The Anglo-Catholic Diocese of Quincy based in Peoria has announced plans to elect its next bishop.
The diocese has been led by the diocesan standing committee since the retirement of Bishop Keith Ackerman last fall.
“We’ve begun the process of assessing the needs and vision of our diocese and forming a search committee,” said the Rev. John Spencer, president of the standing committee. “We’ll begin receiving nominations on July 1 and will move forward with interviews through the late summer. We plan to elect at our annual synod in October.”
Hmmm. Interesting that with just 19 (mostly small) congregations, the Anglican Diocese of Quincy is planning on electing a part-time bishop, who will also be the pastor of one of those churches. However, they also expect some conservative Anglo-Catholic parishes in other parts of the country to join their diocese. It will be interesting to see how that all pans out.
But it goes to show that theological conservatism need not imply methodological conservatism. It’s quite possible, and often highly desirable, to combine being staunchly conservative theologically with being very innovative in terms of church structure and of finding creative new ways to communicate the unchanging gospel to an ever changing world.
+Keith Ackerman, SSC, may be one of the shortest priests or bishops in North America, but he still leaves behind big shoes that will be hard to fill.
David Handy+