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The Episcopal Address from the 206th Convention of the Diocese of Ohio

Good morning, colleagues and friends. This is the 19th and last time I will gather with you in this context and present the Convention Address of the Bishop. In my first Convention Address, I recalled an essay by Verlyn Klinkenborg, a non-fiction writer known best for his reflections on life in rural American. It described Independence Day in this way:

On the Fourth of July, the instinct is always to look backward in time
to the first news of that great Declaration… That habit of looking
backward is a little like taking a rowboat under the pier once a year
to see for ourselves that the pilings are still sound. (The Rural Life, p. 97)

The image remains an apt one for this annual task, and perhaps particularly so this year, as we return to an in-person Convention for the first time in three years and prepare to elect a Bishop Coadjutor.

The Pandemic

We cannot row under the pier without acknowledging the turbulent waters through which we have come since our last in-person convention in 2019. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on congregations and diocesan entities continues to be felt. Some parishes are reporting strong return of previous members, welcoming visitors and new members, perhaps reflecting the yearning for community that so many felt during the months of isolation. A majority of parishes are finding the in-person return rate to be approaching 75% of pre-pandemic numbers, with continued online participation still very much appreciated and used by some communicants. As is true across all mainline denominations, the pandemic has accelerated the timeline of congregations whose closing had been expected sometime in the not-so-distant future, two of which we will recognize at this Convention – St. Mark’s, Wadsworth, and St. John the Baptist, Bowling Green.

In meeting the challenges of the last two and a half years, we have had to learn new ways of connecting with and caring for one another and the communities we serve, in both parochial and diocesan contexts. We have had to adapt the means and content of our worship, formation, governance, and service to others, resulting often in a clearer understanding of what God is asking of us. This time has illuminated particularly the social inequities of healthcare access, education, housing, food availability, job security, the prison of debt, and divisions of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and age that divide both society and the very body of Christ into which we are reborn in Baptism. As we move on from this time of isolation and fear, I pray that we never forget how much we longed to be together and let that deep desire inform our every thought and action.

Finances

A broad overview of diocesan finances shows that, despite current global and national economic volatility, the financial health of the Diocese remains stable. The Joint Investment Fund, which held $35.7 million in 2004, currently exceeds $58 million, having increased in participation and dollars by 62% over the last dozen and a half years, with the Trustees of the Diocese overseeing invested assets of the Diocese and 49 of our 80 parishes.

This year, the redemption period for the Planting for Tomorrow Capital Campaign came to an close. You may remember that the campaign goal was to raise $4 million for the 30 participating parishes and $8 million for the diocesan camp and retreat center project. Over the course of the campaign, more than 1,600 donors made over 43,000 gifts, exceeding the goals beyond all expectations. The total for the camp was almost $14 million – 70% more than expected. More importantly, the amount of money raised to remain in the participating parishes surpassed $10 million, more than 2½ times the $4 million goal. In the end, the domino effect of the campaign continues today, not only for those 30 congregations, but for many others as well, as that $10 million relieved pressure on the diocesan operating budget, the Loans and Grants Fund, and other annual diocesan resources for support of congregational vitality and ministry.

Through the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, other designated gifts, and several specified funds in the offices of Ministry and Congregations, we have been able to provide multi-year grants to nine congregations, allowing them to afford full-time clergy at a critical time in their rebuilding. This strategy has provided the ordained leadership that is essential to congregational growth, at the same time that it offers financial stability to energetic, committed, and creative new clergy. As well, it has allowed us to keep in our diocese those gifted and talented clergy whom we have raised up and formed. These grants are for three-, four-, and five-year terms, some extending through 2025. In addition, we were able this year to lengthen existing commitments with an additional “COVID year,” recognizing how the pandemic has inhibited previously projected growth. This support amounted to more than $300,000 for this year alone, and each commitment is fully funded for the entirety of its duration.

