Regular readers of the Anglican blogosphere, be they fans of blogs such as T19, Stand Firm, Drell, and BabyBlue on one “side” or EpiScope, Episcopal Cafe, Fr. Jake, and Susan Russell on the other “side,” know things are buzzing right now. We’re gearing up for the September TEC HoB meetings in New Orleans later this week (Sept 20-25), the Common Cause Bishops’ Council in Pittsburgh immediately following, and the September 30 Dar es Salaam deadline. In some quarters, reports, responses, articles and pastoral letters are flying so fast and thick that it’s dizzying and pretty much impossible to “read it all,” no matter how often Kendall exhorts us to do just that!
But the buzz and news overload that those of us who follow the blogs are experiencing right now may be surprisingly limited in scope.
Your humble elf had more time for web browsing yesterday than any day in the last 2 months or so. It seemed like a good time to go on one of our periodic diocesan “news trawls.” What is being said in the various dioceses that we don’t hear from so often or read about much on the blogs? What responses have there been to the proposed covenant? What are bishops writing their flocks about the upcoming HoB meeting? etc. I knew from previous forays into diocesan website land that the results would be patchy. Some dioceses excel in timely communication, but many fail on that score. I expected that in a good number of dioceses the whole “Anglican crisis” and Dar deadline is being downplayed. But even I, an experienced denizen of diocesan websites, was surprised by what I found.
In the 4 hours I had free, I was able to visit the diocesan websites of 31 TEC dioceses. I focused on dioceses which I knew, from past experience, tended to have informative and relatively up-to-date websites. I purposely avoided some of the Network dioceses where there’s been recent news and statements (such as Central FL, Fort Worth, San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Quincy, etc.) We already know these dioceses are engaged in the current crisis. I tried to hit some of the biggest and most influential dioceses (Texas, Atlanta, New York…) and also many Camp Allen or reasonably moderate dioceses, as well as to get a good geographic mixture.
Here’s a list of the diocesan sites I visited and what I found. A diocese received a “NO” if I could find nothing new about the TEC/Anglican situation since the March HoB meeting. (Legend: **Network diocese, *Camp Allen bishop)
Alabama – NO
** Albany – NO
Arizona – NO
Arkansas – NO
Atlanta – NO
California – NO
Colorado – NO
Connecticut – NO
** Dallas – YES — a good selection of background links and resources, though most not very recent, nothing specific on the upcoming HoB meeting
East Carolina – NO
East Tennessee – YES — a nice and quite current “Windsor Process” page
Florida – NO
Lexington – NOPE, surprising given +Sauls lead role in many recent reports, etc.
Los Angeles – Nothing since April
Massachusetts – NO
Mississippi — YES. Pastoral letter from +Duncan Gray.
Newark – No
New York – Yes. Bishop’s letter July / August (see p. 3), special 8 page insert in Dio. Newsletter
North Carolina – YES Big feature on “Communion Matters” meetings throughout the diocese on the homepage
* North Dakota – not really. A passing mention in Dio. Newsletter “pray for Sept HoB meeting”
* Northern Indiana – No (Bp. Little is on sabbatical, but will be attending HoB mtg)
Ohio – No
Rio Grande – YES Pastoral letter from +Steenson
SE Florida – Partial: Response by Executive board to Anglican Convenant (unclear if laity and parishes are engaged, however)
* SW Florida – Nothing new since May (surprising. SW FL is usually VERY current on news and info)
** Springfield – No
* Tennessee – No
* Texas – No
Upper SC – No
Virginia – NO
* West Texas – YES. Sept 2007 Audio message to diocese from Bp. Lillibridge
So, totalling up the YES column and the NO column:
Only 7 of 31 (or 8, if one counts SE Florida, which is somewhat borderline…) had anything substantive and current on the ECUSA/Anglican crisis. That’s 25%. So of the nearly 1/3 of the ECUSA domestic dioceses surveyed (and I chose those which I know to have generally informative and regularly updated websites) it would appear that 75% of these dioceses are not getting out current info on the Anglican crisis. This includes Network dioceses (Albany and Springfield), and Windsor Dioceses (Northern Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, and SW Florida), as well as more reappraising dioceses. Big dioceses with lots of resources, and small dioceses. I have absolutely no reason to think that the dioceses I didn’t survey are any better.
