FORT WORTH: Gulick to extend term as provisional bishop till November
Episcopal News Service. June 3, 2009 [060309-04]
Pat McCaughan
The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick Jr. will extend his initial six-month term as provisional bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth by about five months, until at least mid-November, according to a statement released by the diocese.
"It is very wonderful that the Holy Spirit and the people of Fort Worth have entrusted me with such an important ministry at such a significant time," Gulick said in a June 3 press release that also noted the recent appointment of an assistant diocesan chancellor and growth among some displaced diocesan congregations.
"My visitations to Episcopal parishes here have been some of the most fulfilling of my episcopacy," added Gulick, who was installed as bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky in 1994. Since February 2009, when he was overwhelmingly elected provisional bishop of the reconstituted Fort Worth diocese, he has divided his time between the two. Initially, he intended to stay long enough to represent both dioceses at the July 8-17 General Convention in Anaheim.
"I am moved and energized by the clarity, the passion for the Gospel, and the profound commitment to the mission of the Episcopal Church that is evident in all our parishes and faith communities," said Gulick. He will continue to serve until after the November 13-14 diocesan convention.
The Diocese of Kentucky's standing committee supported the extension at an April meeting, according to the Rev. Dr. William J. Watson III, standing committee president and rector of Grace Church in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
"We are delighted that Bishop Gulick's ministry is as effective and sensitive as we hoped you would experience it," Watson wrote in an April 21 letter to the Fort Worth diocese. "Bishop Gulick brings great gifts for Episcopal leadership and pastoral care and we are glad that his ministry continues to be of great benefit to you and to us as well."
Fort Worth's standing committee also announced the appointment of Richard A. Henderson as assistant chancellor. Henderson has served as an attorney in Fort Worth for more than 30 years with wide-ranging commercial, probate, personal injury and criminal trial experience. He is married to attorney Victoria Prescott and will be working with chancellor Kathleen Wells on diocesan legal matters.
Additionally, the reconstituted diocese has welcomed 55 new Episcopalians since the February reorganizations, through baptism, confirmation, or reception from another denomination, according to the release.
Three congregations who were displaced after the former bishop and some diocesan congregations realigned themselves with the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in November 2008, are seeking larger worship space: St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Hurst, Texas; and both All Saints Church and the Church of the Good Shepherd in Wichita Falls. Information on meeting places and times are available here.
Serving dual episcopacies
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori had recommended Gulick as provisional bishop of Fort Worth. Gulick agreed, after securing the approval of Kentucky's standing committee. Since his election at a special convention he has spent blocks of 10-12 days in each location.
Because of his dual role, Gulick will have two votes in the House of Bishops during the upcoming General Convention and has arranged for both deputations to be seated next to each other and to caucus together, according to an interview posted on the diocesan website.
In that interview, with diocesan communicator Mary Jane Cherry, he characterized Fort Worth parishioners as "some of the ablest and most passionate lay people I've had the privilege of working with, and I am modeling for them a different way of being a bishop because I believe that ministry begins at the baptismal font ... Part of what I find myself doing is giving them a theology for ministry."
His average work week ranges between 70 and 80 hours, said Gulick, who has announced plans to retire in 2010. A search for his replacement is underway in Kentucky.
Extending his stay in Fort Worth is important because "we're at the point in the recovery of the [Fort Worth] diocese that to change leadership now would be a real distraction and a real interruption of the trajectory of renewal that we're on," said Gulick. "They need to be recovering their vision about how to be the Episcopal Church. They don't need to be spending their energy on who the bishop is.
"It's been a good match because … my own inclination towards an empowerment of others rather than the control of others has been a very, very welcome perspective for the church in Fort Worth right now. I don't think they're ready to quite let go of that right now, and I don't know if I'm ready to let go of them, if truth be known. It's been hard work, demanding work but in some ways it's some of the most important work that I've done. It reminds me a lot of the work in my first three or four years in Kentucky. In fact, a lot of what I intuitively know how to do in Fort Worth was taught here by the people of Kentucky."