It was one of the most embarrassing weeks for The Episcopal Church in recent memory. Two liberal seminaries found themselves in revolt against their dean and president with the Presiding Bishop having to face a deposition from lawyers representing Ft. Worth Bishop Jack Iker over property ownership in his diocese.

VOL correspondent Ladson F. Mills III berated the HOB meeting in Taiwan, "Only a failed and disconnected leadership in the House of Bishops would have the audacity to travel half way around the world to hold a meeting and then issue the same warmed over, used up themes. It is not that capital punishment is unimportant, but given the current world crisis, one might question if there are issues more critical."

In spite of the obligatory "well done", bishops responsible for still sustainable dioceses understand that if the finances and people continue to decline, there may be no one left to fund the Episcopal Travel Club.

Mills added, "The current PB is not responsible for the mess that the Episcopal Church finds itself, but she is the poster child for the inadequacy of the neo-liberal philosophy that it has embraced; a philosophy which relies on peer pressure or, when necessary, raw coercive power."

For those orthodox Episcopalians who have left The Episcopal Church, it is a reminder of why they left.

*****

The big news of the week was the scandal that broke out at General Theological Seminary in New York.

Turmoil engulfed GTS as trustees say eight faculty members, a majority, quit the seminary. The professors fiercely deny they quit saying they were fired for being on strike, protesting in an open letter to students the bullying behavior by the seminary's dean and president, The Very Rev. Kurt Dunkle.

In a statement released September 30, General's Board of Trustees said it had accepted resignations from eight of the school's 11 faculty members. The seminary will seek replacements for the dismissed professors.

"The board came to this decision with heavy hearts," the statement said. "It has become clear that this is the best path forward in educating our students and shaping them into leaders of the church."

But the situation is far from resolved. The board left the door open for possible reinstatement of faculty interested in "reconsidering the resignation."

The eight professors announced they would no longer teach, attend meetings, or join community worship until the board addressed long-standing and pressing issues. They also started a Safe Seminary blog to make their issues known.

In a letter to students, they accused the Very Rev. Kurt H. Dunkle, dean and president, of making "colleagues and students feel bullied rather than empowered to contribute." He has created an "unsustainable" work environment, they wrote.

They referred to very serious incidents and patterns of behavior, which have, over time, caused faculty, students, and staff to feel intimidated, profoundly disrespected, excluded, devalued, and helpless.

Dean Dunkle did not respond to requests for comment by media. The board related that it is conducting an internal investigation of allegations against him, adding, "We encourage everyone to withhold any further judgment or comment."

All eight were present at an emotional afternoon meeting on September 29 at St. Peter's Church in Manhattan, according to the Rev. Jennifer Reddall, who attended the meeting. She said faculty told a supportive gathering of GTS students that they have formed a union and are not stepping down.

"They were shocked and grieving," noted Reddall, a GTS alumna and rector of Church of the Epiphany in New York. "There were tears among the students. There were tears among the faculty."

Students greeted their professors with a standing ovation, Reddall continued. They listened as faculty read aloud two of their collectively signed letters to the board and one response from the board.

The letters from faculty reportedly listed grievances adding up to a hostile work environment, including claims that Dunkle made racist, sexist, or anti-gay and lesbian comments. They said he failed to honor academic confidences by discussing student evaluations in the refectory.

"They gave several specific examples," Reddall said, though she declined to repeat them. "The allegations they made were met by the student body with gasps and shock."

You can read a number of stories about this ghastly mess in today's digest. Needless to say, there will be more stories in the coming days. This is the tip of the iceberg. All of TEC's seminaries are in financial trouble; the only two that are not are Nashotah House and Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA, which are thriving as bastions of orthodoxy in a sea of heterodoxy.

*****

Earlier this year, conflicts at Episcopal Divinity School halted a review of the seminary's future. According to a report in "The Living Church', conflict at Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) derailed a core piece of an incipient strategic review aimed at making the seminary sustainable for the long term.

Faculty members, who last year voted "no confidence" in seminary President Katherine Ragsdale, dealt a blow to the strategic review by posting a June 1 open letter to the EDS community on their Facebook page. In it, signatories posted that the "faculty was not consulted about our views about the consultants, nor were we part of the hiring discussion."

The faculty asked several times to be part of the planning process; their requests were rejected by the President and Dean," said the June 1 letter, which was signed by all EDS faculty and posted on Facebook. "The faculty was not consulted about our views about the consultants, nor were we part of the hiring discussion. To our knowledge, none of the three consultants identifies as a person of color.

