Connections Winter 2023

STORIES FROM THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN OHIO

Winter 2023 NO. 2 VOL. 10

+

Bishop-elect White is Eager to Get Started “I had a profound experience of call as I read the profile.” PG. 10

A Farewell Conversation with Bishop Smith “Providing encouragement has been natural for me.” PG. 4

Dr. Allsop Reflects on a Tumultuous Tenure “I would hope people feel a little more trust in the diocese.” PG. 16

Creating a Climate of Trust

BY TH E RE V. DAVI D K E N DA LL-S PE R RY For this stock-taking issue of the diocesan magazine, I am glad for the opportunity to offer a perspective on the last few years of diocesan life as a representative of the Standing Committee. I am the group’s new president, but I write here only for myself, and not for my colleagues, who may have their own perspectives on this period in our history.

Bishop Breidenthal’s departure in 2020 to begin his work on recovery from addiction struck many of us by surprise, and yet later we discovered several people had voiced concerns prior to the bishop’s leaving. These voices were not heard well, or, in hindsight, I believe their concerns were not followed up appropriately. Many factors contribute to trust or the lack of it, but a failure in follow-up continued to demonstrate that trust was a problem in the diocese and in the Episcopal Church. Please continue your prayers for Tom, Margaret, and their family.

The mission and ministry of the diocese must live in trust with God. And at the same time, we can’t fully live into our mission and ministry unless we have a level of trust with each other, founded on the love we have for God and God has for us. Trust is easy to lose and difficult to build. The Standing Committee has continued to work to be more transparent, considering different points of view. We have communicated more frequently with members of the diocese, and reviewed these communications more closely for accuracy and completeness. This matters to the Standing Committee and we hope it matters to the diocese.

The Nominating and Transition Committees that were commissioned by the Standing Committee have done and are doing extraordinary ministries. They too were asked to be appropriately transparent in their work.

2

Winter 2023

Since calling Bishop Smith in 2021, we have worked closely with the Trustees of the diocese to put together a compensation package for the 10th Bishop that reflects the needs of the diocese and the context of a Midwestern diocese, rather than one in a more expensive location. This work has resulted in steps that can reduce the support required from the diocesan budget.

The work of Becoming Beloved Community for all members of the diocese continues. Our call to this essential work comes not only from the greater Episcopal Church, but also from our own commitment as a diocese to reconciliation, healing and justice-making expressed in Resolution 3, passed at our 2018 diocesan convention. We see the ministries of formation, creation care, reparations, and establishing new communities as parts of this work. It’s just a beginning of this ministry to all people that will roll back centuries of injustice in the United States. This is no small thing, and we recognize it as a necessary mission to become a beloved community for all of us.

In Bishop Smith’s final convention address, he mentioned that telling the truth is the best way to deal with anxiety. The Standing Committee will strive to tell the truth, follow the constitution and canons of the church and diocese, and build trust in the diocese from this work.

Bishop-elect White has many challenges in front of her with mission and ministries in the diocese. The Standing Committee, as her council of advice, will work with her to help her fulfill her call to serve as our bishop diocesan. Every leader and every member of the diocese will need to listen and learn and find where their call from God is, to support Bishop-elect White in her new ministry with us.

We will also ask her to maintain a Sabbath day each week!

COVER PHOTO BY GRAHAM STOKES

STORIES FROM THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN OHIO

Winter 2023 NO. 2 VOL. 10

4

Editorial Staff editor Jim Naughton writer Nancy Bryan designer Jacob Bilich canon for communications Julie Murray

A Farewell Conversation with Bishop Smith

“How we deal with money really becomes a matter of the soul.”

INTERVIEW BY JIM NAUGHTON

About the Magazine Connections Magazine is published by the Diocese of Southern Ohio, 412 Sycamore Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-4179.

This publication is funded by mission share payments to the diocesan operating budget and is available at no charge to all members of congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio.

10

Bishop-elect White is Ready to Get Started

“I found … a sense of groundedness in this calling.”

INTERVIEW BY NANCY BRYAN

16

Dr. Allsop Reflects on a Tumultous Tenure

“Bishop Smith has done a wonderful job of stabilizing us.”

INTERVIEW BY JIM NAUGHTON

22

Ordination of The Reverend Canon Kristin Uffelman White

23

God, Procter and the Great Outdoors

Change of Address Send changes of address to: Connections Magazine 412 Sycamore Street Cincinnati, OH 45202-4179

BY JERUSALEM GREER

The Greater Columbus Convention Center SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2024

PHOTO OF BISHOP SMITH BY KRISTA DeVAUL; OTHERS BY GRAHAM STOKES

Connections Magazine

3

“Providing encouragement has been natural for me.”

