reported that the bishop had misused his discretionary fund as a source of interest-free loans to himself. A report by diocesan audit committee, which the committee claimed the bishop tried to block, cited "inappropriate expenditures" for the bishop's personal use. The funds were subsequently repaid, in whole or in part.
The diocesan chancellor called for a retraction and apology from the newspaper and, according to some spokespeople, threatened legal action.
Doss remains convinced that the majority of the diocese supports him. "When I go out into parishes each Sunday, I find wonderful support and community," he said at a closing press conference. He dismissed his critics, saying, "If I look at the entire diocese, it's a small minority."