Mergers And Bishops

The Rt Rev John Vaughan's election as ACA diocesan Bishop of the Eastern US (without fanfare), corresponding with APA Bishop Giffin's consecration as Suffragan Bishop of Mid-America last October, reminded me of another pair of elevations, both of these apparently kept very quiet. The ACA Diocese of the Northeast September, 2012 Newsletter reports,

Perhaps the most dramatic moments at synod came with the election of two new Bishops Suffragan. Fathers James R. Hiles and Owen R. Williams were each elected overwhelmingly to the office of Bishop Suffragan.

So OK, let me see if I've got this right. Since 2010, the ACA, rightly in my view, thinned its ranks of bishops. Bishop of the West Williams suddenly retired in 2010, to the apparent relief of his standing committee, and has not been replaced. Bishop of the Eastern US Campese was purged and resigned from the House of Bishops in 2011. Bishop Moyer was purged in 2012, leaving only Strawn and Marsh as diocesan bishops, with nominally retired Bishops Falk and Langberg meddling behind the scenes. OK: smaller organization, fewer bishops, makes lots of sense.

But then in April 2012, John Vaughan became a suffragan for the DEUS, with its nominal 15 parishes, of which some number are family missions, others inactive and paper-only. A step backward, it seems to me. But in May 2012, APA Presiding Bishop Grundorf and ACA Presiding Bishop Marsh took an "ecumenical" junket with their wives to the Greek Islands, wherein they discussed the proposed merger of their denominations. (The equivalent report from ACA Presiding Bishop Marsh, by the way, has for some reason been deleted from the DONE website.) As Grundorf put it,

While we were waiting to board the plane which would take us to Athens for the long flight home, a rainbow, the biblical token of God's promise, appeared directly over our plane. I took it as a sign that our work together had met with God's approval, and as His promise that He will help us recover "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph 4:3) we seek between our churches.

In other words, translating from churchladyspeak, the APA and ACA are working toward merger. Except that since this holy, spiritual, ecumenical, and refreshing junket, we've had the following developments:

1. The ACA Diocese of the Northeast elected two new suffragan bishops, to the evident satsifaction of Brian Marsh
2. The APA consecrated Robert Giffin as Suffragan Bishop of Mid-America, with Brian Marsh as co-consecrator
3. The ACA Diocese of the Eastern US elected John Vaughan as diocesan bishop, promoting him from suffragan, with the at least tacit approval of Brian Marsh.

So this puts the potentially merging APA and ACA up three suffragans, with an additional suffragan converted to a diocesan: in the time since May 2012, with Marsh and Grundorf praying fervently for unity and presumably discussing it in some concrete way or other between visits to the buffet, their main subsequent step has been to create four new bishops.

In the real world, when companies merge, it's to eliminate duplicate facilities. In a profit-making company, it's to increase (or restore) profit. In a religious organization, it's at least theoretically to render more effective stewardship of limited resources. A big target of corporate mergers is duplicate ranks of managers and administrators; their equivalents in the church are bishops and prebendaries. The reduction between 2010 and 2012 of the number of bishops in the ACA was a prudent move, which Marsh is in the process of reversing, even as the size of the ACA continues to diminish.

We would expect, if we were following the normal model of mergers, a united APA-ACA to have one Presiding Bishop, with corresponding geographical dioceses combined much as two merging companies would combine duplicate regional territories under single vice presidents. And when companies contemplate doing this over a period of years, the potential duplicate staffs are allowed to diminish via attrition.

This is only logical, but it's also good stewardship. Even if, in small denominations like the ACA and the APA, bishops double as rectors and may not receive separate salaries, they nevertheless have individual travel and incidental expenses, individual support staff, individual offices and computers. Let's not even think about the travel junkets, of which these bishops seem fond. In such small denominations, even this duplication should be minimized -- it's simple stewardship.

Yet on the verge of merger, the APA and ACA are both inflating the number of their bishops. Given the essentially duplicate territories of the dioceses in each denomination, with the very small numbers of parishes in each, what will the expanded ranks of these bishops have to do when a merger takes place except charge expenses for their unnecessary presence at synods, travel for unnecessary parish visits, and create charges for phone and network connections, computers, and office rental? Oh, yes, in their copious spare time they'll be able to conspire against each other and create general mischief. Sounds like a formula for Christian unity, huh?

Where are the standing committees here? Where are the adults of any stripe?