“Restoring Congregational Health”
Western Michigan Convention
[Printed in The Living Church, May 20, 2007]

Clergy and lay delegates to convention in the Diocese of Western Michigan engaged in substantial debate on a number of issues, approving a canonical change to a mandatory assessment system of financing diocesan operations. Convention met in Muskegon April 20-21.

The canonical shift from voluntary giving to apportionment received much discussion before being approved. A substitute, which would have retained voluntary giving with the same process described for the apportionment, was introduced and defeated. An amendment which proposed to split the episcopacy out from diocesan mission work also failed. The proposed diocesan budget of $894,000 was adopted with little debate due to the detailed reporting given at the pre-convention deanery meetings.

A substantial new canon “on restoring congregational health” was introduced and ultimately passed. It defines in detail the process by which the bishop, the standing committee, or the rector and or wardens or vestry can initiate action to assist a “distressed parish.” The conditions which would define a congregation as distressed were listed in detail and would include such things as failure to pay the minimum clergy compensation, failure to file canonically required information, elect a vestry or call a rector, and to have fewer than 25 adult communicants or, for two years of more, to be unable to be financially self-sustaining.

Delegates were asked to affirm the Feb. 19 communiqué from the primates. The proposed resolution was amended several times and approved with only the parts giving “thanks for the hard work of the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori” at the primates’ meeting, and the intent to remain part of the Anglican Communion remaining. Another resolution calling on congregations to study the forthcoming teaching guide concerning the proposed draft Anglican Covenant was approved with little debate.

Convention also called on the Rt. Rev. Robert R. Gepert, Bishop of Western Michigan, to appoint a theological task force to study the practice of inviting unbaptized persons to receive Holy Communion. The original resolution noted that the expanding practice was contrary to canons and called on the task force to recommend appropriate policy. The approved resolution was amended to discuss the spiritual benefits and shortcomings as perceived by congregations practicing open communion and report back to the next convention and to the standing commission on liturgy and music before the next General Convention in 2009.

In his address, Bishop Gephert named what he saw both as signs of health and dis-ease. Signs of health included the newly functioning deacons’ school and vocational discernment program, financial transparency achieved in reporting, the VOCARE program for young adults, the camp program and youth pilgrimages, and the growth occurring in many congregations.

Signs of dis-ease included delegates not following through on convention actions approved, strong congregations not helping weaker ones, financial limitations in many congregations and in the diocese, and the lack of sufficient diocesan staffing.

Finally it was announced that the Cathedral of Christ the King would soon be sold, and so the diocesan canons defining the cathedral and the corporation which governed it were deleted.

(The Rev.) Joseph Neiman