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Resurrection Episcopalians in Desperate Bid to Move Episcopal Church off Center at GC2015

Resurrection Episcopalians in Desperate Bid to Move Episcopal Church off Center at GC2015
Release hold on buildings, structures, comfortable habits, egos, and conflicts that do not serve the church well
Dioceses should merge when one or both merging dioceses do not have a sitting bishop, among ideas

By David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org
June 3, 2015

Calling themselves "resurrection Episcopalians," 30 Episcopal bishops, some 111 Deputies, Alternate Deputies, Official Youth Presence, and several hundred other endorsers want delegates to the 78th General Convention to lay aside hot button political and sexual issues and unite around church planting and evangelism. They also opined that litigation battles over property should end and the church should focus on its own survival or face going out of business.

Among the signatories is a wannabe next Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. Ian Douglas of Connecticut. Noticeably absent are any Communion Partner bishops or more hardline revisionist bishops like J. Jon Bruno or Katharine Jefferts Schori.

"Believing that planting new churches is imperative in order to fulfill the Great Commission and help the church grow in this time of transition, we propose creating a church wide network for church planting, in order to reach new people and new populations with the good news of the gospel."

Specifically, they want:

Funds for three new seminary faculty positions in order to teach church planting methods to future lay and ordained leaders;

Develop a church wide church planting training program;

Recruit and train 40 to 50 new church planters this triennium, including providing internships for some planters in current church plants;

Develop a bi-lingual and bicultural training program for lay and ordained leaders of Latino/Hispanic ministries;

Provide $1.5 million in grants each year of the triennium to support diocesan church plants;

Create a task force of persons experienced in church planting to support and encourage this work; provide staff positions, including support staff, to coordinate the program.

They are also calling: for the revitalization of congregations;

To permit dioceses to explore shared ministry and collaboration (i.e. cross boundaries) in former times a no-no;

Permit dioceses to merge when one or both merging dioceses do not have a sitting bishop;

Allow joint sessions of the House of Bishops and House of Deputies to occur;

Propose changing the provisions regarding the support asked from dioceses to clarify that full support is expected from all dioceses, and that dioceses that do not comply with the full assessment amount, and that do not receive a waiver from Executive Council, should be subject to sanctions, including ineligibility for DFMS grants or loans, and ineligibility of lay, clergy, or bishops from those dioceses to be elected or appointed to church-wide bodies.

Other issues include having an Executive Officer of General Convention, who will fulfill the functions of Secretary of General Convention and lead the Office of General Convention, and also serve as corporate secretary of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. There would no longer be a separate canonical position of Secretary of General Convention.

They also called for the elimination of provinces, saying they have served their useful purpose. "In today's age of easy travel, we wish to open up collaborative possibilities beyond the constrained boundaries of provinces, to permit shared ministry across current lines, if desired. This layer of denominational structure serves little purpose today other than to ensure geographic diversity on certain committees."

Question: Would so-called moderate Episcopalians be prepared to listen to evangelical Anglicans from Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, or Nigeria, who have garnered millions of souls for Christ, to learn how to evangelize? One doubts it.

"One concrete method that call can take is a Memorial to Church. We believe that we have reached one of those critical junctures in the life of our church, and respectfully submit a Memorial calling for the church to recommit itself to the spiritual disciplines at the core of our common life, to go into our neighborhoods boldly with church planters and church revitalizers, and to restructure our church for the mission God is laying before us today."

The signers concluded by saying the church has a choice before it. "We can continue, valiantly and tragically, to try to save all the rights and privileges we have previously enjoyed. We can continue to watch our church dwindle until it someday becomes an endowed museum to the faith of our forebears. We can continue business as usual until we lose our common life entirely. Or we can lose our life for Jesus' sake so that we might save it."

