Second wave of churches leaving diocese in Florida
The Layman Online, January 9, 2006
The exodus of congregations from the Episcopal Church (USA) now has a second wave in the Jacksonville, Fla., region of the denomination.
Six congregations have already notified the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in northeast Florida and at least eight more plan to join them soon, two priests told the The Times-Union in Jacksonville.
The congregations are affiliating with provinces of the World Anglican Community. Their common cause is to dissociate from the U.S. denomination because of its election of V. Eugene Robinson, an Episcopal priest who left his wife and children to live with his homosexual partner, as a bishop.
The first six congregations to notify the diocese that they were leaving the ECUSA formally broke their ties with the denomination on or before Dec. 31, 2005.
The Rev. Mark Eldredge, rector at the Church of the Epiphany in Jacksonville, told The Times-Union that his parish and up to seven others are actively making plans to follow the first six churches out of the Episcopal Church.
One of the second wave, St. James in Macclenny, announced its realignment in a Dec. 31 letter to Bishop John Howard.
The Rev. Canon Kurt Dunkle, Howard’s chief of staff, told the Times-Union that he wasn’t convinced there would be a second wave. “I can’t comment on a hypothetical,” he said. “I’m constantly aware that people threaten things, but very rarely does it come true.”
But Eldredge said it will all come true as 2006 unfolds. Five of those congregations, including his own, will wait until after June to see if the Episcopal Church repents for its actions at its next General Convention. “We have no expectation of repentance,” Eldredge said.