THE IMPENDING ELECTION
IN ALABAMA
On Saturday, 18 January 2020, the Diocese of Alabama will elect a bishop coadjutor who will be the presumptive next diocesan bishop. If the dioceses of the Episcopal Church consent to this choice, the new bishop will be ordained and consecrated on June 27, 2020.
The election next Saturday will be from 1:00 p.m. to approximately 5:00 p.m. and will be live-streamed. It will be held in the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham. For the live-stream go here for the link.
For more information on the search and on each of the four candidates, go here .
While the cathedral and diocesan headquarters are in downtown Birmingham, the real heart of the diocese of Alabama is the much beloved Camp McDowell, an exceptional diocesan camp. It is found in the lush, wooded hills of northwestern Alabama. This is St. Francis Chapel.
Alabama has a long tradition of outstanding bishops going back before the Civil War. They have worked hard, and successfully, to develop the diocese and to keep it in the heart of the Episcopal Church. If there is a constant theme that has evolved over the years, it is God's service to the people who need it the most. (e.g. check out this article .)
For the past sixty years, there has been some tension in the diocese between go-slow moderation, and radical reform. Moderation was the traditional attitude. For instance, in the 1960's, when the state of Alabama was ground zero in the civil rights struggle in America, Bishop Charles Carpenter tried to find a middle way between the stridently racist segregationism of Governor George Wallace, and the radical reform of the civil rights movement. He and Bishop Coadjutor George Murray were among eight prominent clergymen in Birmingham who wrote a letter to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. urging a go-slow path. King responded with "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963, now considered the most eloquent rationale for the civil rights movement. Five months later, klansmen set off a bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church, downtown Birmingham, and killed four girls. The urgency of King's letter moved to the forefront.
The second strain, activist social reform, began in the diocese not internally, but from an outsider. On August 20, 1965, Jonathan Daniels was shot and killed in Hayneville AL when he pushed a sixteen year old African American girl out of the way in order to take the gun blast himself. He had been in the Black Belt of AL helping register African Americans to vote. Little noticed at the time, his martyrdom gradually settled into the consciousness of white Episcopalians who came to understand the rightness and righteousness of his cause. By the 1980's, there was a movement in Alabama to recognize and emulate his work. The Diocese of Alabama cosponsored the resolution that declared Daniels a martyr in 1991. August 14 is now the Episcopal Church's official day of remembrance of Blessed Jonathan Daniels and the Martyrs of Alabama. Every year, the diocese sponsors a memorial march and Eucharist in Hayneville. The diocese came to embrace the social activism that Daniels first personified.
An icon of Blessed Jonathan is carried in the Hayneville procession every year. Blessed Jonathan has come to symbolize the diocese of Alabama's commitment to the struggle for human rights.
Bishop Furman Stough, 1970-1989 led the diocese in institutional growth, as in the "Alabama Plan," making it a model of development among Episcopal Church dioceses. He also started the diocese on the path of racial reconciliation in the 1970's.
Bishop Robert Miller, suffragan 1986-89, and diocesan 1989-1998. He was known for his support for the young, the poor, people with special needs, and AIDS victims. It was he who spearheaded the movement to declare Jonathan Daniels a martyr.
Bishop Henry Parsley, Jr. was bishop coadjutor 1996-1998 and diocesan from 1999-2012. He oversaw a large capital funds campaign and continued developing socially conscious programs but is also remembered as prominent among bishops of the national church. In 2006 he barely lost out to Katharine Jefferts Schori in the election of presiding bishop. From 2014 to 2016, he was provisional bishop of Easton. (Three bishops of Alabama have been nominated for presiding bishop: William McDowell, Furman Stough, and Henry Parsley.)
Bishop John McKee (Kee) Sloan was suffragan bishop 2007-2012 and diocesan since then. He is perhaps best known for Bethany Village, a part of Camp McDowell for physically, emotionally, mentally challenged people.
Meanwhile, the diocese of Alabama has contributed outstanding bishops to other dioceses. Marc Andrus was suffragan from 2002 to 2006. He is now bishop of California (San Francisco). Santosh Marray was assistant bishop from 2012-2016. He is now bishop of Easton (eastern Maryland). He was the first bishop "of color" in the diocese of Alabama (born in Guyana of parents from India).
All of these bishops kept Alabama steadily in the mainstream of the Episcopal Church even as the national church carried out dramatic reforms to promote equality for and inclusion of African Americans, women, homosexual persons and the transgendered in the life of the church. The period of schisms in the Episcopal Church was primarily from the 1990's to 2012. In that time, across the country, dozens of local congregations and the majorities in five dioceses decided to leave the Episcopal Church because of its social activism, particularly for gays, and its "liberal" theology. In Alabama, relatively few local churches saw significant departures of members. However, the Cathedral Church of the Advent, the largest parish, under the leadership of three consecutive, and conservative, deans from South Carolina (Paul Zahl, Frank Limehouse, Andrew Pearson), moved to the "evangelical" edge of the church while criticizing the social reforms of the national church and the diocese.
