The primatial vicar experiment proposed by the primates in their communiqué last week has not persuaded the majority of the congregation at Church of the Resurrection in West Chicago to remain with The Episcopal Church said the rector, the Rev. George Koch.

“This is really a local issue for us,” said Fr. Koch. “Our focus is entirely on the health and well being of our congregation.”

A parish vote to disaffiliate from the Diocese of Chicago has yet to be scheduled, but in December Fr. Koch and the vestry wrote the Rt. Rev. William D. Persell proposing “grace-filled separation” in which the departing congregation would accept without protest whatever terms were offered.

“The vestry and I now believe a separation is likely and needed and that Resurrection will vote to disassociate from The Episcopal Church and align with other Anglican oversight,” the Dec. 17 letter stated. “It is our desire to act in a way which proves to be respectful, loving, grace-filled and a blessing to you and the Diocese of Chicago, even though this is difficult and grief-filled.”

The standing committee met Feb. 13 to consider the request and drafted a letter which Fr. Koch said he received on Feb. 20. The letter urged the congregation to reconsider and thanked the departing members for their “prayerful decision.”

“Those who wish to remain in The Episcopal Church will be re-organized as a congregation with a priest provided by the diocese, similar to what happened when the rector and many members left your congregation thirteen years ago,” the letter stated.

“If we are unsuccessful in building a new congregation in West Chicago, we would probably sell the property and use the proceeds for mission and ministry in another location.”

Founded in a largely rural area in 1954, the congregation moved to its current location, some 40 miles west of Chicago, in 1964. Five years later a capacity congregation of 104 worshiped knee to knee on Christmas Eve. Resurrection had long outgrown its little building and was holding its main Sunday service in a high school gymnasium by the time it achieved parish status in 1990.

Average Sunday attendance was more than 400 by 1993, but the congregation split over changing diocesan policy on sexuality in November of that year. Average Sunday attendance had fallen to 12 by the time Fr. Koch was called as rector in February 1994.

The ministry was a second career for Fr. Koch, who was a senior vice president with lucrative stock options from Oracle Corp, when he became a Christian in 1981. He began taking seminary courses part-time four years later.

For the primatial vicar plan to work at Church of the Resurrection, there would have to be a change of heart as well as behavior by the senior leadership, Fr. Koch said. According to the primates' Feb. 19 communiqué, the primatial vicar would report to a pastoral council and be chosen by the ‘Windsor’ bishops. Consent to the appointment would be required from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who would also appoint two of the five members comprising the pastoral council.

Two days after Fr. Koch received the reply from the standing committee, Bishop Persell offered a four-page reflection on the primates’ communiqué, noting that some of the primates’ conclusions “run counter to our church’s way of life and its interpretation of the gospel.”

“As Bishop of Chicago I will not sacrifice the gifts we enjoy as an inclusive church so that we might conform to a doctrinal uniformity that is antithetical to our historic identity and experience,” he stated. “I will continue to invite gay and lesbian Christians into the full life and ministry of our diocesan community, and celebrate their gifts of ministry and covenanted relationships.”

Because the diocese is unwilling to comply with two of three things asked of The Episcopal Church in the primates’ communiqué, Fr. Koch holds out little hope that they would be any more willing to make adequate provision for a primatial vicar.

“It’s clear to me that The Episcopal Church genuinely believes it is being prophetic and following the Holy Spirit and that the rest of the world will eventually catch up with them,” Fr. Koch said. “The fact that they will continue to do that despite requests not to is a clear indication they have chosen to walk apart.”

Steve Waring

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