Stakes are high for EDS, which has 72 students and a tradition of welcoming gays, lesbians, and liberation theology in its classrooms. The school is facing "soaring costs [and] declining full-time on-campus enrollment."

The situation is apparently not dire. EDS steadied its finances through a $33 million deal that included sale of property to Lesley University in 2010. EDS still needs to reduce how much it takes annually from its $66 million endowment, according to Dean Ragsdale. EDS draws 7 percent from the endowment to cover operating costs; 5 percent or less would be considered sustainable.

The urgency for a strategic review at EDS is driven by non-financial factors. "Of core concern is how best to fulfill EDS' mission in the 21st century and how to structure the seminary to do that work," Ragsdale commented.

Most current EDS faculty members are expected to retire within the next five to six years. Hence, now is the right time to take stock of hiring practices, Dean Ragsdale noted, adding that she's not surprised the prospect of making systemic change has stirred up resistance.

Ragsdale blew off no-confidence votes and resistance from faculty saying that they "are a dime a dozen, pretty much since the 1980s. It's just a way of doing business, especially for places that are facing the need to potentially make significant change. It goes with the territory."

*****

The Church Wide Nomination period for Presiding Bishop has ended; the Discernment Process for bishops now opens.

The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the 27th Presiding Bishop (JNCPB) established September 1 through September 30 as the period when any member of The Episcopal Church could submit the name of a bishop they believe should be considered as the next Presiding Bishop. Over 165 people representing more than 60 dioceses submitted names. That period is now closed.

*****

The Diocese of Los Angeles is "ready and waiting" to aid unaccompanied children fleeing Central American violence by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Diocesan Bishop J. Jon Bruno. But, he added, there are no quick fixes.

"We need to look at the long term for the young people who have arrived in Southern California and have been reunited with family members here," said Bruno. He has been meeting with representatives of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and other community and faith leaders to help map a strategic plan to assist the unaccompanied children.

Public officials have said an estimated 50,000 unaccompanied minor children have already been apprehended at U.S. borders; they expect the number to reach 90,000 by year-end. About 4,000 have been released to family members in California.

"This is an area in which faith communities and philanthropy are working with government officials to determine the best path forward for assistance with legal aid and medical care, as well as necessities including school supplies, new clothes and shoes," Bruno said.

"We are ready and waiting to respond to these needs as soon as we learn that government agencies have set delivery procedures in place. These youths will continue to be part of our society for years to come, and we want to help them and all young people to have opportunities to succeed.

"I am also aware that needs and responses will continue to vary among the six counties of our diocese. We will continue to monitor the needs of the immigrant children both locally and regionally. We are also working on an interfaith basis with various judicatories and denominations."

*****

An Anglican news blog issued a report this week saying the 2018 Lambeth Conference of Bishops has been canceled. Tragically, the author took the sole word of Katherine Jefferts Schori as gospel truth and failed to verify her statement with Lambeth Palace....

In response to a question from Rochester Bishop Prince Singh about budgeting for the next Lambeth Conference and speculation about when and if the gathering will be held, Jefferts Schori told the bishops that the conference will probably not happen in 2018, which would have fit the conference's traditional 10-year cycle. No planning or fundraising has taken place for a 2018 meeting. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby "has been very clear that he is not going to call a Lambeth [Conference] until he is reasonably certain that the vast majority of bishops would attend. It needs to be preceded by a primates meeting at which a vast majority of primates are present," she said.

Not true, says Lambeth spokesman Ed Thornton. In an e-mail to VOL, he wrote It hasn't been confirmed yet and "we won't be commenting at least until Primates visits are completed." An Anglican bishop later told VOL that Welby might put off the next Lambeth Conference till 2020.

*****

In Kenya, the House of Bishops, led by Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, met and praised the work of GAFCON and shot down Indaba talks. "GAFCON is the future and its life. The ACC is dominated by Western liberals and doesn't have any life to offer," offered one of the senior bishops. There were many voices of agreement and no dissent.

ACNA bishop Bill Atwood, who was present, said that when the "continuing Indaba" process came up, there was an energetic and vociferous rejection of it as a fundamentally flawed and corrupt process. There was agreement to stop participating in it, though some of the younger men wanted to try "taking [it] over" and reject the liberal agenda. That happened just before a break where there was lots of conversation with them about the lies and corruption at ACC and Primates meetings.

"On the positive side, the enthusiasm for GAFCON was reflected with a resolution formally partnering with GAFCON/GFCA that established a budget line-item toward financial support of GAFCON. That was approved both by the House of Bishops and then later by the Provincial Synod without dissent!" You can read his full account in today's digest.