Little of this would be possible were it not for the foresighted and generous support of communicants across the Diocese whose annual gifts to the Bishop’s Appeal and other specified funds underwrite initiatives beyond the scope of the Diocese’s operating budget. Over the last decade, the Appeal alone has averaged more than $270,000 per year. It has been used to support a full range of diocesan and parish ministries including:

  • sending the largest allowable delegations to triennial Episcopal Youth Events (including youth from our companion dioceses in Tanzania and Belize, the first time any diocese has done so);
  • underwriting young adult participation in the Why Serve conference at General Convention;
  • assisting seminarians with tuition and associated expenses;
  • providing three-year, paid internships for seminarians in our Local Cohort formation for priesthood, designed for those who would benefit from an alternative to residential theological education;
  • supporting leadership and participation in Province V programming;
  • employing summer and year-round internships on the Diocesan Staff;
  • providing post-ordination formation for transitional deacons and priests in curacies and other newly ordained positions;
  • and maintaining a cornerstone annual contribution to the Episcopal Community Services budget.

End-of-year giving to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal is critical to its success, and I ask you to encourage your fellow parishioners to join you in making a gift this year.

Specified gifts from individuals and foundations have increased our resources for ministry in numerous other areas. In the last five years, for example, the endowment funds supporting overseas mission work have increased by almost $500,000, with planned gifts committed for another $750,000. With these increased resources, collaborative programs with companion dioceses and other mission partners will be sustained long into the future. The Commission on Global and Domestic Mission, much of whose work was inhibited by the pandemic, is in a process of restructure and refocus. While it has continued to provide financial support to companion dioceses and other church-wide mission work, its engaging of communicants in hands-on wider mission is now beginning to resume.

Governance

During the last year, in addition to overseeing the fiscal assets of the Diocese and those parishes participating in the Joint Investment Fund, the Trustees have executed the final sale of two properties and exercised responsibility for the ongoing care of four others. In 2022, they have been able to reallocate resources in the Loans and Grants Funds to add an additional $500,000 to the Grants pool. With the encouragement of the Diocesan Council, they have committed to investing a portion of the Joint Investment Fund in minority owned credit unions and community development funds, as a tangible act of reparative justice. Navigating a volatile economic landscape is only part of their responsibility. Doing so in response to the Gospel imperatives to feed, clothe, heal, and care for the beloved of God is quite another. We are indebted to them for their continued and dedicated work.

The Diocesan Council, in addition to its canonical responsibility to build, present, and oversee the annual Diocesan Operating Budget, has for three consecutive years worked to experience, understand, and offer direction to committees, commissions, and parishes regarding racism awareness, reconciliation, and reparations. Engaging as a group and individually in anti-racism programs including Becoming Beloved Community, Seeing the Face of God in One Another, Sacred Ground, and Civil Discourse, they have worked with the Commission for Racial Justice to offer and encourage opportunities for congregations and diocesan groups to identify and confront racism in the church and society. This work has been challenging and difficult, with Council members holding diverse experiences and perspectives that are as broad in range as those of the communicants and communities that constitute our Dioceses. Their dedication and commitment to this process, experienced as too slow by some and too fast by others, is a testament to our potential for making change as a church when we listen, learn, and act together.

The conscientious and diligent work of the Standing Committee this year is particularly evidenced by their oversight of the Bishop Search process. They have been patient, thoughtful, and responsive in this role, which represents a substantial addition to their customary governance responsibilities, and they have provided sound counsel and companionship to me in this transitional journey. At their invitation, the Bishop Search Committee has undertaken an immense and thorough process, encouraging the participation of communicants across the diocese, and resulting in the three immensely qualified nominees from among whom we will elect a Bishop Coadjutor this afternoon. They, and the Transition Committee that has helped us come to know the nominees and will continue to guide us through today’s election and the consecration in April, deserve our deepest appreciation and thanks.

Bellwether Farm

Two pandemic related closures of summer camp, dining and overnight hospitality, and programming in 2020 and 2021 presented a considerable challenge to the establishing of our camp, retreat, and education ministry at Bellwether Farm. The task of identifying the uses and needs of a new facility, while coping with two consecutive years of pandemic shutdowns and restarts, made budget-building and estimating the startup funding required of all new endeavors particularly complex. It has required adjustments in staff structure and responsibilities and ongoing refining of the business model.

