It was a celebration of faith in the area, allowing members of different religions to come together in support of a new bishop.
The Episcopalian Diocese of Northern Michigan ordained its 11th bishop at Vandament Arena in Marquette [this past] Saturday morning. [The] Reverend Rayford Jeffrey Ray has been serving Episcopal churches in the southern U.P. for more than 20 years.
From the article, including a familiar name:
“The Diocese has been without a bishop for almost four years, since Reverend James Kelsey died in a car accident.
Saturday’s ceremonies were all about recognizing the attributes of the Episcopal faith.
“It’s really a celebration of baptismal ministry, that God calls us in our baptism when we become a Christian to share our gifts with others,” says diocesan ministry developer [b]Rise Thew Forrester.[/b] “And then, as part of the ceremony, they’ll be pouring water from the three lakes that surround the Upper Peninsula.”
A reception followed the ordination ceremony.”
No mention of Rise’s husband not receiving consents the last time around, nor is the phrase Mutual Ministry or Total Ministry used. But that apparently still remains the ministry concept that will be applied to the office of bishop, unless +Ray will be consolidating the multi-office approach they touted with Kevin.
Sorry – hit the wrong key to end “bold” after Forrester’s name. Perhaps a gracious elf can correct that and then remove this comment.
They needed an Arena! But then, I guess we all whistle in the graveyard. In 2009, 25 of its 26 churches had ASA of 66 or less and NONE of the 26 had Plate & Pledge of more than $150K. Also in 2009, there were 22 Marriages and 14 Infant baptisms. That was less than ONE of each per church. And they need a bishop? Go figure! Statmann
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Presumably, the new bishop has a day job that pays. It doesn’t sound like he’ll be busy with diocesan matters, or that they will be able to pay him much of anything.
Unless my eyes fail me, it looks like the PB was there to do the honors, and wearing a conservative-looking cope.
Statmann,
Northern Michigan has done everything they could do to not be considered a typical Episcopalian diocese, and such efforts resist typical statistical analysis — which of course doesn’t mean they aren’t subject to it!
They deserve kudos for being one of the first dioceses to re-consider how they do business, this under the tutelage of their last two bishops, and holding tightly onto the basics of Mutual Ministry (that’s another discussion). This all came to be due to the crisis of necessity, with shrinking membership and increased clerical costs. With that in mind, they’ve ended up with what I see as a multi-site congregational model, not unlike the burgeoning non-denominational movement of the same except for the instantaneous connection with one preacher projected to several sites at the same time. And writ much smaller. The traditional Anglican model of parochial missions would be the closest model to this, I suppose.
So how would Mars Hill, for instance, consider the question, “How many members in your congregation?”, and without admitting the creation of a new denomination or association, would have the option of totaling either the ASA at each one of those sites, or the ASA of all combined.
In the same way one could do the same with Northern Michigan’s “congregations” (they don’t classify parishes or missions anymore), which are associated in area regions. Each region has someone identified as the regional missioner, who is primarily responsible among other things for the preaching — just not by video streaming to each of the regional congregations at the same time on Sunday (not that they couldn’t do so fairly easily). As with the Mars Hill example, then, there is the single congregational statistic comparative model, and there is also the multi-site regional option for comparison.
So what would the stats look like if each REGION were considered a parish unit, as they seem to have in fact organized themselves (for survival purposes, granted)? Obviously, the fact that a bishop would be making the traditional rounds to every one of the 26 sites betrays one system overlayed upon another. But setting that anomaly aside for now, what would be the stats for a 4 or 5 parish (multi-site) diocese?
Thank you for your very thoughtful response to my comment. Yes, the Dio stats would look better if they reported them on the basis of (say) five (regional) parishes. But then, one would really wonder what a bishop would do. The truth is that I am a creature of my times (Depression Generation). I still remember the 1940 Hymnal and that marvelous 1928 BCP. Lkewise, a bishop in cope and mitre just sort of needs more than (say) 20 in the pews and two 60 year old acolytes. For example, the Dio of N. Michigan has Seating for 3,278 (Red Book) and has an ASA of 624 (2009). That means that 81 percent of the pews are EMPTY each Sunday. Just does not fit with “His or Her Grace”. I see that as tthe truth but I know from experience that speaking the truth leads to a very short Christmas card list. Statmann
What the continued existence of the diocese of Northern Michigan shows is not the creative response to declining numbers but the inertial resistance to taking the necessary but hard corrective steps. This will be repeated often.
Rather than closing parishes down in a timely fashion, the diocese will expend both human and monetary capital till both are quickly exhausted. The wall rushes quickly at you when you are speeding towards it. The buildings will be left with major structural issues making unloading them very difficult. The will be sold for pennies on the dollar.
The number of tiny dioceses supporting bishops and staff is growing. Inertia and hubris (the TEc specializes in the later) prevents them from merging. The end will be fast and hard.