The lesson to draw from this: If you care about these issues and the decisions that lie ahead, share the news you read on this blog and others with your fellow parishoners, or friends in other dioceses, etc. Don’t assume that the dioceses or other structures are getting the news out. There are many in TEC parishes who have no idea that there is a House of Bishops’ meeting this week. If you care, share a few links and invite them to pray and get involved!
–elfgirl
There may not be anything up on the Diocesan web page, but there has been some stuff going on in TN. The Bishop formed a committee to come up with a set of questions to help focus congregational responses to the current situation in the Church, and [i]Communion Matters[/i] was encouraged as a study document along with other resources (in our parish we looked at the Primate’s statement from Dar, Bishop Bauerschmidt’s response to that, and the subsequent HOB response and Bishop Bauerschmidt’s response to them).
I don’t know how many congregations took the opportunity, or who took it seriously, but I know our people appreciated the opportunity to voice their concerns to the Bishop before he goes to the HOB meeting.
Jody+ that’s good to hear, and I do recognize the website is not the sole or even most important resource in many/most dioceses. So, obviously I hope all will take that into consideration as a caveat to what I wrote above.
Also, it’s always possible that I missed or overlooked important resources or pastoral letters, etc. from the dioceses listed above. I generally didn’t spend much more than 10 minutes per diocesan site.
Please feel free to use this thread to share what information has been released in your diocese and to post any links, resources or news which I may have missed.
Thanks! –elfgirl
Hmmm…
I suspect that of those “many in TEC parishes who have no idea that there is a House of Bishops’ meeting this week,” a bunch of them will be a lot better informed–and/or have a lot more questions–by this time next week, when the news media will have brought it into front and center. Perhaps we should spend our time getting ready to answer the question, “What does all this mean?”
surprisingly nothing on the HoB at the Diocese of SC site. unsurprisngly, nothing on the Mo. or Rochester diocesan sites…
Southeast Florida actually came up with an extensive analysis (negative) of the Covenant, as I posted back in July.
I examined the Diocese of Texas website late last week too for any such information, and I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find nothing about the coming week and the September 30th deadline. Why is this? However, you can check out quickly MDG resources and go to the Texas Episcopalian (monthly news) – where you are treated to the draft Mission statement of the DOT (“Jesus Christ unites us as one Church engaged in transformation, reconciliation and service.”) IMHO, 815 would be most pleased with the draft of the new vision/mission statement and core values of the DOT.
#5, I’ve updated the info for SE Florida in the entry above.
I’d considered it a bit borderline, since the response to the Anglican Covenant was pretty much at an official level (the diocesan Executive Board). That response dates to May and I hadn’t seen anything new on the SE FL site since then. Also, it wasn’t/isn’t clear to me whether there has been any engagement at a parish or regular layperson (the pew potato) level with these issues, or merely the diocesan leaders giving a response. Have there been any open discussion forums, etc. in the diocese for laity to voice their opinion?
But, I may be unfairly holding SE Florida to a bit of an arbitrary higher standard, so I’ll count it as #8 in the YES column. That doesn’t really change the 25% / 75% split.
Keep the info coming folks from your dioceses. It’s really helpful.
This is admittedly oblique to the current topic, but . . .
DioWV has a “Draft Diocesan Constitution (June 2007)” posted [url=http://www.wvdiocese.org/shared/content_objects/cliresources//draft%20constitution%20june%202007.pdf]here[/url]. Also, the Diocesan Convention is apparently coming up Sept. 27-29, the preparation documents of which can be seen [url=http://www.wvdiocese.org/diocesanconvention/default.asp]here[/url].
The Atlanta Diocese has a newsletter which recently solicited input from parishioners on what our response should be at the Sept 30 meeting. I sent my input and received a “thank you.” I haven’t been to their website lately, however.