A Farewell Conversation with Bishop Smith Interview by Jim Naughton Photos by Krista DeVaul

Bishop Wayne Smith came to the Diocese of Southern Ohio in August 2021 to serve as provisional bishop after the unexpected resignation of Bishop Thomas Breidenthal. His arrival ended a nine-month period during which the diocese was without a bishop, and the Standing Committee served as the ecclesiastical authority. In this interview Smith, who served as bishop of the Diocese of Missouri from 2002 to 2020, speaks with Jim Naughton about the challenges he faced, and how he tried to meet them.

What were your initial impressions when you arrived? What was your sense of the job in front of you?

It was pretty much as the Standing Committee described it. I spoke in my last bishop’s address about the diminished morale in the diocese when I arrived.

A lot of my work with the Standing Committee, and really with almost everyone, every organization, every parish, was just to provide support, stability, and most importantly, encouragement. All to address morale. There is excellent leadership around the diocese, and providing encouragement has been natural for me, and unforced.

You inherited what is described in clinical language as an alcoholic system. In what ways was that evident to you? What kind of characteristics or manifestations did you see?

There was a readiness to distrust everything coming out of my office because of the previous experience with an office that was not always trustworthy.

And that not only affected the bishop, but it affected everyone around him. So I think it helped me coming in to realize that the distrust was not personal, that it really was positional. And I think that the best way to make sense of that for a general readership is to describe addiction in terms of its effect on an entire family. It doesn’t affect just the person who has the addiction, but everyone around that person consciously or unconsciously makes adjustment for addiction. And then that understanding about a family, by extension, can be carried over into the workplace and the entire system, which is what happened in the diocese.

It must have been consoling to have the sense that what you were encountering was not personal, but also that the distrust was likely to linger until 6

Winter 2023

people got to know you as a person. You couldn’t really just snap your fingers and make this go away.

No, no. There was no instantaneous fix and there still is not. I tried to describe the work remaining in my convention address, and I believe that it’s true.

There’s still plenty of work to do.

I have to say that other than trying to be as steady as possible in one’s own feelings and behaviors, I have no idea how one would go about doing that work or catalyzing that work.

Well, first of all, you have to have and continue to develop that steady presence. That is not ancillary to what a bishop does. I think it goes to the heart of what is required from us. And when I was a new bishop, I didn’t have that sense fully developed. I tended to take everything more personally, and I think experience and maturity helped me to get over that. I think that a light touch is always required, a sense of humor helps, and I try to bring those wherever I go.

The issues of trust you spoke about also extended to how the diocese handled its finances. The diocese is known around the church as a wealthy one, thanks to the generosity of the Procter family.

But the ways in which that money was spent were closely held when you arrived.

Well, I’ve served in dioceses that have had a lot of money, and I’ve been in dioceses and parishes that lived paycheck to paycheck. The issues of not having enough money are really pretty much the same as having too much money. It can be overwhelming, and I mentioned this also in my address. It’s no wonder that Jesus talks about poverty and wealth more than any other single issue. It’s because whether we have a lot of money or none at all, how we deal with money really becomes a matter of the soul. And often we try to deal with it by way of accounting only, and for people of faith it is, well, for anyone, it’s always more than that.

I have a sense of how in personal counseling or in a pastoral relationship one could raise that issue of how money is spent. But how do you bring it out into the open and get the work done systemically? Or when there are multiple stakeholders and lots of folks wanting information?

Well, you mentioned information, and I think that information is crucial, and the finances of the dio-

cese are not as intelligible as they could be. And when they’re not intelligible, then that just raises the anxiety. It doesn’t diminish it by keeping it hidden.

Sometimes when people ask for financial transparency, the approach is a data dump. We may just put all the numbers out in front of everyone and say, ‘Good luck.’ But that doesn’t work, and [communications consultant] Rebecca Wilson’s work in this regard, and her pressing for a narrative-style budget, has been really important. The information needs to be available, but also intelligible, and it’s not always intelligible to everyone.

In my interview with Dr. James Allsop, he said that he felt the diocese had made progress on financial transparency, that some of the folks who were very protective of the money were a little more willing to be open about how much money there was and how it was being used. Did you have to push hard for that or was there a dawning awakening that something just had to be done?