The end-of-year financial statements for 2019, 2020, and 2021 illustrate this well. The deficits for those first three years were $102,000, $96,000, and $17,000, respectively. Such budget shortfalls were expected for these first years of Bellwether’s operation, and each of these deficits was anticipated and funded by individual gifts and foundation grants designated specifically for Bellwether operational and programmatic support. While we only have actual numbers for the first three quarters of this year, the estimates for end-of-year financials currently project a surplus of $75,000. The 2023 budget that will be considered by Diocesan Council next month will reflect increased staffing to meet growing parochial and diocesan programming and greater use by churchwide and outside organizations, including CREDO, the Church Pension Group, Episcopal Relief and Development, A Gathering of Leaders, the Province of the Midwest, and interim bodies of the General Convention. And in spite of current inflation, the proposed budget projects no increase in fees for parish and diocesan use.

Every facility of this sort in the church is dependent upon considerable financial resources beyond what it can generate in fees. Those that have long legacies of previous users – families who have been to camp or parish events for generations – have developed patterns of giving that support the generations to come. New entities take time to grow that philanthropic sustenance. As a result, we have been diligent in raising designated contributions during these first years of Bellwether’s ministry to ensure a long runway as it builds support in the coming years. Currently, the combined funds available for operations, capital reserves, maintenance, scholarship, internships, and programming are in excess of $3.5 million. These designated endowments and donor directed funds assure a stable financial foundation as it continues to develop as a valuable resource for the whole church.

The seeds of this endeavor began in 2009 with the appointment of a Camp and Conference Ministry Study Committee. Chaired by Chet Bowling, the committee presented a report the next year to Diocesan Council and Diocesan Convention, encouraging everyone to imagine and explore innovative possibilities of how to exercise in creative and new ways the church’s vocation to camp and retreat ministry. Dozens of communicants and clergy served on numerous visioning and planning committees, whose efforts culminated three years later in the decision of the 2013 Diocesan Convention to move forward with this ambitious project. That commitment and enthusiasm continues today in the almost two thousand campers, parishioners, retreatants, volunteers, and other guests who in this year alone have been to Bellwether. Their experience and the dedicated staff that greets and cares for each of them are what have brought that diocesan dream to life.

+ + +

From time to time, we are inspired by individuals whose lives and ministries encourage us to greater commitment and deeper surrender to God. By their fidelity and sacrifice, they awaken our better selves and help us to see more clearly who we can be, individually and together. Assisting Bishops Bill Persell and Arthur Williams, along with their spouses Nancy and Lynette, have given all of us an extraordinary gift of companionship at the expense of their retirements. They have provided confirmations, ordinations, visitations, and celebrations of new ministry, and have given valuable pastoral care and advice to clergy, lay leaders, and, most significantly from my perspective, to me. Along with David and Nancy Bowman, they built our “Cottage” of Bishops, and have made an immeasurable and enduring contribution to the life and ministries of this Diocese. At the end of this calendar year, they will conclude their ministries as Assisting Bishops, and while we will celebrate them at a future date, I want to recognize and thank them now.

Another of those inspiring companions whose lived faith inspires our own is Patricia Patton, whose last 27 years have been spent as a communicant and leader at St. John’s in Bowling Green. In that time, she has filled just about every leadership position in the parish, including seeing it through to today as Senior Warden. She is a boundless source of wisdom, pastoral companionship, and joy.

As a seven-year-old, Pat was invited by a neighbor to go to church at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Youngstown, in the simplest and most generous act of evangelism – invitation. The following year she was baptized by the Rev. Louis Bohler and as a teenager was confirmed by Bishop Beverly Tucker. At the age of 19, she attended her first diocesan convention, with Bishop Nelson Burroughs presiding, and has participated faithfully through four subsequent episcopacies. Not surprisingly, her spiritual discipline includes reading scripture every morning as soon as she wakes up, then getting on her knees in prayer to thank God for the opportunity to serve for another day. The words of scripture on which she has most modeled her life are from Micah 6:8, “What does the lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Those words have made her a model to us all.