Upper SC not only did not mention the meeting, but for the first time since I have lived here (1978) they didn’t even publish the bishop’s calendar.
In the Diocese of San Diego Newsletter a letter from Bp. Mathes was included that breifly touched on the HoB meeting. Though he stressed that he has not done anything that would violate the primates request (nor has he given the assurances sought), he is negative on the proposed covenant. He was bold enough to predict that no matter what happens in New Orleans, TEC will remain a full member of the AC.
I guess suing 3 of his former parishes does not count as doing anything in his mind.
Along with being clueless about evangelism, the internet revolution seems to have passed by TEC with little or no impact. What major denomination communicates via newsletter these days? When your congregations are primarily aged 55 and above then the need for electronic communication diminishes substantially.
It could be that there is just not that much interest.
As a leader of a 200+ congregation diocese, I’d be alarmed if there were no interest in a mtg of the HOB that decides the future of TEC for years to come. I’d want to CREATE some awareness – state my case, for or against. Being satisfied with either apathy or ignorance is a miserable expectation of your flock and a sign of failed leadership.
This is a non-story in the Doicese of Georgia. We are more interested in ordinations.
#15,
I do care. So do many people in my congregation. However, in our diocese we had a parish leave for “Godly” oversight a few years ago. Lots of pain and difficult. Most of us recognize now that the wheels are set in motion and no matter what our (TEC) bishops do, the minds of the Global South are made up and the invasion/ oversight/ structure is already in place and moving foward. So most of us are back at work at our own mission and ministry efforts. I really don’t think it matters what TEC does. Minds are made up.
EG,
It is very sketchy, but there is a brief note on the DioTN web page concerning the results of the Communion Matters survey: http://www.episcopaldiocese-tn.org/communionmatters_report.pdf It mentions 23 replies, and there are 51 parishes listed on the diocesean web site. Considering how much leaway was given to the parish wardens and priests, one wonders how this was handled, or not handles, in the majority of parishes?
APB
Regarding the diocese of Alabama, in the monthly diocesan newsletter, [i]The Apostle[/i] (which by the way, one can’t pull up off the website) there was a mention about the upcoming HOB meeting. Read what Bishop Parsley wrote to his flock in his column about this all important meeting in New Orleans.
Brace yourself now:[blockquote]”Your bishops will be in New Orleans in September for our interim meeting. The Archbishop of Canterbury will join us for two days of conversation and a special public service in support of New Orleans. The bishops will be engaging in recovery ministries and visiting churches hard hit by Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Louisiana. Our commitment is to bring $10,000 from each of our dioceses to contribute to relief efforts—your special gifts for this are welcome. Please keep our meeting in your prayers that the unity and mission of the Church will be strengthened.”[/blockquote]
So, you see, we get no news from the diocese, never have. One may even think, after reading the above excerpt, that the diocese is purposefully keeping the average pewsitter in the dark. Thanks to Titusonenine, StandFirm, etc. we get to see the light. Thanks for the always great work!
#17 – It may not matter now – now that ECUSA’s apparent untrustworthiness has been demonstrated time and time again, from Frank Griswold to Peter Lee – but at one time it certainly did matter what the HOB, and every other body, did. The wheels were not “set in motion,” and Godly submission to the wishes of its commuion partners would likely have strangled ECUSA’s opposition in its crib. At the very least, it would have taken so much wind out of the opposition’s sails that little international support of the kind that’s been so crucial could have been marshalled.
ECUSA’s “mission and ministry efforts” – which mostly boils down, these days, to making the world safe for sexual libertinism within a Faith whose Founder said, “take up your cross and deny yourselves” – certainly do continue, and were going to continue, no matter what anybody else did or didn’t do. In this case, as in so many others, we see the old reappraiser projection tic on full display.
Kendall: SW Florida has just invested +Dabney Smith diocesan, which explains the quietude, IMO. +Lipscomb’s health and pending retirement contributed to his silence, and +Smith, not being the diocesan hasn’t publically commented about any of this. He did not go to Camp Allen (the latest installment) as far as I know. this could be because he had some personal issues involving the death of his mother about that time.