Yeah, a little bit of both. And there is more work to be done.

I have no doubt about that. I did have to do some leaning.

I think that there has been a long history of keeping this information more secret than not. I hate to use that word, secret, but there has been kind of a protective shield around the information. I just don’t think that’s helpful. And again, there is more work to be done in that regard. You can’t just let the screens down and say, ‘Well, we’ve done that. We can move on.’

It’s more of a peeling back. That takes time.

The diocese has made a pretty significant commitment to the churchwide Becoming Beloved Community initiative. It is at the heart of all of your formation efforts. Do issues of race and rac-

ism present themselves in distinctively thorny and alarming ways in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, or is it more that the diocese is trying to do its part in responding to a global problem?

I think that it’s global. I think that it’s certainly everywhere in North American culture. It exists everywhere. I live in Missouri, which used to be a slave-holding state. And in some ways, with that history out in the open, and recognizing the caustic legacy of a racially based slaveholding economy in our past, that makes it easier to get a handle on the racism in Missouri than it is in Ohio, which has a proud history, and rightfully so, of never having been a slaveholding state.

There are still legally based, and early on, even constitutionally based aspects of racism that are more complicated to explain. For example, the first constitution of Ohio prohibited people of color from living in the state, with the exception that a white citizen could post a bond on behalf of a person of color and thereby allow that person to live in the state. It still was a white supremacist setup, but it’s more complicated than just saying slaveholding used to be here, as is the case in Missouri.

The diocese faces some class divisions as well. Has that presented itself as an issue in your ministry?

I think churchwide class is one of the issues that deserves more attention than it gets. There is still a class presumption that exists in the Episcopal Church, and often that presumption simply is not true. There are Episcopalians of every class imaginable, but still the default position is, well, that everyone has gone to college, and that everyone is a professional, and it’s simply not the case.

“I think we need to look more specifically at the racism as it exists within the diocese, and particularly listen to the witness of the historic Black parishes in the diocese.”

Connections Magazine

7

people we have instead of getting all wrapped up in knots about the people who are not there.

So people are beginning, not always with success, but they’re beginning to realize, my goodness, there are fewer of us, and we have to change. Maybe we had better get serious about being better disciples of Jesus as a consequence, and places are beginning to do that.

Has everything the diocese has been through in recent years shaped the clergy in any particular way? You mentioned the lack of trust of your office. When clergy felt they were on their own, or couldn’t trust anyone, “I think that being Bishop of Southern Ohio is just a great job.” what kind of adaptations did you The overarching story about mainline Protessee them making? tantism these days is one of declining membership.

In a paradoxical sort of way, the pandemic taught us Have you found reasons to be hopeful about the some new skills, like the use of [Zoom] the medium that Episcopal Church during your time here? you and I are using right now. I think during the panThere are good things happening. I think that some demic, clergy began to realize their own loneliness and of the underappreciated stories are in some of our isolation, and they started taking advantage of these most isolated places. And the reason is they may very other means to be together. So I’ve seen more of that. well be the only expression of progressive Christianity There is a yearning for what clergy will call collefor miles around, and whether people show up in those giality. They realize that they need one another, and Episcopal churches or not, sometimes just knowing I’ve tried to take advantage of that, looking for that that there is a safe haven for people who otherwise just desire, and allowing the initial organizing to come ordon’t fit makes a difference. A place for someone to call ganically from the clergy themselves. When the bishhome is important, even if they never claim that place. op or the diocese says, ‘Okay, you are now a deanery I remember one such place in Missouri. I happened and you must get together on a regular basis,’ it mostto be in a small city where I got to visit with some ly doesn’t work. But when there is the self-identified of the neighbors close to our parish who didn’t go to need to be together, and there is encouragement from church there, and they would say very quickly, ‘I don’t the bishop’s office to help that happen, then it sort of go to church, but if I did, that’s where I would go.’ And develops. And my office has appointed part-time misbeing that kind of place is really crucial, really importsioners for regions as these groupings have emerged ant. Some of our small geographically isolated places to encourage them. Not to run them, but to organize in Southern Ohio have really embraced that. And to and build the structures for folks. me, that’s a hopeful sign.

The Procter Center, like the diocese, is coming We are a church in systemic decline. Christianity under new leadership with the appointment of Jein North America is in systemic decline. It is a demorusalem Greer as interim executive director. What graphic fact. Which doesn’t get us off the hook. It just lessons do you think might be taken from the remeans that we have to be better organized with the cent history of Procter?