The full document can be found here: http://www.episcopalresurrection.org/memorial/

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Brown Snook
Tom Ferguson
Scott Gunn
Frank Logue
Brendan O'Sullivan-Hale
Steve Pankey
Adam Trambley, and

Bishops
Barry L. Beisner
Scott Benhase
C. Franklin Brookhart
Ian T. Douglas
Andrew Doyle
Martin S. Field
Douglas Fisher
Jeff W. Fisher
Robert L. Fitzpatrick
J. Michael Garrison
Mary Gray-Reeves
Matthew Gunter
A. Robert Hirschfeld
Anne E. Hodges-Copple
Nicholas Knisely
Chilton Knudsen
James R. Mathes
Dorsey W. M. McConnell
Michael P. Milliken
Todd Ousley
Jacob Owensby
Lawrence C. Provenzano
David Reed
Greg Rickel
Sean Rowe
Kirk Smith
Wayne Smith
Pierre Whalon
Terry White
George D. Young III

Deputies, Alternate Deputies, and Official Youth Presence
A.L. Addington
W. Frank Allen
Bert A. Anderson
Liza Anderson
Debra Asis
Catherine Bailey
Carolyn Baker
Kirk T. Berlenbach
Paige Blair
Thomas Blake
Talmadge Bowden
Donald Burr
Diane Butler
Robin Carlo
Sandi Carter
Megan Castellan
John Cheek
Ted Clarkson
Brian R. Coleman
Judith Conley
Matthew Cowden
Mark Crawford
Anna Doherty
Timothy Dombek
John Drymon
Roderick B. Dugliss
Jennifer Dunn
Tommy Dwyer
Jim Fitzsimmons
Timothy Fleck
Paul D. Fromberg
A. Patrick K. Funston
C. Eric Funston
Evan Garner
Kurt Gerhard
Michael Gilton
Richard Godbold
Sara Shisler Goff
Lenora S. Gregory
Andrew Green
Lowell Grisham
Cliff Haggenjos
Jack Hanstein
David Harvin
Miranda Hassett
Lou Hays
Dave Hedges
Richard Edward Helmer
Carlynn Higbie
Raisin Horn
Joseph B. Howard
Molly F. James
Jane Johnson
Elise B. Johnstone
Andrew Jones
Susan J. Kennard
Anne Kitch
J. David Knight
Caroline Litzenberger
William Locke
Candyce Loescher
Craig Loya
Andrea McKellar
John A. Mennell
Neal Michell
Barbara L. Miles
Sarah Miller
Kate Moorehead
Daniel Morrow
Diane Murray
Andrew T. O'Connor
Jim Papile
Nurya Love Parish
Mary Parmer
Joyce A. Paterson
Linda Patterson
Holli Powell
Richard Pryor
David G. Read
Mary Elisabeth Rivetti
Patricia Rome Robertson
Bruce Robison
Lisa Sargent
Joann Saylors
Anne BR Schmidt
Lynn Schmissrauter
Jane Schmoetzer
Lee F. Shafer
Melody Shobe
David Simmons
Richard M. Simpson
Douglas Everett Sparks
Tom Sramek, Jr.
Molly Stevenson
Patrick Strohl
Nancy Suellau
Richard A. Swan
Greg Syler
Joell Szachara
James E. Taylor
Paul Van Brunt
Mark E. Waldo, Jr.
Lee Ann Walling
Meredyth Wessman Ward
Linda Watt
Diana Wilcox
Mark D. Wilkinson
E. Suzanne Wille
Jeremiah Williamson
William Willoughby III
Brian Winter
Matthew Young

