Province 5 Reviews Proposed Title IV Changes
05/04/2006

The bishops and General Convention deputies of Province 5 met May 1-2 near Detroit, where the Very Rev. George Werner, president of House of Deputies, offered an overview of what new deputies might expect from their first triennial, to be held next month in Columbus, Ohio.

Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis presented her province with an overview of the work of the task force for revisions to Title IV, the Episcopal Church’s ecclesiastical discipline canons. A virtual rewrite of the canons that have been in place for 12 years, changes to Title IV would expand the scope of church discipline to include lay persons, while also establishing a less punitive-based way to address conflicts that emerge in the workplace or in the course of church ministry.

“Our goal was to find a process that reflects our stated mission as a church,” said Bishop Waynick, who was chair of the disciplinary policy and procedure task force that developed the proposed changes. “We also want a process that affirms our baptismal ecclesiology, our sense that by virtue of our baptisms, we are all ministers, we are all responsible, and that those of us who take on leadership roles also need to be given guidance and be held accountable.” the rest

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