Representatives from the Episcopal Dioceses of Quincy and Chicago recently met at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Peoria to “explore the possibility” of reunification of the two dioceses, Provisional Bishop of Quincy John Buchanan said in a press release.
Bishop Jeff Lee of Chicago, who attended Quincy’s special reorganizing synod of April 2009 in a show of support, said “We want to see what God has in mind. We are here with ears wide open.”
Attendees at the Feb. 8 meeting included both bishops, certain diocesan staff members and other lay and clergy leaders.
I kept waiting to find out just how large or small the rump diocese of Quincy is, and the figures finally came out in the last paragraph, buried at the bottom of the article. Only 9 congregations are left, although that includes the cathedral in Peoria. But even when you put those 9 churches together, they still have a total of less than 1,000 members, and an ASA of less than 400. So of course the so-called diocese is unsustainable. That was a given from the start.
Even before the majority of the former diocese left TEC in 2009, Quincy was one of the tiniest and least viable dioceses in the country. But there is surely no reason to maintain a Potemkin diocese now.
San Joaquin and Ft. Worth are really only slightly better off. It’s only a matter of time before they get folded into neighboring dioceses too. As for Pittsburgh, we’ll see how long that one lasts too…
David Handy+
Everyone knew from the start that the Potemkin Diocese of Quincy was only a shell maintained for the sake of conducting lawsuits. If it’s no longer useful for that of course it needs to vanish, and its assets merged into a larger entity.
“Everyone not in a lifeboat, please congregate at the stern of the vessel.”
My guess is that once the first merger happens, many more will follow. The various Potemkin dioceses will be the first, but they will be followed by more as the Great Contraction continues apace.
[blockquote] “Lee attempted to assured Quincy representatives about their fears and concerns, pointing to his own reluctance to close small congregations in the Diocese of Chicago, according to the release.” [/blockquote]
Hmmm, so Dio. Chicago itself has issues. How much is going to be solved by this merger, I wonder?
[blockquote] “The Chicago diocesan underwent a complete restructuring in November, which Lee said was a response to a need to work more efficiently rather than a downsizing. “We see the bishop’s office as no longer a command center but a resource hub,†he said.” [/blockquote]
Uh-huh… Of course it wasn’t a down-sizing – who could suggest such a thing?
And here is the money quote:
[blockquote] “A minority of congregations interviewed by the Committee on the Future indicated a desire to take no course of action, wishing instead to wait for pending litigation to be resolved, said Dedmon. “Although [property-recovery] litigation is still in process,†said Dedmon, the diocese recognizes that it cannot wait for things to settle “at least in terms of laying plans.— [/blockquote]
In other words, some naive people in TEC think: “Gee, if we could only win the law suits against ACNA Dio. Quincy, we could get all the properties back and everything would be okay”; whereas the hard-headed realists in TEC say, “Even if we win the law suits, all that will do is give us a whole heap of church properties with no income to maintain them. The parishioners aren’t coming back. So Quincy as a viable Episcopal diocese is finished, and we had better recognise that now”.
ACNA claims to have 43 parishes in Illinois, of which two are Anglican Mission. I don’t know how many are from former Episcopal Dio. Quincy.
There are 18 ACNA parishes listed in the geographical diocese of Quincy, along with 6 “extra-territorial” parishes: 2 in the Chicago area, 1 in Colorado, 1 in Tennessee, 1 in Florida and 1 in Wisconsin. The remaining ACNA Illinois parishes are located in the greater Chicago area.
There is also an ACNA congregation on the Illinois side of the St. Louis metropolitan area.