Bishop Visitor: TEC Theology Discouraged Aspirants

From the Living Church

The Rt. Rev. Donald J. Parsons, Bishop of Quincy from1973-1987, said that as bishop visitor for the All Saints Sisters of the Poor for about the past six years, he was aware that the convent was undergoing a process of discernment about its continued affiliation with The Episcopal Church. But he said he played no role in their deliberations. The Catonsville, Md.-based order announced it will be received into the Roman Catholic Church in September.

In recent years, Bishop Parsons said the sisters had become increasingly discouraged in their efforts to recruit new aspirants, or members, to their order. While attracted by the sisters’ beautiful 80-acre campus and their mission and ministry, most potential aspirants declined to pursue a calling with the order because they found its traditional “vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience” to be incongruous with what the visitor understood to be the mission and ministry of The Episcopal Church.

Bishop Parsons agreed with the Rev. Mother Christina, superior of the community, that a court battle over the property was unlikely because according to the constitution and canons of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, “a religious order is not a parish, mission, congregation or institution of the diocese” for the purposes of the so-called Dennis Canon.

Title 3, Canon 14, Section 2(f) states that in the event of its dissolution, the order may provide for the disposition of its assets according to the laws governing not-for-profit religious organizations in the state in which the order is incorporated.

“That seems pretty clear to me,” Bishop Parsons said.

He commended the sisters as a pioneer in the field of compassionate hospice care for the terminally ill. The order sponsors and is the spiritual advisor to a hospice which caters to those dying of AIDS, he said.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/6/16/bishop-visitor-tec-theology-discouraged-aspirants