*****

The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut is asking congregations to promote gender-neutral titles for priests in its Diocese. Resolution 12 is headed for the Diocese's 230th Annual Convention to be held Oct. 24-25 in Waterbury, Ct. It proposes: "To Promote the Use of Gender-Neutral Titles for Priests." Therefore calling a male priest "Father" or a woman priest "Mother" may become verboten.

The 19 diocesan priests -- with a top heavy female to male ratio -- who are proposing the Resolution want the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut to affirm that "including both genders in the priestly order has been a transformational example of advancing God's mission in this place..." and that they "applaud the work of the various General Conventions in committing us to challenge the sin of sexism by striving to eliminate the use of gendered language in worship and in church life ..."

The proposers feel that: "in contrast to the orders of Bishop, Deacon, and Laity, we find that the continued practice of using gendered titles to refer to male and female priests effectively creates a different and unequal status for female priests..." it behooves them to first "... eliminate any gendered titles for priests still in use in parishes, such as 'Father' and 'Mother,' while encouraging congregational conversations about the preferred use of gender-neutral titles..."

The proposers want to give the people and clergy of the Diocese one year to figure out how to violate classic etiquette and reasonable sensibilities. They are a motley group. There are 13 women and six men.

"The use of gendered titles for priests, unlike bishops and deacons, has promoted a 'different-but-equal' priesthood that is inherently unequal. Our patriarchal history, and the deference accompanying the term 'Father' in the church and in the larger society, casts male priests as 'real priests' and women priests as 'the other'," the Resolution's explanation fleshes out. "...while context, culture, and class are critically important dimensions of ministry, and that while there is not yet a consensus on the use of a common gender-neutral title for priests, to advance the goal of developing and using such titles ..."

Writes VOL correspondent Mary Ann Mueller, "This is ludicrous. There are differences between male and female clergy. It is in their genes, their DNA, their hormones and their plumbing. A male thinks, walks, talks and acts like a man. A female thinks, walks, talks and acts like a woman. They are similar but decidedly different. God made them that way. Men and women are made to complement each other, not compete, or be the same. However, both can hold the same position with each living out their vocation in their own unique way with their own giftedness, talents and abilities that God gave them. In The Episcopal Church, the battle over women's ordination has already been lost or won -- depending on one's viewpoint -- decades ago."

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

A leading gay rights campaigner is threatening to name the one in ten Church of England bishops described by a fellow bishop as being "secretly gay".

Peter Tatchell warned that "time is running out" for bishops who continue to oppose same-sex marriage. "If bishops don't want to be outed, they'd better make some pro-gay statements soon," he told Christian Today.

His warning came after the Bishop of Buckingham Alan Wilson claimed in a new book that one in ten bishops could be caught in an "episcopal closet" because of a "reactionary clique" of conservative evangelicals with influence in the established Church.

VOL has compiled a list over the years of gay and bisexual bishops in The Episcopal Church. It is not just Otis Charles, Gene Robinson, Tom Shaw, and Mary Glasspool who are openly gay; the list is substantially longer and most of them are married to people of the opposite sex! Perhaps a "tell all" moment is near.

*****

BREAKING NEWS...The Episcopal Church's attendance figures for 2013 are now out, but only in graph form. VOL has been working on the graphs; we have come up with some preliminary findings for you our readers.

The Episcopal Church dropped six percent in domestic Average Sunday Attendance in 2013 over 2012 with every domestic diocese except one experiencing decline. Only Western North Carolina saw a slight uptick in membership (72); ASA (44) and pledging ($282,000).

Overall domestic ASA figures in 2012 (including South Carolina) were 640,142. Based on bar graphic calculations the approximate figures for 2013 are 611,575 a drop of 28,567 (without South Carolina which is not reporting). With South Carolina the ASA drop would be 38,498 bringing the TEC's ASA down to 601,664 and a six percent drop in the domestic ASA figure.

In effect, The Episcopal Church lost nearly 550 Episcopalians each week of 2013 through death and departure to other denominations. Based on the average size congregation being about 70, that's the equivalent of 8 parishes closing each week or 408 for the year.

TEC's domestic membership, excluding TEC's 10 foreign dioceses, was 1,894,181 in 2012. In 2013 that figure was down to 1,862,294 a preliminary drop of 31,887. If one adds in the Diocese of South Carolina's anticipated loses, TEC's church wide membership, including the 10 foreign dioceses, would be 2,011,378 or a drop of more than one thousand a week -- 55,332 -- from 2,066,710 in 2012.

Parochial reports from the foreign dioceses will be released later this month.

We will post a fuller picture on the state of The Episcopal Church in the next few days.

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