8

Winter 2023

PHOTO BY KRISTA DeVAUL

Well, I think that the property came to us as a working farm from the Procter estate, and it keeps trying to turn back into a farm. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Maybe instead of superimposing a camp and conference center on top of a farm, maybe we expand the ambit of the camp and conference center to include the farm more holistically. And that seems to be the direction that the Procter board is taking, and certainly the interim executive director is. Can we become a center for agrarian spirituality within the Christian tradition in our own place and really let that aspect of the Procter Farm take a higher profile?

And is the relationship between the diocese and the camp and conference center where you would like it to be?

I think that there is a very committed core engaged with Procter. I’m not sure how deep and wide that commitment goes, and I think before making big decisions about the future of the place, we need to get a better read on that extent of support, both as it exists now and any kind of imagined future for it.

Are there other ministries within the diocese or directions the diocese is taking that you would like to share your thoughts about?

We touched on racism earlier, and I talked about it more broadly in societal terms in Southern Ohio. I think we need to look more specifically at the racism as it exists within the diocese, and particularly listen to the witness of the historic Black parishes in the diocese. Their origin, I think, arose out of a kind of segregating racism from its own time, and over time these parishes became, in their own right, bastions in the Black communities where they lived and whom they represented. I think that they have been on the periphery of diocesan life, and I’m not sure that the Diocese of Southern Ohio has been the advocate on their behalf that they’ve really, really deserved.

Are there people you would like to salute as you prepare to make your exit?

Well, the people on the Standing Committee deserve attention, and James Allsop is one of my heroes in that regard. He has been a delight to work with and brings a huge wisdom from his life in the corporate world. And not just that, but he’s been the right

person at the head of the Standing Committee at the right time.

Of the Standing Committee members who called me to stand for election as provisional bishop, six have stood for reelection, and five of them have not been reelected. But no one did anything wrong. It speaks to what an impossible situation they were placed in and to the distrust of authority in this diocese. It’s really hard when you’re not reelected to a job that you’ve poured yourself into, but it’s a symptom of the system, which is not trusting.

What kind of advice fit for publication do you have for Bishop-elect White as she prepares to begin her episcopacy?

Well, first of all, I think being a bishop is a great job. I think that being Bishop of Southern Ohio is just a great job. I’ve encouraged her to build relationships and to go from there. I think that she doesn’t need a lot of coaching from me on that point. I think she’s hardwired to engage in ministry exactly that way. But for a bishop, there are huge payoffs in doing it. And paying attention to the little places as well as to the big places, realizing as I do that some of those little places are actually mission critical for us.

She knows that money is a big issue in the diocese, that ongoing recovery from addiction is something to pay attention to, too. Morale is getting better, but it’s something that will just take a longer amount of time rather than less. These are the broad brushes that she and I talk about. She has already taken it upon herself to learn the parishes of the diocese.

I tell her that she knows the parishes better than I do already because she’s done her homework, and that will serve her well.

Is there anything you want to make sure people understand that I haven’t given you a chance to say?

I want to be sure to say that my time as bishop has been a blessing to me, and it’s not one that I went looking for, but it was a surprise here in my early old age. To have the opportunity for such interesting work with such lovable people, it’s been a blessing for me. Now, it hasn’t all been rainbows and unicorns, you understand, and there’s been plenty of heavy lifting. But I have found myself not resenting the heavy lifting. Because of the blessing.

Connections Magazine

9

“I had a profound experience of call as I read the profile.”

Bishop-elect White is Eager to Get Started Interview by Nancy Bryan Photos by Graham Stokes

Bishop-elect Kristin Uffelman White will be ordained and consecrated on February 17 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus. She comes to the diocese after serving since 2018 as canon to the ordinary for congregational development and leadership in the Diocese of Indianapolis. The bishop-elect is a trainer and director in the College for Congregational Development, a church-based leadership training program, and served in various diocesan roles during her time in the Diocese of Chicago.

In this interview she speaks with Nancy Bryan about what drew her to Southern Ohio, and her eagerness to foster “greater connectedness within the diocese.”

I’m interested first of all in what attracted you to the diocese. What was it about Southern Ohio and the profile that spoke to you?