Additional Endorsers
Mark A. Abdelnour
Jimmy Abbott
Walker Adams
John-Magdalene Agel
John Akard, Jr.
Wiley Ammons
Anthony Anderson
Christopher J Arnold
Catherine W. Bagot
S. Abbott Bailey
Steven M Balke, Jr.
Carolyn Ballinger
Gillian R. Barr
Wendy Claire Barrie
Suzanne H Barrow
Barbara W. Baxter
Emmetri Monica Beane
M. Edwin Beckham
Nathan Belyeu
Susan Bennett
Alan D. Bentrup
Frank Bergen
Bettine Besier
Margaret Bickley
Tim Boggs
Eric Bonetti
Toni Martinez Borgfeldt
Lecia Diaz Brannon
Ellen Brauza
Penelope Bridges
Lyn Zill Briggs
Laurie Brock
Sonja H. Bronson
Dewey E. Brown, Jr.
James Logan Brown
Linda Brown
Cameron Brownlow Fields
Susan J. Buchanan
Debra K. Bullock
John Bunton
Sue Bunton
Grace Burson
Grace Burton-Edwards
Kathy Buskirk
Christopher Butler
Gail Cafferata
Matthew Calkins
Paul Canady
Mary A. Canavan
Michael S. Cannon
Kit Carlson
Molly Carnes
Susan M. Carpenter
R. William Carroll
Lynn Carter-Edmands
Charles Caskey
Constance B.Castillo
Gayle Catinella
Lee Cheek
Jonathan Chesney
Ted Clarkson, Jr.
Anthony FM Clavier
Shawn J. Clerkin
Tamara A. Clothier
Barbara J. Cloud
Rick Cluett
Jamie Coats
David Cobb
Marti Coffman
Brian L. Cole
Patrick Coleman
G. Patterson Connell
Ashley Cook
Sandra Cosman
William H. Coyne
Barbara C. Crafton
Jared C. Cramer
Christine McFadden Crosby
Leeann Culbreath
Mark D'Alessio
Terri Walker Degenhardt
Pete Dempesy-Sims
M. Dorian Del Priore
Joseph Dirbas
Edith Craig DiTommaso
Alex Dombos
John Donnelly
Andrew Downs
Katherine Doyle
Lara Dreyer
Christopher Easthill
Charles Everson
Elizabeth A. Ewing
Jason Ezell
Beth Ann Jernigan Fain
Curtis Andrew Farr
Donna Farrior
Michael C. Fedewa
Randy Ferebee
Jamie-Sue L. Ferrell
Sara Fischer
Jill Amanda Fisher
Joel Andrew Flint
Jonathan H. Folts
Jason A. Fout
Tom Furrer
Dahn Dean Gandell
Mitzi George
Virginia K. Gerbasi
Andrew T. Gerns
Donna Gerold
Greta Getlein
Devin Scott Gillespie
Lance Gilliam
Christine Gilson
Linda Goertz
Lisa A. Goforth
Gary W. Goldacker
Wendy Goldner
Laura B Goodwin
Samantha Gottlich
Ron Gracilla
Marcia Granger
Elizabeth Greenwood
Gale Grey
Maureen-Elizabeth Hagen
Cynthia J. Hallas
Edwin F. Hallenbeck
Karin Hamilton
Kerry Jo Hanstein
Julia Ayala Harris
Robert L. Hart
Mary-Elise Haug
Gianetta Hayes-Martin
Melissa Hays-Smith
Deborah Heathcock
Sarah Ann Henderson
Robert Hendrickson
R. Christopher Heying
Mary Ann Hill
Robert Hirst
Timothy Hodapp
Beth Borah Hoffmann
Meghan Holland
Meredith L. Holt
Stephen C Holton
Kenneth W. Howard
Miguelina Howell
Kurt Huber
Katherine Huff
Jennifer L. Hughes
Nathan J.A. Humphrey
Jeff Huston
Jordan Hylden
Jason Travis Ingalls
Ethan Jewett
Karen Johanns
Scott Jones
Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski
Janet Smee Kaiser
Verdery D. Kassebaum
Kenneth J. Katona
Mary Kate Kell
Laura Kelson
David Kendrick
Russell Kendrick
Jan Ketcham
Rowena J. Kemp
Mike Kinman
