The release of the primates’ communiqué on Feb. 19 appears not to have dissuaded the Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, Bishop of Northwest Texas, from pursuing litigation against a congregation which recently voted to leave The Episcopal Church. But the communiqué has injected a new ray of hope into another diocesan congregation which began a 40-day period of discernment regarding its future.

“With the advice and consent of the Standing Committee and with the knowledge of the Executive Council, the Diocese of Northwest Texas is now engaged in a legal suit to redress the actions which have alienated the assets of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd from The Episcopal Church, or diocese, and those faithful members who remain Episcopalians,” Bishop Ohl wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to clergy and lay members. “The work of 50 years of Episcopalians who gave financially of their energy and talent to leave a legacy for generations of Episcopalians to come to spread the Kingdom of God through The Episcopal Church cannot be abandoned.

“I believe that this legal suit is the only way we will be able to secure the assets for our diocese and Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, and that this action is consistent with our fiduciary and moral responsibility to our ancestors, to those who have gone before, and to those yet to come.”

Last November approximately 60 percent of the congregation of Good Shepherd in San Angelo voted at a parish meeting to remove from their bylaws and state articles of incorporation any reference to the diocese and The Episcopal Church. Negotiations between leadership for the departing congregation and the diocese failed, Bishop Ohl said, and beginning in January, those who wish to remain with The Episcopal Church have been prevented from using the parish assets, including the building. The Rev. Keith Adams, rector of Good Shepherd, opposed the majority decision and resigned. He remains a priest of The Episcopal Church and is now reportedly seeking secular employment.

Earlier this month a newly elected vestry at Holy Trinity in Midland unanimously put forward three bylaw changes for consideration at a parish vote scheduled for March 4. The bylaw changes would delete references to the diocese and The Episcopal Church in the parish canons and bylaws and would also, according to the Rev. Mark Cannaday, rector, “confront” the idea that the parish property was held in trust on behalf of the diocese. Shortly after the parish vote, the congregation of Holy Trinity began a study of the Book of First Corinthians as part of a 40-day discernment of its future. The release of the primates’ communiqué has changed the nature of that discernment, according to Fr. Cannaday.

“The primates’ communiqué changes everything,” he said. “If the leadership of The Episcopal Church were to agree to what is being asked of it, I don’t think we would feel the need to leave.”

Since 2002 average Sunday attendance at Holy Trinity has decreased by nearly 50 percent, according to Fr. Cannaday, who reported that the most recent figure is 238. A number of former members of Holy Trinity have begun worshiping at Christ Church, Midland. The majority of that congregation voted to leave the diocese in 2005. About 40 members who have remained with The Episcopal Church continue to worship at St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church, a $3 million facility completed shortly before the parish split.

Together Holy Trinity, Good Shepherd and St. Nicholas’ contributed 30 percent of the diocese’s $1.2 million budget in 2005. A survey completed by approximately 50 percent of active members of the diocese in the fall of 2003 indicated that more than 80 percent of respondents opposed the New Hampshire consecration and the vote to recognize same-sex blessings made by the 74th General Convention in Minneapolis.

Bishop Ohl attended the first meeting of 'Windsor bishops' at Camp Allen last September, but not the second one in January. He did not return messages left for him prior to publication and does not appear to have spoken publicly about his reasons for not attending the second Camp Allen meeting. In the primates’ communiqué, the Windsor bishops are asked to nominate a primatial vicar to minister to dioceses who have requested alternate primatial oversight. The communiqué did not provide any specific guidelines as to what constituted a Windsor bishop, however.

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