A number of important dialogue meetings are set to occur this fall. These dialogues will serve as important stepping stones for resolutions that will be brought to the 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church in June of next year. The Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, which will compose the proposed resolutions coming out of these dialogues, will meet in Baltimore in October.

The United Methodist-Episcopal Church Dialogue will meet in Atlanta in November to discuss the full communion proposal “A Gift to the World: Co-Laborers for the Healing of Brokenness.” The United Methodist Church, a world-wide communion, has been split over issues of human sexuality.

The Lutheran-piscopal Coordinating Committee will discuss a proposal for the sharing of deacons between the two denominations, which builds upon the historic full communion agreement between the two denominations, “Called to Common Mission.”

The Presbyterian-Episcopal Church Dialogue will meet this fall to follow up on the 80th General Convention’s reception of the Episcopal-Presbyterian Agreement on Local Sharing of Ministries.

The Anglican-Roman Catholic Theological Consultation in the United States of America (ARCUSA) will meet in November via Zoom. The meeting, entitled “A New Journey in Reconciliation,” will focus on ecological, racial, and ecclesiological reconciliation.

The Moravian-Episcopal Coordinating Committee will meet in September. In addition:

The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) met in Geneva, Switzerland (June 21-27), marking the first central committee meeting under the newly installed General Secretary Jerry Pillay. The meeting also commemorated the WCC’s 75th anniversary with a special worship event.

The United Church of Christ (UCC) met for its 2023 General Synod in Indianapolis (June 30-July 4). The Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson was elected as the denomination’s general minister and president, making her not only the first woman, but the first Black woman to hold the title in the UCC’s history. Previously, Thompson was both director of Global Ministries and our colleague as an ecumenical and interreligious officer for the UCC.

The Moravian Church’s Northern Province Synod in Bethlehem, PA (which includes congregations in Canada) approved in June, a full communion relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada. This
completes the full communion circle with the “Churches Beyond Borders” resolution approved at General Convention last July.

“The Philadelphia Eleven,” a new documentary directed by Margo Guernsey and Nikki Bramley about the first eleven women to be ordained as priests in The Episcopal Church, is set to premiere September 30 at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia (the same church where the eleven ordinations took place in 1974).

The Rev. Mike Wernick
Ecumenical and Interreligious Officer
the Episcopal Dioceses of Western and Eastern Michigan

October 1, 2023 at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing

Children, youth, and adults of all ages are invited to a bi-diocesan Zoo Day celebrating the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the saint of animals and creation.

Please join us on Sunday, October 1 from 2-5pm at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing for a visit through the zoo, snacks, and a short prayer service celebrating St. Francis and all the animals we love.

Wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a reusable water bottle.

Unable to join us in Lansing? Celebrate at home or at your local zoo! The linked resource documents include our short prayer service and ideas and resources for planning your own Zoo Day as a family or congregation.

Questions about this event?
Please contact one of the following bi-diocesan youth missioners: the Rev. Beckett Leclaire at bleclaire@eastmich.org or bleclaire@edwm.org, and the Rev. Radha Kaminski at rkaminski@eastmich.org or rkaminski@edwm.org.

DATE & LOCATION

October 1, 2023
2-5pm

Potter Park Zoo
1301 S Pennsylvania Ave
Lansing, MI 48912

potterparkzoo.org

REGISTRATION

This event is offered at no cost for children and youth under 18 years old, subsidized by the Office of Children and Youth Formation. Adults over 18 are $10/person.

Minors must be accompanied and supervised by a participating adult.

Please note: the zoo charges $5 for parking.

The deadline to register is September 29th.

Dear Courageous Disciples,

December 2022 through February 2023, the Building Bridges Steering Committee, the group charged with facilitating the discernment process about the future mission and structures of our dioceses, hosted a series of ten listening sessions, both online and in-person at various locations across both dioceses. We learned a lot of valuable information from the comments that you shared about your priorities, what you value about your faith communities, and what issues you believe we need to address as we discern whether or not to pursue juncture (the canonical term for our potential merger).

The Building Bridges Steering Committee tasked our Intentional Internal Conversations sub team to dig into the notes from those sessions and determine if there are any particular themes emerging from your responses to the questions. Some overarching takeaways are:

• Many of the things you want to see happening are already taking place or are in the works–but you may not be aware of them at the local congregational level.
• There is a strong desire to work together and the new bi-diocesan “collaboratives” instituted this spring will provide a structure for much of that collaboration.
• Collaboration to promote lay leadership of congregations and ministries is also a high priority. Our new congregational prayer partner project is an extension of this priority as well as our renewed investment in formation for congregational development!
• Prioritizing ministry to people in the first third of life is critical–and we continue to find ways to engage this demographic and learn about what is important to them.
• We need to continue to work on ensuring that information from the diocesan leadership gets to people in our congregations–and that what is happening in our congregations gets back to diocesan leadership and other congregations; we have much to learn from each other.
• Although Creation Care did not surface in as many comments, that topic is gaining more and more traction–and as we continue to collaborate in Holy Hikes and engage together in the ministry of Plainsong Farm and the Order of Naucratius–we may want to dig more deeply into how we collaborate around this area.
• The Episcopal Church’s identity around LGBTQ+ inclusion is helping us to grow, and, with that understanding, we can engage people and have a bigger presence in our local communities.
• Formation of lay people and clergy is highly important, and we need to find new ways to form us as disciples. We recently took a step forward on a common understanding of formation for holy orders.
• Finding new, authentic ways to worship is also crucial.
• Regarding justice issues, people like that the dioceses (and the Episcopal Church) stand for something, such as the joint work we did with other faith leaders on addressing gun violence and our work on LGBTQ+ inclusion and safety.
• Continuing our work on racial reconciliation and healing for past injustices was also emphasized.
• Finally, there was much concern about how juncture would impact the relationships between the bishop and the local congregations, as well as concern about overworking the staff, although staff have noted that their workload is more manageable with increased collaboration between diocesan leadership bodies.