A friend who knows me well saw the profile and shared it with me, encouraging me to consider discerning this call. Once I saw the profile, I am not sure what I did the rest of that day: I couldn’t stop reading it. What has been most consistent all the way through almost every conversation I’ve had, almost every interaction that I’ve had with folks in the diocese, was that strong desire for a bishop who will be with the people and who feels particularly called to serve in Southern Ohio. That drew me, because I know what that looks like, having grown up in a diocese in eastern Oregon where our bishop, Rusty Kimsey (1980-2000), was very much part of the fabric of the diocesan community.

Bishop Kimsey related to the people. He was connected, he knew when big events were happening in our lives, and he showed up in ways that really mattered to us. When our daughter was born as a very premature baby, Bishop Kimsey was long retired at that point, but he drove two hours to the neonatal intensive care unit where she was being cared for to see her and to pray with us. I realized the difference that it makes to have a bishop who is that woven into the fabric of the diocese, and that was a piece of what drew me to this search. In the meet-and-greets and in other settings, I saw people naming that in lots of different ways; it felt consistent that that was really what the people of the diocese needed.

There’s an interesting diversity of geography in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. I am inspired by the fact 12

Winter 2023

that the cathedral city is not the biggest city in the diocese, that there’s a range of both large cities and rural areas, and all of these places have a desire to relate to one another and to have a bishop who will help people from the various churches connect to God and each other. In the Diocese of Indianapolis, we have a diocese that includes churches in two different time zones, so helping the folks who are most distant from the cathedral, who are also in the Central time zone, know that we’re all part of the same body has been an important part of the work that I’ve done. I grew up in an area in central Oregon that also identified with being far away from wherever the center of activity was. So, I would say those two things really drew me.

And then once I started meeting people and talking with them, I felt more and more drawn to this search.

What did you learn during the process that you didn’t know before?

I had been invited into a bishop search more than five years ago, but withdrew early in my own discernment. So, I didn’t know what to expect in this process, but if I was going to explore it, I knew I wanted to do that as fully as I could.

I learned everything that I could about every church in the diocese that I could possibly learn. I got on all of the churches’ newsletter mailing lists that I could find, and I started reading about them. I went to every church’s website and created a flashcard of each church and their location and the relevant information about their leadership, or their particular ministries. Over the course of the months leading up to the time when I actually got to meet folks at the meet-and-greets, I would pray through those index cards. I am not someone who’s blessed with a good internal sense of direction, and I wanted to know how the geography fit together, so I made a newsprint map, wrote in every town, and then made a sticky note for each church in each of those towns. I would take those sticky notes off the map and then see if I could put them back in their correct location.

So that was how I learned how things fit together.

And now I know where Ironton is versus Marietta versus Delaware. At the meet-and-greets, I got to meet people and see how they fit together, which was just a real gift. So I think, to answer your question, to go from learning about to actually connecting with peo-

ple and getting to meet them a little bit made me look forward to getting to know them more.

Did you learn things about yourself as you continued in the process that you didn’t know before?

Yes. I found a steadiness in my own faith and a sense of groundedness in this calling that I felt like I could trust. I would say my own practice of prayer deepened over the course of the discernment process.

I spend time every day now, and have throughout this process, in contemplative prayer and praying the [daily] office, which has been a tether for me. God’s faithfulness has helped steady me through a time different from anything else I’ve ever experienced.

How would you describe the particular strengths of the Diocese of Southern Ohio?

I experience a deep sense of hope and possibility, a desire for people to be more deeply connected with one another and with God, and a willingness to be candid about where they are and their desire to find a way forward together.

And what would you say are its particular challenges?

I think as a diocese, they’ve come through a hard time. There was a candor in the profile with which they shared the state of where the diocese is. The desire for a clear sense of mission, the desire to have real conversation about Bishop Breidenthal’s departure and how the diocese has navigated that process feels important to me. That was named openly, and I think

that was a brave thing to do. I hear in that a desire for real, strengthened relationships and deep conversation and a desire for a faithful way forward.

In those strengths, in those challenges, in what you’ve learned about the diocese and about yourself, what are you most excited about?

To get started!

Truly, the experience of getting to meet people in the meet-and-greets after so long of learning about them was exciting. As I said, I read this profile and I could not think about anything else the rest of that day and in the days to come. I had a profound experience of call as I read the profile and as I talked with people who know me. I felt a strong sense of being drawn to [the people of the diocese], and then to get to meet the nominating committee at the discernment retreat just reinforced those patterns of consistency: that what they’d shared in the profile was consistent with what I heard in the conversations that we shared. And so it felt like a deepening or a building of momentum, and that process and prayer and the conversations encouraged me to continue, encouraged me that this was a call that I needed to continue to explore. However the election ended up going, I felt compelled to continue.

