Forward together
[Episcopal News Service] The authorization of a series of diocesan mergers was one of the big stories at the 81st General Convention in June, when bishops and deputies celebrated the reunion of the three Wisconsin dioceses and the juncture of two dioceses in Michigan, as well as the combination of the church’s Micronesia area mission with the Diocese of Hawai’i.
Collaboration isn’t just a matter of pooling resources at a time of denominational decline. The leaders of these and other partnering dioceses also say that working together can strengthen the church’s approach to Christian mission and ministry in the world.
Additional mergers are likely in the coming triennium.
The neighboring dioceses of Central Pennsylvania and Bethlehem first launched a discernment process in October 2022 to consider “future reunification as one diocese.” This year, after holding 10 convocation meetings on the topic in the spring and two online town hall meetings in July, the two dioceses are on track for a possible vote on a reunion agreement at a joint convention October 18-19.
The dioceses of Indianapolis and Northern Indiana are in the middle of a similar discernment process over whether to reunite as a single statewide diocese. Their process began in early 2022 with conversations between members of the respective diocesan staffs. The dioceses’ current phase includes listening sessions to learn about each other’s current practices. They have not yet announced a timeline for taking formal steps toward a merger.
Other dioceses, though not engaging directly in merger talks, are experimenting with shared leadership, training, administration and ministries through partnerships that could become models for other diocesan collaborations around the Episcopal Church. One notable example is the five-year partnership between the dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York, which are the home dioceses of Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe.
Rowe, in his June 26 acceptance speech after being elected and confirmed confirmation as the church’s 28th presiding bishop, said the ongoing partnership between his two dioceses is firmly focused on the future, in contrast to a common tendency in the country’s “rust belt” to dwell on the region’s formerly prosperous past.
“We’ve spent the last five years bucking that trend, that cultural resistance to change in what we call an experiment for the sake of the Gospel,” Rowe said. “It’s not easy, but I believe that this kind of collaboration, this kind of experimentation is what we’re begin called to, to be the strong effective witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to bring this Episcopal Church into the future in which God is calling us.”
Rowe will step down in the fall as bishop diocesan of Northwestern Pennsylvania and bishop provisional of Western New York, to take office as presiding bishop on November 1. The two standing committees then will become ecclesiastical authorities of their dioceses, and they will consider whether to appoint an assisting bishop or to call for the election of a provisional bishop. The dioceses are evaluating their partnership and will discuss its future in October 2024 at their joint convention. A vote on whether to renew the partnership is expected in October 2025, based on a timeline that predated Rowe’s election as presiding bishop.
The dioceses of Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, and Eau Claire spent nearly three years in conversation before requesting and receiving authorization from the 81st General Convention to reunite as the historic Diocese of Wisconsin. To develop their merger plan, Wisconsin leaders sought broad input from clergy and lay leaders in the state, as well as advice from church leaders in other dioceses undergoing similar discernment.
At about the same time, the dioceses of Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan were exploring a formal merger after a journey of experimentation and collaboration that began with their initial partnership agreement in 2019.
“We are working hard to provide a more sustainable and lifegiving way forward for the Episcopal Church in this time and in our place,” The Rev’d Jennifer Adams, a Western Michigan deputy, said June 28 after the House of Deputies authorized the two dioceses’ merger.
The Wisconsin merger was enacted canonically as a reunion and took effect almost immediately after General Convention voted. Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan followed a different process known as juncture and will not become the Diocese of the Great Lakes until it organizes itself later this year.
Adams is now advising the dioceses of Indianapolis and Northern Indiana as their talks progress. Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows and Northern Indiana Bishop Douglas Sparks said in a joint statement to Episcopal News Service that their discernment team “is hard at work researching and modeling what a reunified diocese might possibly look like.”
“From staffing, governance, budget, pastoral care and mission, we are deepening the exploration of current practices in order to envision what coming back together might look like,” Baskerville-Burrows and Sparks said. “Building on events held pre-pandemic, there will be opportunities for joint clergy gatherings, meetings of leadership bodies, staff development, attendance and workshops at diocesan conventions, and for the first time, cross-diocesan episcopal visitations.”
All five of the Episcopal dioceses in the state of Pennsylvania were once part of the historic Diocese of Pennsylvania. If the dioceses of Central Pennsylvania and Bethlehem approve a reunion, the combined diocese would include roughly the middle third and northeast corner of the state. Under preliminary proposals, that area would be divided into four regions, each with 22-39 parishes and a cathedral or pro-cathedral. A potential new name is still under consideration.
“We have been working for nearly two years in our process of learning and imagining a future together as God’s people in our region of Pennsylvania; our cultures and demographics are similar and each diocese has particular gifts that can enhance the ministry of the other,” Central Pennsylvania Bishop Audrey Scanlan said in a written statement to ENS. “The people in our dioceses have grown in their support of the reunification effort as we have developed models (administrative and missional) for their consideration.”
An affirmative vote in October would set up 2025 as a “transition year,” during which Bethlehem and Central Pennsylvania, which is based in the capital Harrisburg, would remain separate dioceses while developing plans to combine their administration, finances and governance.
“In the Diocese of Bethlehem, we have a familiar mantra that we have been speaking for almost six years now: The only way forward is together in partnership,” Bethlehem Bishop Kevin Nichols said in a written statement. The two dioceses’ emerging partnership “is rooted in a future viability for the next generation of Pennsylvania Episcopalians. … Excitement and momentum are building as we gather and talk about building the Beloved Community anew.”
—David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.