The Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande is the Episcopal Church's diocese in New Mexico and southwest Texas, the portion of the state west of the Pecos River, including the counties of El Paso, Reeves, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Brewster, Presidio, Terrell, Hudspeth and Pecos. The total area of the diocese is 153,394 square miles (397,290 km2). According to the 2006 parochial report, there are 57 active congregations within the diocese.[1] The see is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the diocesan cathedral is the Cathedral Church of St. John.
Diocese of the Rio Grande Diœcesis Fluminis Grandis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Territory | New Mexico and Southwest Texas |
| Ecclesiastical province | Province VII |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 153,394 sq mi (397,290 km2) |
| Congregations | 48 (2021) |
| Members | 9,848 (2021) |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Episcopal Church |
| Established | February 10, 1953 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of St John |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Michael Buerkel Hunn |
| Map | |
 Location of the Diocese of the Rio Grande | |
| Website | |
| www.dioceserg.org | |
History
editThe 1859 General Convention of the Episcopal Church assigned New Mexico to the jurisdiction of the Missionary District of the Northwest under Joseph Cruickshank Talbot. Talbot first visited the region in 1863, during the abortive attempt by Padre Jose Antonio Martinez of Taos to ally himself and his Roman Catholic congregations with the Episcopal Church.[2]
In 1874, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church approved the formation of the Missionary District of New Mexico and Arizona and appointed William Forbes Adams as Bishop of the new mission. He first traveled to Albuquerque in 1875, when nine people attended the first Episcopal worship service at the Exchange Hotel on the Plaza, on March 4, 1875. Adams resigned in 1877 and was succeeded by George Dunlop, under whose presidency the first convention of the Missionary District of New Mexico and Arizona was held, again at the Exchange Hotel, in 1880.[3] Dunlop is counted as the first diocesan bishop of the region that went on to be known from 1920 as the Missionary District of New Mexico and South West Texas; from 1952 as the Episcopal Diocese of New Mexico and Southwest Texas until 1973. The Diocesan convention presented a memorial to General Convention in Resolution B-135 to change the name to The Diocese of Rio Grande. The House of Bishops determined that no action was required. ['The Diocese of Rio Grande' is not so named in any earlier journal of General Convention.][4]
The election of Terence Kelshaw in 1989 inaugurated a period of change not unmixed with controversy for the diocese. Kelshaw was a theological conservative and declined to support ventures and projects whether at local, national or international level that were not in alignment with conservative views. He was particularly vocal on the importance of traditional values in matters of sexual morality. Kelshaw gradually withdrew from the life of the national church and, by the time of his retirement, Rio Grande was widely regarded as among the most conservative dioceses in the Episcopal Church. The extent to which Kelshaw's episcopate saw the development of a staunchly conservative approach in a sizable proportion of diocesan life was evident at the convention held to elect his successor, where the nominees included Martyn Minns, the high-profile conservative Rector of Truro Church (Fairfax, Virginia) who would go on, in June 2006, to be elected Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary initiative of the Anglican Church of Nigeria primarily comprising congregations that have disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church. The Anglican realignment came to the Diocese of the Rio Grande in 2007, when St. Clement's, the diocese's oldest and largest parish and its pro-cathedral,[5] voted to leave and pay a settlement.[6] Four other congregations left around the same time.[7]
Steenson shared his predecessor's theological conservatism, though unlike Kelshaw, he came from an Anglo-Catholic background. He voiced repeated and increasing concern about the direction of the Episcopal Church, and ultimately determined he should resign his position and orders, and become a Roman Catholic. He resigned [8] in September 2007, and was subsequently received into the Roman Catholic Church. He has since been ordained deacon in December 2008 by Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, the archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, and priest in February 2009, by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe.[9] Steenson was a faculty member at the University of St. Thomas (Texas) and at St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston, Texas, and is now a faculty member at University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) and at the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2012 Steenson was made the founding Ordinary for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter for former Anglicans seeking corporate reunion with the Roman Catholic Church.
Following Steenson's resignation, ecclesiastical authority in the diocese passed to the Standing Committee, which since March 2008 has been assisted by William C. Frey, retired Bishop of Guatemala and Colorado, who was appointed assisting bishop pending the election of a new diocesan. Concurrently with Frey's appointment, the Standing Committee also announced that the 7th Bishop, Terence Kelshaw, had joined the Anglican Church of Uganda.[10]
The departure from the Episcopal Church of the two previous bishops was a blow from which recovery seems certain to be slow. Following a lengthy period of consultation, an election convention was held on April 24, 2010, and elected Michael Louis Vono, then rector of St. Paul's Within the Walls, Rome, Italy, as ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande. After receiving the required consents, he received his episcopal ordination on October 22, 2010.[11]
On May 2, 2018 the Rev. Canon Michael Buerkel-Hunn was elected to be the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande.[12] Buerkel-Hunn had previously been serving as Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Ministry Within The Episcopal Church.[13]
Bishops of the Rio Grande
edit| Style and Name | Dates | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | George Kelly Dunlop | 1881 – 1888 |
| 2nd | John Mills Kendrick | 1889 – 1911 |
| 3rd | Frederick Bingham Howden | 1914 – 1940 |
| 4th | James Moss Stoney | 1942 – 1956 |
| 5th | Charles J. Kinsolving III | 1956 – 1972 (Bishop Coadjutor 1956) |
| 6th | Richard M. Trelease, Jr. | 1972 – 1988 (Bishop Coadjutor 1971-1972) |
| 7th | Terence Kelshaw | 1989 – 2004 |
| 8th | Jeffrey Neil Steenson | 2004 – 2007 |
| 9th | Michael Vono | 2010 – 2018 |
| 10th | Michael Buerkel Hunn | 2018 – Present |
References
edit- ^ "Journal of the 2006 Diocesan Convocation". Archived from the original on 2007-10-05. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
- ^ "New Mexico Magazine". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
- ^ "A Brief History of the Diocese of the Rio Grande". Archived from the original on 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
- ^ Clay/Crew, Erman Louie (2 October 1973). "House of Bishops Report, Third Day" (PDF). Journal of the 64th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. 1973: 69. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
- ^ Armentrout, Don S.; Slocum, Robert Boak (2000). An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church. New York: Church Publishing Incorporated. ISBN 9780898692112. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ Virtue, David (16 September 2007). "Largest Parish in Diocese of Rio Grande Exits The Episcopal Church". Virtue Online. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ Roberts, Timothy (9 March 2010). "What would St. Francis do?". El Paso Inc. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ "Pastoral letter by Jeffrey Steenson, September 26, 2007". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
- ^ The Catholic Review Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine, March 7, 2009
- ^ "Rio Grande: Standing Committee chooses William Frey as assisting bishop" Archived 2008-03-12 at the Wayback Machine, Episcopal News Service, March 11, 2008
- ^ "Episcopal Life Online - DIOCESAN DIGEST". Archived from the original on 2010-10-28. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
- ^ "News/Events/Ministries". The Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
- ^ Buerkel Hunn, Michael. "About Us". The Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
See also Davies, Evan, History of the Diocese of Rio Grande, The Institute of Historical Survey Foundation, 2007.
External links
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