All the while, baptized membership in the Diocese of Alabama grew dramatically, from 22,859 in 1980, to 32,406 in 2010 even as national church numbers fell. The latest figures, from 2018, show membership at 32,160, making Alabama the third largest diocese in Province IV.
For more information on the background of the impending election in Alabama see these blog postings:
1) "Alabama's Beauty Pageant," Jan. 6, 2020. Find it here .
2) "The Schismatic Brigade if Alabamy Bound," Sept. 18, 2018. Find it here .
3) "Memo to Dean Pearson: No Schism in Alabama," Jan. 26, 2016. Find it here .
And so, the communicants of the diocese of Alabama are now set to choose a successor to a great line of bishops of the Episcopal Church. He or she will have big shoes to fill. If they are true to their heritage, the electors will choose a person who brings the best of the two strains of the past, institutional development and social reform within the context of the mainstream of the Episcopal Church.
I am unable to attend the election next Saturday, but I plan to watch the live-stream and will report the outcome on this blog as soon as possible.
Let us end with the prayer the diocese has published for us to use in the run-up to the election:
God of wisdom and peace, you have gathered your faithful people, men and women of every nation, age, and color, in this diocese to humbly serve you: Look graciously on your Church and so guide the holy imagination of those who shall choose a bishop for this diocese, that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries by igniting in us creative compassion and inspiring us to a relentless proclamation of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The second strain, activist social reform, began in the diocese not internally, but from an outsider. On August 20, 1965, Jonathan Daniels was shot and killed in Hayneville AL when he pushed a sixteen year old African American girl out of the way in order to take the gun blast himself. He had been in the Black Belt of AL helping register African Americans to vote. Little noticed at the time, his martyrdom gradually settled into the consciousness of white Episcopalians who came to understand the rightness and righteousness of his cause. By the 1980's, there was a movement in Alabama to recognize and emulate his work. The Diocese of Alabama cosponsored the resolution that declared Daniels a martyr in 1991. August 14 is now the Episcopal Church's official day of remembrance of Blessed Jonathan Daniels and the Martyrs of Alabama. Every year, the diocese sponsors a memorial march and Eucharist in Hayneville. The diocese came to embrace the social activism that Daniels first personified.
Meanwhile, the diocese of Alabama has contributed outstanding bishops to other dioceses. Marc Andrus was suffragan from 2002 to 2006. He is now bishop of California (San Francisco). Santosh Marray was assistant bishop from 2012-2016. He is now bishop of Easton (eastern Maryland). He was the first bishop "of color" in the diocese of Alabama (born in Guyana of parents from India).
All of these bishops kept Alabama steadily in the mainstream of the Episcopal Church even as the national church carried out dramatic reforms to promote equality for and inclusion of African Americans, women, homosexual persons and the transgendered in the life of the church. The period of schisms in the Episcopal Church was primarily from the 1990's to 2012. In that time, across the country, dozens of local congregations and the majorities in five dioceses decided to leave the Episcopal Church because of its social activism, particularly for gays, and its "liberal" theology. In Alabama, relatively few local churches saw significant departures of members. However, the Cathedral Church of the Advent, the largest parish, under the leadership of three consecutive, and conservative, deans from South Carolina (Paul Zahl, Frank Limehouse, Andrew Pearson), moved to the "evangelical" edge of the church while criticizing the social reforms of the national church and the diocese.
All the while, baptized membership in the Diocese of Alabama grew dramatically, from 22,859 in 1980, to 32,406 in 2010 even as national church numbers fell. The latest figures, from 2018, show membership at 32,160, making Alabama the third largest diocese in Province IV.
For more information on the background of the impending election in Alabama see these blog postings:
1) "Alabama's Beauty Pageant," Jan. 6, 2020. Find it here .
2) "The Schismatic Brigade if Alabamy Bound," Sept. 18, 2018. Find it here .
3) "Memo to Dean Pearson: No Schism in Alabama," Jan. 26, 2016. Find it here .
And so, the communicants of the diocese of Alabama are now set to choose a successor to a great line of bishops of the Episcopal Church. He or she will have big shoes to fill. If they are true to their heritage, the electors will choose a person who brings the best of the two strains of the past, institutional development and social reform within the context of the mainstream of the Episcopal Church.
I am unable to attend the election next Saturday, but I plan to watch the live-stream and will report the outcome on this blog as soon as possible.
Let us end with the prayer the diocese has published for us to use in the run-up to the election:
God of wisdom and peace, you have gathered your faithful people, men and women of every nation, age, and color, in this diocese to humbly serve you: Look graciously on your Church and so guide the holy imagination of those who shall choose a bishop for this diocese, that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries by igniting in us creative compassion and inspiring us to a relentless proclamation of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