The electing convention just took my breath away.

I don’t know how to say it any other way than that.

Those two together — my experience of call and the electing convention itself — compel me to begin the work in ministry. It can’t happen all at once, but I’m

“How churches talk about money is a matter of spirituality and can be transformative.”

PHOTO BY GRAHAM STOKES

Connections Magazine

13

very excited to begin. I’m excited to begin to lay the foundations, to begin to develop relationships, to find the places where the Holy Spirit is already at work in the midst of the people in Southern Ohio and to amplify that, to celebrate it and to deepen the roots that have already begun to grow. To discover the pathways to building greater connectedness within the diocese, to help people deepen their faith as followers of Jesus.

You’ve talked a little bit about the candor with which you felt the diocese had written its profile, the conversations you had, particularly around Bishop Breidenthal, but money is the other elephant in the room — and particularly transparency around money. The diocese has had difficulty in the past being clear about how it spends its resources. Do you have plans to address that?

Absolutely. And there is a lot that I don’t yet know, which frames the fact that I don’t know exactly how we’ll navigate that. I’m learning particularly about the discretionary fund. What I can say is that in my time in the Diocese of Indianapolis, we worked hard to be clear about what our mission is and how our resources support that mission and how we can align those more fully. I will be interested in having a similar conversation as I continue to learn, and as we seek to build together, the mission of the Diocese of Southern Ohio and explore how we can ensure that the resources are consistent with the mission that God is calling the diocese to. So while there is still a great deal that I don’t yet know, I’m committed to transparency and open conversation.

You’ve alluded both to your time in Oregon and of course to your work in Indianapolis. What lessons or experiences from Oregon, from Indianapolis, from Chicago will you draw on, beyond what we’ve talked about, as bishop?

In each of the dioceses where I’ve served, I have experienced the leadership of a bishop who is deeply committed to their own life of faith, and to the people and the care of the diocese. I carry those lessons with me and I’m grateful to have the illustrations of their ministry informing my work as I prepare to begin. I think that how a diocese and how churches talk about money is a matter of spirituality and can be transformative. So it’s not something I shy away from, the particularities of the financial situation in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. I am committed to moving forward with those conversations because I’ve seen how important it is for people to be able to have open conversations about the resources of the diocese and about how decisions are made. Those two things, open communication and decision making, are really important to me.

It would be my deep hope that as a diocese we will be telling our stories. That has been a real gift in the Diocese of Indianapolis—to work with the five pillars of mission that the people developed with Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows early in her time as bishop. As members tell stories about the mission of the diocese, which really is about their own lives of faith, it really then becomes testimony. Testimony is not a word that we tend to use a lot in the Episcopal Church, but it has given us a way into conversations about how we follow Jesus that Episcopalians don’t always know how to have. I wonder what might be possible in the Diocese of Southern Ohio in its own way.

What will people learn about you as the diocese gets to know you?

Many people already know I have a husband, John, a daughter, and two dogs named Lily and Lula. Our daughter is now 25 years old and living in Germany,

“We can do hard things together and we can live with joy and hope in sharing good news that the world needs.”

14

Winter 2023

PHOTOS BY GRAHAM STOKES

having married her college sweetheart right in the height of the pandemic.

John goes back to Oregon each year for the opening weekend of duck hunting season. We love family reunions at the lake where we’ve been gathering since my grandmother was a child. There are five generations now that have all grown up at these reunions.

John and I love to hike, we love to be in nature, we love to spend time with the dogs outside, walking them every morning and solving the problems of the world. That is very much part of the fabric of my life.

I have run three full marathons and a number of half marathons, I like to run, though I might call it a love/hate relationship. Running is part of the pattern of both my health and my spiritual grounding. I love to read, and particularly fiction, particularly murder mysteries. And I love to cook. My grandmother taught me to bake. She won the state fair for her pies in 1978.

I have celiac disease, which means that I need to eat gluten-free. One of the small victories for me was discovering that I could still make my grandmother’s pie recipe, substituting gluten-free flour — and she would probably say that it was tolerable. Each of the pieces of what is important in my life centers around my family and building community. I love to cook, but I love to cook for people. I love bringing people together. We love to go hiking, but we really love to go hiking with friends. Wherever we have been, we’ve valued that chance to build community and build friendships with folks.

