Over on Kendall Harmon?s site, various commenters are puzzling over the abrupt closure of Yet Another Parish in TEC, this time in the Diocese of Florida.? You can check out the parish stats at a link that Kendall has helpfully established.? As you can see, as recently as 2005, attendance had grown steadily and was healthy at around 230.
Eventually a former member of this parish jumps in to the T19 thread, and his comments are, shall we say, instructive:
We were parishioners here in 2005 to 2006, and left because of Bishop Howard.? We had given our gifts marked ?parish only? and then discovered that our wishes were not being honored.? Moreover, the rector (orthodox, but gullibly believing Bp Howard?s claims to be likewise) told everyone they needed to give to the diocese and not designate gifts?this after the debacle of Howard losing one church after another and taking their property ?for future generations of Episcopalians.?? When we knew we could not trust our gifts to be applied as we wished them to be, we knew we had to leave.? And we regretted it, because we liked the rector, his naivete about the bishop notwithstanding, and liked the parishioners.? They had in fact just built a fine new worship space, and we were happy to contribute to that fund?until it became clear we couldn?t be sure that?s where our money would go.
There was no reason given this prime location in a growing part of the Jacksonville area that this church should not have thrived.? Others we knew who left also left because of Bishop Howard.? In 2006 the rector had to read aloud a letter from the Bishop that was (to put it kindly) deceptive about what had happened at General Convention.? We felt terrible that the rector had been forced to read it.? But that letter, like the handling of our gifts, was a clarifying moment for us.? It was the end of our quite determined attempts up until that point to remain in the Episcopal Church and not allow the heretics in the ascendency to drive us out.? For that, I suppose, we owe Bishop Howard our gratitude.
When the story is written about that diocese, the verdict will not be kind.? Bishop Howard took a thriving diocese and, parish by parish, destroyed it, driving even those like us who were determined to remain in the Episcopal Church out of it.? The charts are stark enough: the reality is that the numbers are families like ours who did not want to leave, but had to.? It is all so very sad.
To say that the decline of the Diocese of Florida has been epic under Bishop Howard?s tenure would not be an overstatement.? When he was consecrated in early 2004, the Diocese?s ASA was around 12500 and its membership at around 32,250.? Since then, ASA has plunged to around 8500 and membership to a touch over 25,000?and it?s still declining as of 2010.? Plate and pledge dropped off a cliff as well.
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Source: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/28492
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