The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester, bishop-elect of the Diocese of Northern Michigan, has not received sufficient consents from the standing committees or bishops of The Episcopal Church.
 
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori informed Linda Piper, president of the diocese’s standing committee, of the insufficient consents in a letter released Monday afternoon by the church’s Office of Public Affairs.
 
The Presiding Bishop’s letter said that Fr. Thew Forrester, who was elected on Feb. 21, had not received sufficient consents from a majority of the church’s standing committees within a 120-day deadline set by church law.
 
The letter did not address consents among the bishops. “My understanding is that he did not receive sufficient consents among the bishops either,” Neva Rae Fox, the church’s public affairs officer, told The Living Church.
 
Ms. Fox said the Presiding Bishop’s office will not release specific consent tallies among either standing committees or bishops.
 
A tally compiled by Frank Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last showed Fr. Thew Forrester as receiving consents from 35 dioceses and non-consents from 65 dioceses. Five international dioceses had not reported their votes, and six U.S. dioceses declined to say how their standing committees voted.
 
Fr. Thew Forrester’s election attracted criticism on several grounds, including his being the sole nominee  in the election; his lay ordination by a local Buddhist group; his rejection of Atonement theology in favor of what he calls “at-one-ment” theology; and his revision of liturgical texts, including the Baptismal Covenant, to reflect that theology.
 
Neither Ms. Piper nor Fr. Thew Forrester could be reached Monday afternoon for immediate comment. Fr. Thew Forrester had said previously that he would reserve comment until the consents process concluded.
 
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