The Building Bridges team used the themes emerging out of these sessions and from previous listening sessions to develop new mission and vision statements that we can use through this season of practice and to live into as dioceses, whether operating together, separately or something in-between:

These mission and vision statements were presented to and affirmed during a joint meeting of our Diocesan Councils, Standing Committees, and staffs earlier this year.

The three priorities listed under the mission (collaborative communities, innovative ministries, and courageous disciples) will be the basis for goal-setting as the collaboration between the two dioceses continues and will serve as the theme of our upcoming Fourth Joint Diocesan Convention, taking place in Saginaw, October 28-29, 2023.

Thank you for your prayers and your participation in this discernment! We look forward to sharing more with you as convention approaches and invite you to share generously with others in your congregation.

Yours in Christ,

The Internal Conversations Sub-Team
The Building Bridges Steering Committee

The Rev. Janet Gockerman – St. Mark’s, Grand Rapids
Janet Huff-Worvie – St. John the Baptist, Otter Lake
The Rev. Beckett Leclaire – St. John’s, Dryden
Ellen McVey – St. John’s, Midland
Allie Miller – Holy Family, Midland

Support from:
Katie Forsyth – Bi-Diocesan Staff
Katie Ong – Building Bridges Consultant

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Thank you for the support and care you have shown us and one another over the last several days, as our dioceses have stepped into a sensitive situation along with our bishop. We write today with an update on the progress of the Title IV process and to underscore some important understandings about this unique status.

First, an update. The comprehensive psychological and alcohol evaluation that the Presiding Bishop has requested and that has been readily accepted by Bishop Singh has been scheduled and will take place the week of July 17th with a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians. This is an important step in further information gathering and will give us an accurate portrayal of the bishop’s current mental health, any concern for addictive behaviors, and more. The bishop’s schedule will be cleared and rearranged in order to give time and space for this intense examination. Additionally, the Presiding Bishop has assigned an intake officer for this matter. She will facilitate the intake process and manage this case. We are pleased with the swiftness at which these steps are taking place.

We also want to articulate some of the ways in which this unfolding situation is unique, especially the ways in which it is different from our previous experience of bishop discipline.

• Bishop Singh is voluntarily participating in a Title IV process in light of the accusations made against him by his sons through social media and email. Typically, a Title IV process would be imposed on a bishop by the Presiding Bishop’s Office of Pastoral Development in response to an official complaint filed with an intake officer.
• At this point in the process, the intake officer is gathering information and assessing the allegations to determine if the situation rises to the level of a Title IV offense. Typically, a Title IV process at this intake stage would not be announced publicly until and unless offenses were officially identified by the Intake Officer and forwarded to the Reference Panel. Because of the public and targeted nature of the accusations, it was important to Bishop Singh and your Standing Committee Presidents that we talk openly and transparently about how the dioceses and church respond to such a serious matter, keeping you updated as we move along and respond to the process.
• Bishop Singh has not been suspended or restricted from ministry and continues with his normal schedule and activities, including visitations. Typically, restrictions would be instituted if the bishop under Title IV had acknowledged guilt (our previous experience) or if individuals or the church were in immediate harm.

This website is a resource to understand the Title IV process in The Episcopal Church.

After the intake process is complete, the intake officer will submit her report to the Reference Panel, articulating whether she recommends proceedings based on the information gathered. If it is determined that the alleged offenses would constitute a Title IV matter, we will move forward accordingly, aligned with our Episcopal Church canons, our careful stewardship of our faith communities, and with priority for the continuing vital and transformational mission and ministry of our partnering dioceses.

Bishop Singh has recorded a message to the dioceses, an update on his process, and personal reflection. We invite you to hear directly from our bishop:

Please continue to hold our dioceses in prayer: Bishop Singh and his family, the Joint Standing Committees, our joint staff, and one another. We have traveled far together over the last three years of partnership, through moments of deep challenge and moments of vibrant, Christ-centered ministry. Through all we’ve experienced together, we have grown in beloved community, in the healthy and balanced leadership of all orders, and in our trust and reliance on one another. This movement continues. This season is another challenge; one we will meet with compassion, sensitivity, and an ear toward the movement of the Holy Spirit.

Please direct any questions about this process to info@eastmich.org or info@edwm.org. They will be answered or directed to the appropriate place.

Yours in Christ,