NORTH DAKOTA: Bishop Carol Gallagher to provide pastoral care in diocese
Episcopal News Service. June 5, 2008 [060508-04]
Joe Bjordal, Correspondent for Episcopal Life Media in Provinces V and VI
Bishop Michael G. Smith of North Dakota has announced that the Rt. Rev. Carol J. Gallagher has accepted an invitation to assist in providing episcopal pastoral care in the diocese. The announcement was made in a letter from Smith to members of the diocese, posted on its blog the evening of June 4.
In his letter, Smith said that Gallagher "has agreed to reach out especially to congregations and clergy who feel alienated and hurt by me due to different understandings of human sexuality."
In an interview June 5, Smith said that, like most other dioceses, Episcopalians in North Dakota hold differing views about human sexuality. He described the people of his diocese as mostly "moderate liberals and moderate conservatives." He said the discussion has been going on for some time, but "heated up" earlier this year.
During Holy Week, the Rev. Gayle Baldwin, a professor at the University of North Dakota, an Episcopal priest (licensed to officiate in the Diocese of Wyoming) and a lesbian in a committed relationship, went public with the fact that Smith had refused to grant her a license to officiate in North Dakota. That escalated the discussion, Smith said.
Smith said "we find ourselves in the midst of a discernment process, seeking the mind of Christ, about whether the Holy Spirit is leading us to new understandings of human sexuality or not."
"I'm just being completely transparent about this," said Smith. "I am especially concerned that clergy receive the pastoral care they need."
Smith made it clear that no congregation in North Dakota has requested "Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight," a process established by the House of Bishops in 2004 allowing diocesan bishops to delegate pastoral care for dissenting congregations.
"This is about finding a new way to walk and listen together with God," he said.
Speaking from her home in New Jersey, Gallagher termed the venture "an exciting opportunity to open ourselves to grace."
"My hope is that we can both provide a new model of listening together with God in the Spirit about critical issues and also to model together as bishops a new way of being, listening and doing mission together," she said.
Gallagher said she would begin her new ministry mostly by telephone and email, but would participate in North Dakota's annual convention in October. She said that the plan is so new that most of the details have yet to be worked out.
Smith said the initial plan is to bring Gallagher to the Diocese of North Dakota "probably only two or three times a year."
New models for episcopal ministry are nothing new for Smith, who last year became an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Louisiana, both as a result of the need there following Hurricane Katrina and at the recommendation of a North Dakota diocesan task force that suggested he "farmed out" for service as a "new model of ordering our life and ministry together." Smith said that a previous Bishop of North Dakota had assisted in Minnesota in a similar fashion.
"As we looked at that model again," he said, "we decided that such service does not need to be right next door."
Smith spends one week per month in Louisiana.
Gallagher, the first female Native American (Cherokee) bishop in the Episcopal Church, previously served in Southern Virginia and Newark. She recently completed a new book, Reweaving the Sacred: A Practical Guide to Change and Growth for Challenged Congregations (2008, Church Publishing). She blogs daily at http://mamabishop.blogspot.com/.
Smith concluded his letter to the Episcopalians in North Dakota by saying: "As this discernment continues through the canonical processes of The Episcopal Church and the conciliar processes of the Anglican Communion, I urge patience, kindness and respect in our dealings with one another.
"I also pray our energies will be focused on engaging the mission of the church as we are sent into this world to serve the poor and to share our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."