A story appearing on the Religious Intelligence Web site on Monday said the west-central Illinois diocese’s “enthusiasm for an immediate break” was “dampened by a report from a diocesan task force” on insurance concerns.
However, the Rev. John Spencer, diocesan press officer, said there was no task force. Rather, diocesan financial officers have been looking at health and liability insurance alternatives for more than a year for financial reasons, Spencer said. Their findings were discussed at the synod.
If the diocese does decide to break away from The Episcopal Church, it would need to have an insurance alternative ready, Spencer said.
The main reason the diocese didn’t take definitive action at its annual synod on Oct. 19-20 was to wait until other dioceses, which are also considering leaving The Episcopal Church, make its decisions in coming weeks, Spencer said.
“We really are serious about the fact that we’re trying to move in concert with several other dioceses, not just be mavericks,” he said.
“We really are serious about the fact that we’re trying to move in concert with several other dioceses, not just be mavericks,”
From what I understand, Quincy may well be out in front of those Diocese that have more to accomplish than they.
An alternative pension fund will be needed also.
I’m torn by the feeling I get from this report.
On the one hand, taking it at face value, Quincy is simply getting all their ducks in a row, so they can advance forward as a unified front with the other dioceses currently going through preliminary, dis-association procedures.
On the other hand, when the diocesan spokesman said:
“The main reason the diocese didn’t take definitive action at its annual synod on Oct. 19-20 was to wait until other dioceses, which are also considering leaving The Episcopal Church, make its decisions in coming weeks, Spencer said.”, it could be read as a group member being unwilling to lead but rather, more comfortable acting under the cover of a group.
I understand the desire to remain in cover; it is a human condition to wish to have colleagues around when one engages in difficult actions. That’s why South Carolina did not secede in the 1830s over the Nullification Crisis. No other state was willing to join them.
However, DioQuincy has by their actions, BECOME a leader. IMO, they ought to act as such.
Archer, the pension issue is easy to solve. We established a tax sheltered IRA for our rector. He will probably be in a better place at retirement with a defined contribution plan than he would have had he stayed in TEC.
“diocesan financial officers have been looking at health and liability insurance alternatives for more than a year for financial reasons” It takes a year to figure out health insurance? What’s the problem? Who is running that outfit? No wonder we are so disorganized. As Jeff said, you create a 403(b) for retirement, and get the best deal you can on health insurance. The nonprofit I work for works with this all the time. Health insurance is a whip because it is so expensive, but it is no where near the whip putting up with 815 would be. Sounds like they are just hesitant to pull the trigger.
One of the reasons why our diocesan convention (DioSJ) was moved from October to December was to enable all of the dioceses to act as a bloc together.