San Joaquin's remaining Episcopalians to gather for reconciliation, inclusion, celebration
Episcopal News Service. January 11, 2008 [011108-02]
Pat McCaughan, Correspondent for Episcopal Life Media in Province VIII
A January 26 gathering of continuing Episcopalians in the Diocese of San Joaquin and national church leaders, "Moving Forward, Welcoming All," will focus on reconciliation, inclusion, and celebration, event organizers said.
"We are just so encouraged; we're looking forward to welcoming more people," said Cindy Smith, president of Remain Episcopal, a group which opposed the December vote to realign the Central California Valley diocese with the Argentina-based Province of the Southern Cone, which has about 22,000 members and encompasses the South American nations of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
Bishop John-David Schofield had urged the realignment, approved by 42 of the diocese's 47 congregations. Clergy approved the split 70-12 and laity voted 103-10 for realignment.
But in recent weeks, momentum and enthusiasm have spiked as additional people and some congregations "have thought about what has happened, what it means to not be part of the Episcopal Church anymore" and sought out continuing communities of faith, said Smith.
"If they choose to come back our arms are open," she added. "Some of our concern is they wonder that if they're more conservative, if there'll be a place for them. By all means, they do have a place. It is the goal of Remain Episcopal (RE) that the continuing diocese will be one with an inclusive focus, as the national church has."
All are invited to attend the 9.30 a.m. Saturday, January 26 gathering at the Church of Our Saviour in Hanford, about 30 miles south of Fresno. In addition to Smith, featured speakers are to include: the Rev. Canon Robert Moore, appointed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as an interim pastoral presence and Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies.
Also expected to address the gathering are: Michael O. Glass, an attorney active with Remain Episcopal; the Rev. Charles Ramsden, vice president, client services, Church Insurance Agency Corporation (CIAC), a priest for 30 years; and Holly McAlpen, also vice president, client services, CIAC, a missioner for 20 years with the Diocese of California. Michael Gardner, director of Music Ministries for RE's Bakersfield Faith Community will also be included in the program.
"They've asked me to talk about survival and reconciliation," Moore, who is married to Bishop Suffragan Bavi Edna "Nedi" Rivera of the Seattle-based Diocese of Olympia and the daughter of Victor Rivera, the former Bishop of San Joaquin, said in an earlier interview.
Anderson, who keynoted a 2007 mission conference in San Joaquin, said she is absolutely delighted to participate.
"They have taken some amazing initiatives," said Anderson. "The lay people have taken responsibility for their lives, they're really truly living into their baptismal covenant. They're aware and listening to what God is telling them to do, how God is acting through them and they're being faithful and looking for reconciliation and looking toward getting on with their mission work.
"I am hoping I can be part of that encouragement for them and do whatever I can to assist them," she added.
Listening tour to focus on 'hopes, concerns and dreams'
From January 21-25, Moore will embark on "a listening tour, in Stockton, Modesto, Fresno, Bakersfield, and Visalia," he said. A priest for 27 years, he has said he expects to be available to the people of the San Joaquin diocese at least until an interim episcopate is in place.
"As a pastoral presence, the most immediate need is for the people who have been really traumatized throughout this process," he has said.
"We want to have as many people who want to see him and who want to talk with him to be able to express to him concerns and hopes and dreams for the future," Smith said. "We're specifically trying to support loyal clergy who have really been without anyone to act as their pastor for years."
Momentum is building, she added. "We're getting clergy and laity groups emailing and calling, asking to be included in the schedule. People are coming by car and caravan and we've even heard they may be renting a bus from up North to get a whole group to make the best use of his time."
Samantha Bland, a parishioner at Christ the King Church in Riverbank, a host site for the listening tour, said the presence of both Moore and Anderson is "a gracious gift" desperately needed and much appreciated.
"I have never in my life felt so incredibly spiritually abused as I have in the last four months, it has shaken me to the core," she said. "We don't all have to be of one single mind, or close the door to people because we view things differently."