As Pat awaits with us the election of the seventh bishop whose episcopacy she will bless with her generous companionship, and to assure her presence in Diocesan Conventions for years to come, it is my privilege to award her The Bishop’s Medal.

+ + +

Over the 19 years since the last episcopal election, we have navigated difficult times, beginning with ten years of property litigation, polity conflicts, and theological disputes related to human sexuality, biblical interpretation, and their implications for ordination, marriage, and episcopal oversight. Each season has presented its challenges which we, as a body, have addressed in patient anticipation of God’s prevailing goodness. Rather than allow our differences to divide us, we have bridged them with affection and the conviction that if nothing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, nothing will be able to separate us from one another when we abide in that love. In living that conviction, we have been richly blessed with thoughtful elected and appointed leaders; the steady companionship of Assisting Bishops David, Arthur, and Bill; the wise guidance of Diocesan Treasurers, Secretaries, and Chancellors; scores of selfless committee and commission members, dedicated parish wardens and vestries, steadfast communicants, faithful and devoted clergy, and the remarkably dedicated Diocesan Staff colleagues who serve indefatigably. We have responded to challenges and opportunities alike as one body, bound together in one Word, one Faith, and one Baptism. That is our vocation as Christians.

Like many generations before us, we live and serve in a diverse and divided world, in a diverse and divided nation, and in diverse and divided communities. It is our vocation, as the body of Jesus Christ, to proclaim by word and example – by how we live and serve together – that the world can exist with great diversity and differences. Diversity and differences are what make us whole, more complete, and able to fulfill God’s dream of a richly diverse and harmonious creation. To be sure, the power of evil will relentlessly use our differences in trying to separate us from one another and from God, because that is the only way it wins. In the resurrection of Jesus, however, we know that God’s love is infinitely more relentless and will triumph over evil whenever and wherever we give ourselves to God and one another. It is in our rich diversity and differences that we have the resources – spiritual, physical, intellectual, practical, and missional – to be the healing heart and hands of Christ today.

This morning, as we gather in anticipation of a new season of episcopal companionship, may we remember that the episcopacy, the ministry of unity, is a shared ministry. Every one of us has an indispensable role in it. Each of us is a member – not like a member of a club, but like a member of the body – an essential and organic part without which the body is not whole. While we may not immediately recognize the gift that another brings, God does. God knows and treasures exactly what each of us contributes to the fullness of episcopé, the ministry of unity that binds us together as the body of Jesus Christ.

+ + +

In bringing this address to a close, I will fulfill my canonical responsibilities as directed in Canon III.9(a)(2) of the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church, by reading my written consent to the election of a Bishop Coadjutor and stating “the duties to be assigned to the Bishop Coadjutor when ordained.”

I herewith consent in writing to the election of a Bishop Coadjutor for the Diocese of Ohio. It is my expectation that when she joins the Diocesan Staff as our Bishop Coadjutor-elect, she will begin to work with staff colleagues and elected and appointed diocesan leaders in all areas of diocesan ministry. This will include Committees, Commissions, and Trustees of the Diocese, Deans of Mission Areas, clergy, and lay leaders. The Bishop Coadjutor-elect will begin to visit parishes to celebrate, preach, and build relationships with communicants and clergy. After ordination to the episcopate, the Bishop Coadjutor will add episcopal functions to visitations (Confirmation, Reception, Reaffirmation, etc.) and share in all episcopal responsibilities, save those canonically required of bishops with jurisdiction. The Bishop Coadjutor will take either shared or full responsibility for liturgical and remarriage permissions, licensing of lay ministries, parish searches, financial and personnel matters, pastoral care of clergy and their families, and all episcopal duties allowed a Bishop Coadjutor by canon. Per Canon III.9(a)(2), these duties “may be enlarged by mutual consent.”

It remains a singular privilege to serve with each of you and with all the people of the Diocese of Ohio. Thank you.

The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr.
XI Bishop of Ohio

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