All is Well™ in New Jersey

I thought the Bishop was Bishop William J. Skilton from Charleston, S.C.

Well, I can’t really speak to New Jersey, but given the rather infamous history of Newark, I would have thought that the VAST majority of anyone wishing to be considered “orthodox” would have fled a long time ago.

Could it be that now that the ultra-revisionists have done their work, they’re now bored with the whole “church” thing and are sleeping in on Sunday mornings?

I think for the left, being trendy is really important.  I just get the sense, there’s a “been there, done that” feeling to the whole GLBTQXYZ, revisionist, post-modernist dynamiting of Christianity.  After they get “gay marriage” (but we just can’t call it that yet), I mean, what’s left?  There’s going to be very few barriers left to bridge.

My Mom grew up in that neighborhood of Hackensack, so I kind of know the story from her. Evidently back in the last century a group of Italian Roman Catholics in that neighborhood wanted an RC church of their own, close to home. There already was another Italian RC parish in Hackensack, and the then RC bishop of Newark said “No” to the request. Well, not taking that answer very well, they started their own church anyway, and affiliated with TEc (this happened a lot in northern New Jersey in the 1910’s-20’s, especially with Eastern European immigrants, with many of these churches ending up Orthodox or in the Polish National Catholic Church) The congregation in Hackensack has traditionally been of Italian descent, and if you didn’t know better, you’d swear you were in an RC church (they were always on the “high church” side) - and you have to admit, while St. Anthony of Padua is a very popular title for RC churches, it’s pretty rare for churches of other denominations. Hope this helps.

Jackie, I could not say what the green line at zero means, other than no income was reported on their parochial report.  We all know that the true pledge and plate of a parish cannot be zero, unless the endowment is so large that they need no income.  Somehow the bills are getting paid.  I am an intelligent man, but I cannot speculate as to why no income was reported in their Parochial Report in 2010. 

I know Bishop Skilton, and he is a good bishop.  Theologically he is probably not far from Bishop Lawrence.  So, perhaps Bishop Beckwith is not quite as intolerant as you might think.  I do not know Beckwith, but I do know that, for the DEPO relationship to exist, there has to be a great deal of flexibility on the part of the diocesan.

Actually, the graph suggests that no one has submitted a parochial report since 2005.  Since they have received no notice of change they continue to report the numbers from the last received report.  Of late, however, they have stopped carrying over the plate and pledge amount and have opted for zero.  Check out, say, All Saints’, Long Beach, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Unless they have changed it, you should see something similar. That parish, however, left the Episcopal Church a number of years ago. Yet there are also congregations who have not had difficulty who I have noticed have not submitted reports and show the same flat line.

So what the chart means for St. Anthony’s is hard to say without more data.

Okay, so TEC has 106 parishes in northern New Jersey, and presumably a similar amount in the southern/central bit. By contrast ACNA has only seven congregations in all of NJ: 7 REC, 1 CANA plant and 1 AMiA plant. However, they all seem able to afford full-time clergy.

The challenge for +Beckwith and +Councell is not congregations leaving for the Ordinariate, nor even ACNA. It is whether they can provide orthodox teaching to their parishes. If they cannot (or will not) then the number of their parishioners will decline, and with that, so will their income decline. Then the downward spiral of closing churches begins.

Does anyone know how Dio. Newark and Dio. New Jersey are faring, at the parish level?

I served as assistant in a parish in the NW part of the Dio of NJ in the late 80’s.  The rector with whom I served retired and they got a pleasant but theologically flexible priest after him - but they now have a priest who came up from SC and is orthodox. There are at least two other orthodox parishes in NJ - but if there were a total of six, I would be astonished.  Bp Councell (whom I know from one of his earlier positions) is a liberal but not an angry, hard-nosed one, and conservative clergy and parishes do not have to walk on eggs to be OK with him.  Even if there are some orthodox parishes, they will fade in a decade or two; there are few orthodox clergy in the pipeline for future generations.

As a reminder - the Diocese of New Jersey has begun a search for a new bishop

Bp. Councell allowed St. George’s in Helmetta (where I occasionally attended in the 70’s) to separate from TEc, with no repercussions, lawsuits, etc.

St. Anthony is a phantom parish in Newark dio.  Still listing 500 Members and almost 200 ASA, but aat last they report no Plate & Pledge in 2010.  For 2002 through 2010 Newark has gone from 119 to 109 churches, 19 percent fewer ASA, 42 percent fewer Marriages, and 27 percent fewer Infant Baptisms. New Jersey went from 162 to 154 churches, 21 percent fewer ASA, 47 percent fewer Marriages, and 31 percent fewer Infant Baptisms.  A dismal picture for the future.  Statmann

Thanks Statmann.

Mike458

“and you have to admit, while St. Anthony of Padua is a very popular title for RC churches, it’s pretty rare for churches of other denominations”

True. Interesting to note that ACNA lists a “St Anthony’s of Padua” church in Alvarado, Texas. The web-site at http://www.fwepiscopal.org/st.anthony/index.html seems to be mostly ‘under construction’.

Statmann, it is a shame that the charts only go back to 2002.  I can remember looking at them in years past, and Newark actually went down considerably prior to 2002.  Remember that, thanks to Bp. Spong, they have been living with the “new thing” far longer than most dioceses.

