Episcopal Diocese of Quincy

Location of the Diocese of Quincy, superimposed on a diocesan map of the Episcopal Church.

The Diocese of Quincy is an Episcopaldiocese in western Illinois. It is part of the Episcopal Church from its 1877 establishment. In November 2008, a majority of the diocesan synod voted to leave The Episcopal Church and associate with Anglican Province of the Southern Cone as part of the Anglican realignment movement. After the synod, statements from the Episcopal Church and the Southern Cone express conflicting views of what constitutes the diocese.

The cathedral seat has been in St. Paul's in Peoria since 1963, although the diocese retained the name of the location of its original see city, Quincy, where its cathedral was St. John's, in order to lessen confusion with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria. Members of the Cathedral parish of St. Paul, the largest parish in the Diocese of Quincy, voted December 4, 2008, 181 to 35, to not be “realigned” or “removed” from the Episcopal Church. At the Cathedral, on December 13, 2008, an Executive Committee was elected to carry out the business of the Committee to Reorganize the Diocese of Quincy, in communion with the Episcopal Church, particularly to organize a Special Synod of the Diocese of Quincy to elect a Standing Committee and other officials of the Diocese.

The Rt. Rev. Keith Whitmore, assistant bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, retired bishop of the Diocese of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, served the Diocese of Quincy, as consulting Bishop, until a Special Synod, heled at the Cathedral on April 4, 2009. The synod elected the Rt. Rev. John Clark Buchanan, retired Bishop of West Missouri, as provisional Bishop.

The Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman, SSC, was bishop from June 24, 1994, to November 1, 2008. He is a member of Forward in Faith, the Society of King Charles the Martyr, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, the Guild of All Souls, the Society of Mary, and the Society of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The Diocese of Quincy currently has between sixteen and twenty seminarians, with most attending Nashotah House in Nashotah, Wisconsin.

Anglican realignment

See also: Anglican realignment

The Diocese of Quincy is traditionally strongly Anglo-Catholic in nature, a heritage that extends back to founding days in the mid-19th century. The diocese does not ordain women to the presbyterate, but does have two female deacons. As of 2006 it was one of only three dioceses in the Episcopal Church that did not ordain women; the other two were the Diocese of San Joaquin, whose convention voted to secede from the Episcopal Church in December 2007, and the Diocese of Fort Worth, whose convention voted in November 2008 to secede. The Diocese of Quincy The diocese is also strongly opposed to homosexuality at the leadership level and objects strongly to the ordination of gay clergy.

In 2006, the diocese issued a news release saying that it was "unwilling to accept the leadership" of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and passed resolutions asking for "alternative pastoral oversight" and withdrawing consent to be included in Province 5 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

On November 7, 2008, the 131st Synod of the Diocese of Quincy voted to leave the Episcopal Church and instead join the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. As Ackerman's resignation as bishop took effect on November 1, the Rev. Canon Edward den Blaauwen of Moline, Illinois was appointed to preside over the synod.

The major resolutions, which both passed, were to annul the diocese's accession to the constitution and canons of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and to join the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. After the vote to realign passed, it was announced that Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone appointed den Blaauwen as Vicar General in the absence of a sitting bishop.

Also passed by the synod were: a resolution that parishes may withdraw from "the Synod of this Diocese" by a two-thirds vote within the following nine months, and clergy may transfer to other dioceses; a resolution that other parishes outside the geographic boundaries may join the synod of the diocese; funding for the Province of the Southern Cone and the Anglican Communion Network; support for the Common Cause Partnership; and a new diocesan canon to govern marriage, defined as being between "one man and one woman".

The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, stated that "The Episcopal Diocese of Quincy remains, albeit with fewer members". The legitimacy of other secession actions has been actively challenged by The Episcopal Church, which takes the position that dioceses and parishes may not leave without the Episcopal Church's governing bodies. As a consequence, the long-term effect of these votes is unclear, as with similar cases in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh; those two dioceses have each split into two factions, with each faction claiming to be the legitimate succession of the traditional diocese. Neither secession nor annulment of accession is provided for by the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church. The Constitution and Canons of the Province of the Southern Cone allow only dioceses in the six southern nations of South America, but the Province of the Southern Cone has agreed to accept realigning dioceses "on an emergency and pastoral basis". None of these three dioceses are listed as part of the Province of the Southern Cone by the Anglican Communion office.

External links

• Diocese of Quincy — official website of diocese aligned with the Southern Cone
  • 131st Diocesan Synod Legislation — advance list of the resolutions voted on in the 2008 synod