I know that you have been a big supporter of the College for Congregational Development. How do you see that being a part of the future for the Diocese of Southern Ohio?

I would hope for us to have our own college in the years ahead. I want to ensure that that’s consistent with the desire and the mission of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, which I’ve heard a deep desire for in the conversations I’ve had so far, and I look forward to exploring that conversation. What I’ve found is that this is one of the things that I use every day in ministry. The things that I’ve learned through the college are stitched through the ministry that I practice.

I’m preparing to lead a workshop tomorrow (November 9; this interview was recorded on November 8) at

our Diocese of Indianapolis convention that’s about letting go of the things that no longer serve us in a congregation. Churches very often are ready to take on a new thing, but it’s hard sometimes to figure out what we can let go of in order to make room for that new thing. Using the models that the college teaches can give us perspective into our own churches in ways that it can be hard to see from inside the situation.

I heard, particularly in conversation with members of the nominating committee at the Discernment Retreat, about the Southern Ohio Lay Leadership Initiative (SOLLI), implemented by Bishop Thompson.

Many of the lay leaders on the nominating committee had some connection through the SOLLI project. That showed me both the desire that people had for a way of connecting and a way of building their own skills.

One thing that I love about the College for Congregational Development is that we bring teams of people together who are both clergy and lay, and then people are put into small groups where folks don’t necessarily know who is clergy, who is lay, or who’s from a large church, who’s from a small church. There’s a kind of equalizing, and it’s a way of connecting that helps people build relationships without some of those barriers that sometimes can keep us separated. I’m very hopeful about the possibility this holds for the Diocese of Southern Ohio.

What did I not ask that you would want included? Things that you want the diocese to know about you, about your plans, about your vision, about your view of the diocese?

I find joy in the life of the church, and I love coming together for prayer and conversation and worship. I deeply believe that the church has good news to share, that as Christian people, we have good news to share that our world is starving for right now and always. It is my deep hope that as church we can do that. We can do hard things together and we can live with joy and hope in sharing good news that the world needs.

I think a bishop is an important symbol of unity in the life of the church, yet this is not only about one person. We can only be the body of Christ if we are the body of Christ together. This particular diocese at this particular time is the place where I feel called and deeply, deeply honored to serve.

Connections Magazine

15

“I would hope people feel a little more trust in the diocese.”

Dr. Allsop Reflects on a Tumultuous Tenure Interview by Jim Naughton Photos by Graham Stokes

Dr. James Allsop’s tenure on the Standing Committee has been more eventful than he was anticipating. In November 2020, Bishop Thomas Breidenthal unexpectedly resigned, then disclosed his struggles with alcohol addiction. After the bishop’s departure, the Standing Committee served for nine months as the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese until the arrival of the Rt. Rev. Wayne Smith as bishop provisional in August 2021. In July 2022, the Rev. Canon Scott Gunn, then president of the Standing Committee, suffered a near-fatal cardiac arrest in Singapore, and Allsop, then vice president, had to step forward with the search for a new bishop already underway.

Allsop, a member of St. Simon of Cyrene, Lincoln Heights, drew on years of experience as a clinical psychologist at Procter & Gamble to help steer the diocese through this difficult period. He stepped down in November as president of the Standing Committee, although he remains a member. In this interview, he speaks with Jim Naughton about his tenure, the challenges he faced, and the direction of the diocese.

You joined the Standing Committee at a tumultuous time and ended up as president. How did all of that unfold?

Oh, it was surprising. I mean, I had never really been involved in diocesan work. I am in a small African American parish. I was recruited to the Standing Committee by two senior volunteers in the diocese who thought I would be helpful. I said, fine, and maybe I can find a way to help my parish. That was really the going-in plan. Then, the third meeting in, they terminate the CFO [chief financial officer]. About the fourth or fifth meeting in, we found out that Bishop [Thomas] Breidenthal had what we believed was a chronic problem. We are off to the races.

Due to your background, you brought some important experience to bear on that situation.

By background, I am a clinical psychologist, and I spent all my career in industry. So, I’ve done a lot of employee relations work. I have done diversity work.

I’ve done recruiting work. I have done restructuring work. I have dealt with substance abuse. I’ve dealt with a lot of things.

So, this is where I always felt the Lord ordered my steps. My previous experiences had prepared me for my role on the Standing Committee. So, we worked with the presiding bishop’s office on what we had learned about Bishop Breidenthal, and the problems turned out to be more serious than we had thought.

