Following approval from the diocesan standing committee, the Rt. Rev. Peter H. Beckwith, Bishop of Springfield since 1992, has called for the election of his successor.
Bishop Beckwith, who will be 70 in September, is required by church law to step down as diocesan bishop after turning 72. Current plans in Springfield call for the election of a bishop coadjutor, which is an assistant bishop with right of succession upon the retirement or death of the incumbent.
[blockquote]is required by church law to step down as diocesan bishop after turning 72[/blockquote]
Well that doesn’t sound very inclusive of the elderly to me 😉
NOw for all the “moderate” candidates to appear! Another conservative is -shall we say- highly unlikely to be approved.
This should be an interesting test case to see if there is going to be a future for the orthodox in the Episcopal Church. If they elect a conservative candidate who is unwavering in public discourse about his desire to keep Springfield in TEC, I dare the church to refuse him.
I hope the Diocese does elect a conservative if that is its discernment. After the debacle w/ Bishop Lawrence and the Dio SC, and since the DioSpringfield so far as I know has made no gestures of secession, I think the progressive wing would be foolish to try to obstruct the consecration of a conservative. It would make all the dire predictions of the secessionists come true.
The question is, will they select more than one?
The Theravadin Buddhists at the Chanmyay Satipatthana Vihara monastery in Springfield, Illinois might have somebody who would be willing to take the job. They have several folks who possess the following qualifications to be an Episcopal bishop:
Saddhindriya – firm and strong faith based on right understanding.
Viriyindriya – strong and strenuous effort in meditative practice.
Satindriya – sustained and uninterrupted mindfulness.
Samadhindriya – deep concentration.
Pannindriya – penetrative wisdom, insight.
Chanmyay Satipatthana Vihara
525 N Bruns Lane
Springfield, Illinois 62702
I suspect that there will not be a long queue of applicants for being Bishop of Springfield. From 2002 through 2007 it lost 15 percent of its Members and 24 percent of its ASA and there was no change in Plate & Pledge which means that with inflation real income declined 16 percent. Of its 38 churches there was in 2007 only ONE with Plate & Pledge over $300,000 and 28 with Plate & Pledge less than $150,000 which provides rationale for there being no churches that voted to leave TEC. And it is an aging group with 60 Infant Baptisms and 110 Burials in 2007. And it took 5,697 Members to produce those 60 baptisms or 95 to ONE. The PB may personally present her Birth Control Award to Springfield. Having grown-up in Southern Illinois (where Chicago was considered a foreign virus), I would guess that the LGBT agenda is not selling well. Statmann
I have known about this since our parish annual meeting in January, but that doesn’t make reading about any easier to take. I am on the periphery of this Anglicanism Unpleasantness, so cannot speak to how this has been received in the rest of the diocese. I am formerly TEC, but left in 1994 for reasons other than the Current Unpleasantness. Statmann’s observations about the diocese in general fit my parish to a “T”. ASA is about 30 for the two Sunday and about 4 for the Wednesday night Mass. The average age is 60-65. There are maybe 5 children in the parish (all teenagers) who generally come only when they are serving as acolytes. The rector is orthodox but the congregation, by and large, is not. As one of the vestry members told me last fall: ” We don’t know what the big deal is…. we think there’s nothing wrong with female priests, we all think the Presiding Bishop is doing a great job, and what is the big deal about gays? In this day and age it is difficult not to know someone or be related to someone who is gay. In fact, the only person we know that thinks the way you do (i.e, orthodox views) is the Rector”. The rector plans to retire in about a year. Need I say more about the direction of this parish?
Are there any ACNA lifeboats on the horizon?
Well, I am off to Mass… it will be interesting to see the reaction of the others..