Diocese of Central Florida Challenges Title IV

Bishop Howe's Address from True View LLC on Vimeo.
February 3, 2011
The Living Church

The Diocese of Central Florida’s annual convention voted to challenge the new Title IV canons, and heard Bishop John W. Howe announce his plan to retire. The convention met Jan. 28-29 at La Hacienda Center in The Villages.

Central Florida joins three other dioceses — Dallas, South Carolina and Western Louisiana — in expressing concerns about the new canons on discipline, which become effective July 1.

The diocese asks General Convention “to modify New Title IV, as it applies to the Diocese of Central Florida, so as to comply with the Constitution.” The resolution expresses two concerns about the new Title IV: that it “empowers the Presiding Bishop to take certain actions within the Diocese of Central Florida in violation of Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution,” and “creates a charging and trial system applicable to Presbyters and Deacons in violation of Article IX of the Constitution which provides that presbyters and deacons shall be tried by a court instituted by the convention of the Diocese.”

Bishop Howe endorsed the resolution. “I will tell you plainly: I do not want to have this enhanced authority given to me in my dealings with our clergy,” the bishop said in his annual address. “Nor do I welcome this intrusion into the life of our sovereign diocese of the unprecedented authority of the Presiding Bishop. And I have told her so. It is a radical revision of the polity of the Episcopal Church from its inception.”
the rest

(Go to the 18:00 min. mark on the video to hear Bp. Howe's remarks on the Title IV canons)