CREDO, Church Pension Fund respond with Strength for the Journey
Strength for the Journey in the Four Reorganizing Dioceses
In 2008, the bishops of four dioceses left the Episcopal Church to associate with the Province of the Southern Cone in South America, taking with them many clergy and parishioners from the dioceses of San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, and Quincy.
The departures were the result of long-simmering differences over a variety of issues that stretched back decades. The four dioceses were left with a lack of experienced leadership, disputes over buildings and property, and parishioners who were confounded and confused.
The Presiding Bishop, the President of the House of Deputies, and the Executive Council moved to assist these dioceses in distress. The Episcopal Church Center aided in the reorganization of the four dioceses with support of staff and consultants in lay ministries, congregational development, advice from the chancellor’s office, and the assignment of special pastoral leaders to offer care under the extraordinary circumstances.
In November 2008, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori appointed the Ven. Richard I. Cluett as her deputy to provide pastoral support to the four dioceses on behalf of the Episcopal Church. Cluett immediately made onsite assessments in each of the affected dioceses and met with the provisional bishops and/or church leaders.
“It was clear to me early on in that work, after talking with the people in different dioceses, that they were hurt, they were angry, they were distrustful of the Church [and] of authority, and unless we helped them work through those concerns, those issues, then any future they discerned for themselves as a person or as a diocese or as a congregation would be born out of that fear, born out of that anger, born out of that distrust, and would not be of God,” Cluett later explained.
Working with Cluett, who also served as a member of the CREDO faculty, the senior staff of
CREDO began developing a comprehensive wellness resource strategy in early 2009. The Strength for the Journey project was launched.
Over the course of three years, CREDO led three eight-day CREDO conferences for the clergy and lay leaders of the four dioceses. Shorter onsite conferences were held in each dioceses, Fresh Start training in the dioceses was carried out, and an array of resources were shared to assist the four reorganizing dioceses recover, rebuild, and refocus.
DOWNLOAD the CREDO report on Strength for the Journey HERE.
Listen to an account from the Rt. Rev. Robert H. Johnson, who says the Strength for the Journey project is the story of the entire Episcopal Church. Johnson served as the Assisting Bishop in the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 2009. A Trustee of the Church Pension Fund, Johnson also serves as a member of the CREDO Board of Trustees
“Strength for the Journey is not just for four dioceses in the Episcopal Church, but it is the story of our Church, the Episcopal Church. We all need strength for our journeys individually and as dioceses and as the larger Church. So Strength for the Journey is the Church’s story.”
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Read CREDO Connection Newsbriefs about the Strength for the Journey initiative in Reorganizing Dioceses
June 2010
Newsbrief: Strength for the Journey--Reorganizing Dioceses