"In our church parking lot we have cars with bumper stickers that say Republican Central Committee parked next to ones supporting Obama for President, parked next to ones supporting Greenpeace. That's the beauty of being Episcopalian, we bring forth all of the wonderful attributes our community has to offer."
Some Christ the King parishioners "are on their third church, because others have been closed and sold," she added. "And at convention, I looked around at our wonderful, lovely clergy and my heart breaks for them, too."
"We're really going through it," acknowledged the Rev. Glenn Kanestrom, rector of the Riverbank church. On January 8, Christ the King became the latest congregation to go public about remaining Episcopalian. At a Tuesday evening vestry meeting "we decided to do all those things necessary to stay in the Episcopal Church," he said. The congregation had previously enrolled in a diocesan-mandated insurance program but now "we've changed back to church insurance and we've done other financial things to insure our money is going in the right place."
When he and about 30 parishioners travel to the Hanford meeting, he is expecting a sense of "coming home and being at home, of worshipping together and finding our commonality. The Spirit is moving. It takes us all out of a place of comfort and brings us to a place where we confront who we are and what we value and what's really important to us. It really is a time when you can't sit on the fence any longer, you have to step out in faith and, as we do, the spirit is there."
Glass, a San Rafael-based attorney, said he will outline the process necessary "to reconstitute the diocese and to provide for an ecclesiastical authority and a bishop."
"People have a ton of legal questions" including vestries with insurance and other financial questions, said Glass, who also serves on the House of Bishops Task Force on Property Disputes. His own client list, of remaining congregations has grown from four to eight in the past month. He also represents "a few dozen individuals who are scattered as minority loyalists in other parishes."
He added: "The door's open, come talk to us. If you want to remain Episcopalian and you're in a place where you feel trapped, reach out," Glass said.
'Getting the word out' to everyone
Jane Chenowith is 87 and in failing health but eager to attend the Hanford gathering because "now there is hope we're going to remain Episcopalians.
"I can hold my own with anybody as far as my feeling about my church," declared Chenowith, a diabetic and a heart patient with failing eyesight who hopes to tell her story on January 26th. She and her husband, William, were founding members of St. Dunstan's Church in Modesto.
When Schofield closed, bolted and sold the Modesto church several years ago, preventing the congregation's planned final celebration, "there was a lot of heartbreak," she said, her voice breaking. "They locked the doors on Wednesday and wouldn't let us have our last service. We weren't allowed to take our personal things; they said what was there belonged to the diocese."
The Rev. Van McAlister, the diocesan public relations missioner, said Schofield "is aware of the meeting, and has always been open and forthright with being encouraging and supporting of those who wish to remain with the Episcopal Church. He's not opposing the meeting at all."
McAlister added that St. Dunstan's was closed about two years ago, and was among three congregations closed because of a decline in membership and giving. "I don't remember the exact circumstances of when it was closed up but of course for any member who's been a long-time member closing their church will be a heartbreaking set of circumstances," he said. He added that Schofield was not in the office on Friday.
Chenowith said: "I thought we would never not have St. Dunstan's because of the columbarium" where her husband's ashes were interred. "You don't shove ashes round about," she added. "They wouldn't even tell us what happened to the processional cross and torches, which I'd donated as memorial for my family. Besides losing our church when we realized we were not going to be in the Episcopal Church anymore that to me is the last straw."
She recovered her husband's ashes and joined Christ the King but said she worries for other members of the "family who don't go anywhere now."
Those are exactly the people whom Nancy Key, and other Remain Episcopal organizers are hoping to reach. "The biggest challenge right now is getting the word out," said Key.
She noted that several new names have been added to the organization's website, including a remnant from Trinity Church in Madera, which Schofield closed two years ago. They have now identified as a continuing Episcopal faith community and are meeting at Jay's Funeral Chapel.
As momentum continues to build, RE "believes that more than half of the parishes will ultimately decide to remain with the Episcopal Church. In the last six weeks, people have been going through their own discernment and more and more are not willing to be part of the Southern Cone," said Key.