Erin C. Kirby
Debbie Knapman
Walter Knowles
William Knutson
Jack Koepke
Nina Kohl
Joseph Kovitch
Lonnie Lacy
Irene Lawrence
J. Dean Lawrence
Scott Lee
Everett C. Lees
Gray Lesesne
Sally Lindsay
Victoria Logue
H. Lee Lowery
Louise J. Lusignan
Scott MacDougall
Laird MacGregor
Shannon MacVean-Brown
Benjamin B. Maddison
Kate Malin
Trawin E. Malone
Chas Marks
Terry Martin
Jamie Martin-Currie
Kamron Massumi
Nicholas Mather
Beth Maynard
Cody Maynus
Stephen McCollum
Marla McGarry-Lawrence
Victoria Geer McGrath
Justin McIntosh
Andrea McMillin
Christine T. McSpadden
Michelle Meech
Elizabeth Marie Melchionna
Chuck Messer
Mark A. Michael
Sarah Midzalkowski
Mary L. Miers
John F. Miller
Richard Miller
Susan P. Mills
Darren Ryan Miner
Paul Moberly
Jean Mornard
Michael Mornard
Helen Mosher
Jane Johnston Mumey
Frances Murchison
Linda Spencer Murchison
Jeffrey S. F. Nelson
Keith W. Oglesby
Susan Ohlidal
Hugo Olaiz
Kyle Matthew Oliver
Derek Olsen
Marjorie K. Oughton
Pat Pankey
Lisa Parker
Rodger Patience
Janice Paxton
Sherilyn Pearce
Sharon Ely Pearson
Donald J. Pellioni
Jennifer Pedrick
David Peters
Betsy Jennings Powell
Travis Prinzi
Day Smith Pritchartt
Ashley Proctor
Alison Quin
Sarah Raven
Michael D. Reddig
Hipolito Fernandez Reina
Katie Nakamura Rengers
Robert Rhodes
Anne Marie Richards
Susan Richardson
Joey Rick
Daniel Velez Rivera
Jason Roberts
Mollie M. Roberts
Rebecca Roberts
Deborah Bell Rodahaffer
Jennifer Lashmet Rogers
Nicholas Roosevelt
Patricia Ross
Debbie Royals
John Henry Rule
Margaret Holt Sammons
John S. Scannell
Anjel Scarborough
Matthew R. Scott
Stephen Secaur
Deb Seles
Patricia Shaler
Nancy Barnes Shaw
Casey Shobe
Sara Short
Paul Skeith
David Sibley
Jay Sidebotham
Susanna Singer
Kara Slade
Letitia L. Smith
Michael-Francis Smith
Barbara Snyder
Stephanie Spellers
Lauren R. Stanley
Kathleen Henderson Staudt
Susie Stevens-Briody
Jim Strader
Nancy Baillie Strong
Bradley Joseph Sullivan
Margaret Hastings Sullivan
Charlie Sumners
Melanie J. Sunderland
Dante Tavolaro
Mary Z. Taylor
Matthew Taylor
Steve Teague
Adam Thomas
J. Eric Thompson
Jeffrey D. S. Thornberg
Ann M. Tillman
Brian Tillman
Christine W. Tillman
Michael R. Tippett
Colette Clarke Torres
Tommy Townsend
Jane Trambley
Megan Traquair
Joel Turmo
Stephen P. Turner
Joy Twelves
Craig D. Uffman
Peter E. Van Horne
Keith Voets
Gina Volpe
Peter M. Wallace
Thomas Allen Wallace
Lori Walton
Timothy Watt
Edward Watson
Edwina Waddell Webster
Amy Doyle Welin
Christopher Wells
Jason Wells
George Werner
Lisa Wharton
Andrew D'Angio White
Richard Whittaker
John Mark Wiggers
Hannah Wilder
Neil Alan Willard
Aprille Williams
Anisa Cottrell Willis
Barbara Wills
Thomas Edward Wilson
C. Matthew Wise
Erin Wolf
Cyndie Woodbury
Karekin Yarian
Chris Yaw
Tim Sean Youmans
Marek Zabriskie
Dwight Zscheile
Vicki Zust

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