Former Quincy Bishop "Deposed" by Episcopal Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
10/18/2009

Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, has "deposed" the retired Bishop of Quincy (Peoria, IL)., the Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman, saying he renounced his orders to the ministry of The Episcopal Church, and is now working for the Diocese of Bolivia in the Province of the Southern Cone.

"I did not voluntarily renounce my orders. I asked for an orderly transfer to the Province of the Southern Cone. With the current canons, she did not act properly," Bishop Ackerman told VOL.

Ackerman will make a conference call where he will reveal the actual correspondence between himself and Mrs. Jefferts Schori.

According to a letter dated October 7, 2009, Jefferts Schori said she had accepted the "renunciation of ordained ministry" from the Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman, retired bishop of Quincy, citing his intention to minister in Bolivia and refers to a letter supposedly written by Bishop Ackerman in July, 2009.

A note VOL received from Joann Ackerman, the bishop's wife, said Bishop Ackerman neither requested this renunciation nor cited any intent to minister in the Southern Cone.

"The Presiding Bishop's fiction has removed yet another Godly priest from the roles of the Episcopal Church," wrote Anglicans United writer Cheryl M. Wetzel.

The Presiding Bishop said she notified Ackerman by mail and email October 16 that she had accepted the former Bishop of Quincy's voluntary renunciation of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.

In a statement released by the Presiding Bishop's office October 16, Jefferts Schori cited Title III, Section 7 of the Canons: "I have accepted the renunciation of the Ordained Ministry of this Church, made in writing to me in July 2009 by the Rt. Rev. Keith L. Ackerman, Bishop of Quincy, Resigned who is, therefore, removed from the Ordained Ministry of this Church and released from the obligations of all Ministerial offices, and is deprived of the right to exercise the gifts and spiritual authority as a Minister of God's Word and Sacraments conferred on him in Ordinations." According to the statement, Jefferts Schori had thanked Ackerman in an October 7 letter "for your follow up note regarding your plans to function as a bishop in the Diocese of Bolivia in the Province of the Southern Cone. As you know, there is no provision for transferring a bishop to another Province. I am therefore releasing you from the obligations of ordained ministry in this Church."

The Rev. Dr. Charles Robertson, canon to the Presiding Bishop, explained the action. "The Presiding Bishop has accepted the voluntary renunciation as a result of his informing her that he is working for the Diocese of Bolivia in the Province of the Southern Cone. Research has indicated that there are no provisions for this type of arrangement." Ackerman's renunciation, effective immediately, was not made for reasons of moral character, according to the Presiding Bishop's office.

The theologically conservative bishop announced his retirement, effective November 1, 2008, the day he was to return from a three-month sabbatical. It was also the day the governing synod voted to sever ties with the Episcopal Church and to realign the 1,800-member diocese with the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. Ackerman conferred with family, friends, members of the standing committee-which had served as ecclesiastical authority during his absence-and his personal physicians prior to making the decision to retire, according to a statement released by the standing committee. Consecrated bishop of the Peoria, Illinois-based Diocese of Quincy in 1994, Ackerman's theological differences over the ordination of women and gays frequently put him at odds with Episcopal Church leadership. In September 2006, Quincy joined a small number of Episcopal Church dioceses seeking what they called "alternative pastoral oversight" from a primate other than the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. The diocese called a special synod meeting following the 2006 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which elected Jefferts Schori. The Diocese of Quincy does not ordain women to the priesthood.

A news release issued at the time by the diocese said that part of the reason for the diocese's request was the theology of Jefferts Schori, who allowed Diocese of Nevada congregations to offer blessings of same-gender unions and voted in 2003 to consent to the election of openly-gay Bishop Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

Quincy was "unwilling to accept the leadership" of Jefferts Schori, the news release said.

Ackerman currently serves as president of Forward in Faith North America, an organization opposed to the liberal trends in the church. He is also a member of Common Cause Partnership.

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