Anxiously waiting...

[Adam Ballard]

...for news of yesterday's synod. I was not able to attend, but my prayers remain with you all.

[The Rev. Dave Hedges]

Here's the Episcopal News Service story.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_106683_ENG_HTM.htm

[The Rev. Steven P. Tibbetts, STS]

And the Peoria Journal Star reports here.

spt+

[Fr. John Blossom]

The article in last Sunday’s paper about the visit of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church contains great misrepresentations of fact. The source that the reporter developed her article from was either misquoted or misleading in the information given the reporter.

The article states, “The national Episcopal Church has sued the local breakaway churches, claiming that their funds must remain within the national church”. The truth is that local leadership remaining in the Episcopal Church discovered that the breakaway group transferred $100,000 to a law firm as a prepaid legal fee from Endowment funds given by donors to the Diocese of Quincy for mission and ministry in the Episcopal Church. This discovery led to written notification to the custodian of the assets of the Diocese that there is a dispute over ownership and control of these funds. The breakaway group has filed the only legal action over this matter in an apparent attempt to seize the Endowment funds of the diocese for their own use as they depart from The Episcopal Church.

The article states that the special Synod of the Diocese was “largely ignored by the 19 churches that have broken away from the national organization”. In fact a majority of the churches of the diocese were represented at the synod and voted unanimously to invalidate the actions taken last fall in the breakaway groups’ effort to re-define the diocese as part of an Anglican province hosted by a small group of churches in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile. The Episcopal Church contests the assertion that a diocese can leave, or has left, The Episcopal Church and believes that such action has no church precedent or legal standing.

The reporter quotes the Rev. John Spencer, a key leader of the breakaway group, as saying that he wants his lawsuit to be settled “sooner than later”. His sense of urgency may be predicated upon that fact that churches that have not left The Episcopal Church are responsible for over 60% of the financial contributions to the diocese. The breakaway group may attempt to use the endowment funds of the diocese to support their operating budget needs. Leaders of the continuing diocese will defend its authority to protect and control these assets. The breakaway group has demonstrated its willingness to spend $100,000 from the dioceses’ endowment fund for a law firm retainer, yet Spencer is quick to criticize The Episcopal Church as spending “millions of dollars in the past few years suing churches”. The only money spent here will now be in defense of the suit his group has filed.

One of the most remarkable injustices of this ordeal occurred when the membership of one of the large churches of the diocese voted in a substantial majority to remain in The Episcopal Church but the breakaway group asserts that a majority vote is not adequate for them to remain what they have always been. If it requires legal action against the breakaway leadership to enforce the rights of the majority membership of that church the breakaway leadership may, once again, attempt to bend the truth to support their goals.

[John S. Leslie Jr.]

Friends,

I am excited to hear about all that has happened. I am thrilled to know that you have a former Bp. from the Diocese of West Missouri as your provisional Bishop (where I reside now).

This is truely awesome! Moving beyond the ethos of fear... it is rewarding!

Kindest regards,

John

[Virginia Bradshaw]

Kudos to the Steering Committee for planning an organized and productive Synod. What a pleasure to feel that my time was not wasted listening to long-winded diatribes. Bishop Katharine's presence was the highlight of the day, and I left feeling better about the Diocese of Quincy than I have in years.

Virginia Bradshaw