QUINCY: Cathedral to stay in the Episcopal Church

By Joe Bjordal, December 05, 2008 [Episcopal News Service] Members of the congregation of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois at a meeting on December 4 voted 181 to 35 to remain in the Episcopal Church. The decision follows a meeting November 7 of the annual synod of the Diocese of Quincy at which a majority of delegates voted to leave the Episcopal Church and realign with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

St. Paul's Cathedral is the largest congregation in the Diocese of Quincy, with approximately 400 baptized members in 2007 and average Sunday attendance of more than 200.

The Rev. Canon John Blossom, priest at Bread of Life Anglican Fellowship, Peoria, who is working to help reorganize the Diocese of Quincy, says the cathedral vote "dwarfs the 54 layperson votes cast at the recent synod that purported to remove the diocese from the Episcopal Church."

"This clearly shows that the lay leadership of the diocese, as expressed in the synod vote, is not representative of large numbers of lay persons in the Diocese of Quincy," he said in a telephone interview.

Blossom said that members of the diocese have been "fed a diet of misleading information" about the Episcopal Church for as many as ten years.  He said the result of that effort has been that some people actually believe there are no Christians left in the Episcopal Church.

On a website set up to aid communication between persons wanting to help reorganize the diocese, Blossom quotes the Very Rev. Robert Dedmon, dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, who said the cathedral vote "demonstrates that when people have an opportunity to study the facts they realize that the information disseminated by the ultra-conservative leadership of the diocese was misleading."

Blossom said that Dedmon "worked tirelessly" for the past eight months to engage the cathedral congregation in open discussion about the state of the Episcopal Church.

Blossom is quick to point out that there is disapproval by many in the Diocese of Quincy about recent actions by and positions of leaders in the Episcopal Church.

"We believe in the authority of Holy Scripture and in the lordship of Jesus Christ," he said.  "But we also believe in supporting justice and the jaundiced view of the Episcopal Church that people were receiving here was just not fair."

"It's preposterous, of course, to suggest that there are no longer any believing Christians in the Episcopal Church."

Blossom says that while there are "many things we don't agree with, we are not going to leave, we are going to stand faithful for Christ, and attempt to bring the church back to its traditional beliefs."

He says that the Presiding Bishop has gone on record as saying there is room for diverse beliefs and opinions, even disagreement with actions by the church's leaders.

"Now the proof will be in the pudding," said Blossom.

Both Dedmon and Blosson said it is now time to get on with the mission of the church.

The next step in reconstituting the diocese will be a meeting on Saturday, December 13 at St. Paul's Cathedral, to organize a steering committee. That group will immediately begin preparation for a special synod meeting in January at which a steering committee will be elected to serve as the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese.

-- Joe Bjordal is Episcopal Life Media correspondent in the dioceses of Provinces V and VI.