Ask and ye shall receive, Dean Munday. The stats for Newark and New Jersey of the ASA back from 1997 to 2007 followed by the percent change 1997-2007, 2002-2007, and 2006-2007:

New Jersey 18,698 19,221 18,854 18,754 18,414 18,304 17,711 17,065 16,923 16,710 15,933 -15% -10% -5%

Newark 11,623 11,336 11,299 10,954 10,948 10,966 10,745 10,267 10,076 9,817 9,536 -18% -11% -3%

The membership numbers are here:

New Jersey 54,331 54,896 55,302 54,907 54,455 53,415 53,134 53,061 52,348 52,294 51,787 -4.7% -2.5% -1.0%

Newark 36,880 36,750 36,631 36,327 36,092 36,086 35,083 34,597 33,390 32,913 31,868 -13.6% -9.2% -3.2%

The latest figure for 2010 is New Jersey 47,092 and Newark 28,298.

This doesn’t reflect the tenure of Spong, 1977-1999. We have this about that:

Between 1978 and 1999, the number of baptized persons in the diocese fell from 64,323 to 36,340, a loss of 27,983 members in 21 years. That’s a disastrous 43.5% decline. [In constrast, the national church “only” fell 23% during that time.]

Thus, Spong and his successors in Newark have taken the membership in Newark from 64,323 to 28,298, a 56% decline. Spong is saving the church from “fundamentalists”.

Robroy, awesome stats mate.

So there we have it: John Spong, the man who proved himself incapable of building anything positive. All he could do was drag down what other people had made.

To point out something in favor of +Councell that I believe has appeared earlier on this blog: He did vote against the discipline imposed by HOB against ++Duncan.

My thoughts on the money issue is that the membership had stopped donating any funds that would go to the Diocese - not that they had stopped donating.  That brought another thought to mind - anyone who has gone through the agony of completing a parochial report knows that NO INCOME is exempt from the diocese accounting on which they base their percentage.  Many in our parish had thought that they could avoid being part of the diocesan assessment, which became part of the national assessment, by directing their donation or tithe to a specific expense defrayment.  No so.  Sarah did an excellent article on this sometime back.  I’ll see if I can dredge it up. 

It would be very interesting to find the real story on this parish. If indeed Bishop Beckwith is allowing this parish to remain orthodox without strings attached, I will be the first to give him his due for such a Christian act.

[16] Jackie,

Actually, there is a way in which to accomplish the removal of “income,” by which I refer specifically to fungible income (cash receipts), but it requires considerable effort on the part of parishioners. Food, utilities, transportation, household and cleaning supplies, etc., are not fungible!

Ergo, to deprive the diocese of funds, all one needs to do is to have the entire parish membership provide nothing but consumable commodities and pay the staff members’ (including clergy’s) monthly expenses. A big ask, but achievable if the parishioners are essentially of one mind. If the diocese complains, ask them where they would like the paper towels, TP, foodstuffs, etc., delivered. And all it would take to make it less cumbersome is to put the money into a fund which a few willing volunteers agree to oversee and disburse. The goods all come from the fund. My guess (and it is only a guess) is that the fund could even be set up as an independent 501(c)(3) charitable entity. Not simple, but capable of being done.

Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer

Actually, it is my understanding that many dioceses require that any diverted or directed income be counted as well as funds from an outside source such as you name above.  If you are referring to a totally separate 5013C corp that pays the staff and the staff volunteers their time, that may be different, however, I know that the diocese of La. has a minimum clergy can be paid so not sure how that would work.
I’m a little pressed for time but I’ll try to dig up that very excellent post from Sarah UNLESS SHE IS LURKING AND CAN POST A LINK HERSELF.

# 1 Underground Pewster, You are right. In fact Bishop Skilton has told me that he has a couple of parishes up that way. Anyway, once +Bill Skilton was no longer Suffragan to the Bishop of South Carolina XIII (+Edward Salmon), he could take up other positions. Hence his role as Assisting Bishop of the Dominican Republic and taking on these other parishes. Has nothing to do with +Mark Lawrence.  Bishop Skilton is listed in the clergy directory for the Diocese of South Carolina. However, I know he spends quite a bit of time in the Dominican Republic.

Martial Artist -
Lines 5 & 6 of the Stewardship section (page 3) of the parochial report require such donations be reported:

5. Other operating income, including unrestricted gifts & restricted gifts used for operations & contributions from congregation’s organizations
6. Unrestricted bequests used for operations

As you can see, the OverLords must have their due.

[20] Jackie,

Without consulting a lawyer, it seems to me that unrestricted and restricted gifts and contributions from congregation’s organizations, as well as unrestricted bequests would not include donations in kind, as opposed to donations of fungible assets. Ergo, I am unconvinced that provision of goods and services would necessarily be included in those stipulations. Perhaps someone reading this possessed of legal knowledge as to the scope of the terms used might weigh in as to whether the donation of non-fungible items (vestments, kitchen & cleaning supplies, food, etc.) would necessarily be included in the language you quote.

Further, if they are included and 815 attempted to enforce the language on the parish, ship them a fraction of each of the commodities (including the perishable foodstuffs, paper towels and toilet paper) as a subtle message that they aren’t going to gain much but headaches by insisting on their share.

Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer

And look into shipping them “COD” by way of placing an exclamation point on the message!

St. Anthony’s is largely comprised of disaffected former RC’s and has a large Hispanic congregation.  Lots of smells and bells and processions.  The folks are poor but devout.  No women clergy need apply.  Mark Beckwith leaves them alone and so they are allowed to pursue ministry and mission.  It is a Forward in Faith parish and seems to be growing.

Thanks DaveG, may God bless them in their ministry.

I suppose it would be foolish of the bishop to hassle them - he would just add another congregation to ACNA or the Continuum.