Episcopal Incompetence: Bishop Oversees Massive Losses in Western New York

Sarah Hey
Stand Firm
Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Excerpt:
It's hard really to grasp the weight -- the sheer tonnage -- of the displays of massive incompetence from Bishop Garrison over the past six years. The mind boggles, and then slows, struggling to come up with the words to describe what has happened: immense losses in people and funding, displays of childish spite and clueless denial, the dull recitation of failures and losses in seeming oblivious serenity as to the leader's responsibility, the casual usage -- and then tossing aside -- of the remnant congregation, not to mention the callousness of throwing a new priest into an artificial "church plant" situation, blaming others for his punitive actions, then passing the buck when convenient to other diocesan entities . . . and all with a bright and breezy disregard for what he has done to his diocese.

This man has been bishop for 11 years. In that time, his diocese has lost some 2000 in average Sunday attendance, and some 6000 members. It has been a steady stairstep of decline, culminating in 2008 with the loss of the largest parish in the diocese, after a display of pettish spite that vastly damaged what "relationship" he had mustered in the previous years. [So you'll need to bump up those losses since the church stats only measure through 2008 currently.]

Imagine such a recitation of boring failures made by a CEO in front of shareholders. the rest