Friday, September 26, 2008

Minnesota: is the bishop trying to thwart the will of diocesan convention?

In 2007, Anglicat reported that the Minnesota diocesan convention had rejected Bishop Jelinek's call for a Coadjutor election (that is, Jelinek wanted to elect a bishop who would serve alongside him, then step in automatically to run the diocese when Jelinek retired.) The diocesan convention did not want this model and voted it down, preferring an interim period and a bishop election to be held after Jelinek was gone.

In a report today, Anglicat reveals that Jelinek is juggling diocesan staff and money, apparently to set up the kind of transition he wants.

Ya know, I would tend to feel sorry for the Minnesotans, except for the fact that bishops in the Episcopal Church are elected. 'Twas the Minnesota convention that elected autocratic Jelinek; the Lexington, KY convention that elected (and now criticizes) Christian-suing, member-losing Stacy Sauls; the good people of Pennsylvania who elected crime-covering, money squandering, so-bad-that-even-the-Episcopal Church-had-to-discipline-him Charles Bennison.

Ugggh. And here in South Dakota, we are taking nominations and will elect the next new thing in 2009.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Somehow I doubt the next bishop of SD will be a "new thing" at all. I will be surprised if they can put a slate together. How powerful is the pull of a potential purple shirt these days? How long before a new bishop is vested in the pension fund? And will the church survive that long?