HOWEVER, I too am nervous about exactly where this diocese is…personally, I am no longer able to be as active coordinating things, and have not done anything. (Due to new work). I think it is the quiet before the storm, and everybody is waiting to see where the storm will make landfall.
Blessings!
Doug Spangler
RE: “It could be that there is just not that much interest.”
Yeh — or that bishops would like for there to be “just not that much interest” . . . hmmm . . . thinking, thinking . . . wonder which one it is?? ; > )
The mantra at my parents’ church is “We will not let what’s happening in the National Church affect what we do.”
I guess the diocese is happy to accomodate. Out of sight. Out of mind. I call this the Ostrich-Head-in-the-sand approach. Or to use another analogy, envision 3 monkeys — one covering its eyes, one covering its mouth, one covering its ears.
Doug (#21), thanks for your comment. I’d pretty much assumed most of the silence in SW FL of late was due to the leadership transition. +Lipscomb was a key voice among the Windsor bishops. His absence is a blow at this time.
It reminds me of another bit of research I’ve been thinking I should do. Might be interesting to flashback to the votes to consent for VGR in August 2003. There were 43 bishops who voted against… Might be interesting to see which of those bishops is still taking a stand, still leading. Some never took any stand at all following GC03. A number, like +John Lipscomb have retired. Others have dropped off the radar. We’ll get to see for ourselves this week, I guess.
Hmmm. That raises a question I’d been meaning to ask: Does anyone know if any Province IX (overseas) bishops will be attending HoB?
Nothing from Central Gulf Coast in its web page or its periodical. I suspect most parishioners in this diocese simply do not consider the national issue one they need concern themselves with. I think the ones who have cared have left.
The Diocese of Spokane has only a mention on the bishop’s calendar that he will be attending the HOB. Nothing else. I doubt if many are even aware that a meeting will take place.
The silence in the Diocese of Albany has always been and continues to be deafening. There has been no venue or opportunity for clergy to talk with each other or their bishop, and neither has there been any official channel way by which lay people can get any information from the Network to which we (supposedly?) belong.
It was suggested recently that people be given an opportunity to pray together about our future. Even this was not given a go-ahead.
How this diocese will be able to catch up with reality in October is beyond me. If this unwillingness or inability to engage this current situation continues we will fragment in a dozen different directions as everyone works out their own options.
Wake up, Albany! Face reality now or it will face you down all too soon. This “strategy” is suicidal.
Silence in Georgia. It is so unhealthy for there to be such distance between the bishop and the parishes, such lack of communication.
The Diocese of Western North Carolina does not have any information about the HOB meeting on its web site except the date on the calendar. In the July Issue of “Highland Episcopalian” parishioners from around the diocese were invited to “a day with the bishop” at one of the parishes for a discussion of the “Communion Matters” study guide. Since I did not attend the meeting (on my way to Scotland at the time), I can’t give you a reading on either where Bishop Taylor stands or where the conversation went. I do not know if it was the focus of Adult Forum or other discussions in the parishes.
Our Sunday bulletin yesterday included the insert from Episcopal Life about the HOB meeting. My rector spoke about the meeting, emphasized its importance, and asked us all to include the bishops in our prayers during the week. The meeting was included among the petitions in the Prayers of the People. I do not know if other parishes in the diocese received a similar emphasis.
Nothing in South Dakota, all the more intriguing since Bp. Robertson signed onto that ghastly “lawyer bishop” thing. I’ve been giving material to my parishioners by mail, handouts, internet, guest speakers, sermons, forums… Some are still saying, “Now what’s all this about bishops?” and others are saying, “You talk about this too much.”
Nothing on the “Show Me” Diocese website. Not on the main site, the weekly web newsletter, the calendar, or the bishop’s schedule. It’s a no “Show Me” sort of thang, I guess.
However, it did make it into the vocal addition to the prayers of the people this Sunday past! And it is on the parish LifeCycles group prayer list!