Bishop Breidenthal resigned in November 2020, and Bishop Wayne Smith arrived as provisional bishop in August 2021. The following summer, the diocese had another shock.

Bishop Smith is a very steady hand, and he has done a wonderful job. But that summer we were starting off a meeting, and Canon [Scott] Gunn, who I just have tremendous respect for, just a tremendous human being, was the president. And he wasn’t there. We said, ‘Where’s Scott?’ And it was, ‘Well, Scott almost passed away in Singapore.’ And it was like, ‘Okay, James, since you’re the vice president ...’

So that’s how I became president ahead of schedule.

The good thing was, the people on that Standing Committee, they were stellar people to work with. Barry Feist, Dr. Lissa Barker, the Rev. David Kendall-Sperry and the Rev. Jed Dearing all pitched in and picked up extra assignments.

You had decades of experience working in a complex corporate system at Procter & Gamble.

What did you learn about the systems in the Diocese of Southern Ohio after you became president?

“You have to learn the history of the system, and then you find ways to talk to people in their language.”

18

Winter 2023

“Being in a church that has its struggles, you understand how important your fellow parishioners are.”

If you had asked me how strong the systems were in the diocese—the personnel systems, other systems— before I got involved in the Standing Committee, I would have said, ‘We know they’re not corporate-like, but they’re probably pretty good, pretty strong, pretty resilient.’ I found out they were not as strong as I had envisioned. I found out that knowledge sometimes resides in a handful of very smart, very dedicated people. And that there is also a lot of tradition that dictates how issues are approached and resolved.

And was there knowledge that you thought was perhaps too closely held, and that needed to be more widely known?

One of the things Scott and I were working on before he got ill was getting into the information on the funds we are blessed to have from the Procter family, getting that information out in a more transparent manner and coming to understand some of the nuances of the trusts and how the funds could be utiPHOTO BY GRAHAM STOKES

lized. And that took a lot of time and patience to create a shared vision of a new future. I think that was a very important step for the diocese.

I think it’s probably known that we changed the compensation package for the bishop.

It was the Standing Committee and the Trustees and diocesan staff that worked on this project. I believe Bishop Smith was really the force behind this change. I mean, he looked at the compensation package and thought it was out of line. It was too high. And I told him, I said, ‘I do not know how it happened, but I’m sure you encouraged the change.’

What kind of ways have you developed to try to move people toward greater financial transparency?

Well, I think the first thing you always have to do, whether it’s this system or another, you’ve got to understand the history. Why are we here? Why are people wedded to tradition? That was probably the strength I brought to my job when I worked in industry. You Connections Magazine

19

have to learn the history of the system, and then you find ways to talk to people in their language. And the language used in the church is very different from the language used in general society or in business.

So, you have to get some familiarity with the language and how people think about the goals of the system. And then it’s just persistence, and saying, ‘Really? Come on now.’ It’s just literally just saying, ‘Are you sure we can’t do that?’

It feels as though the campaign for greater transparency about financial and other affairs is making progress. Is that your sense?

Bishop Smith said a very wise thing. He said, ‘The bear is hibernating,’ and he’s right. But the hope I have for our diocese and the other diocese in Ohio is that we are in the midst of generational shift. We are getting younger priests and a greater mix of women, although not as much ethnic or racial diversity as we’d like, and these people are coming out of a learning environment that leads them to want more transparency. So the hope is, as they ascend into positions that are very important, they will feel like it’s normative for people to have this information.

Other than the transparency issue, what did you think were the principal challenges that the diocese was facing once you settled into your role on the Standing Committee and began to get a view of the whole broader picture?

One big challenge was the internal work systems.

We tried to have a collaboration between the cathedral and the diocese. That was fraught with problems, and Dean [Owen C.] Thompson and Bishop Smith have ended it. So, I mean, part of it is just the atmosphere, at least from what I saw, and the working environment was not very healthy. And I think that’s a big challenge, and I think that’s a challenge

the new bishop is going to have. She’s going to have to come in and work on ‘What’s the right culture?

What’s the right level of accountability? Do we have the right staffing in the right place?’ So, there’s a lot of work to do there.

One of the other things I was interested in is, as you mentioned, you were in a small, historically African American parish. Obviously, you’ve had a different experience of the diocese and the wider church than if you were at a more affluent parish.

How do you feel that has informed your work?

I always tell this story. When I first I got on vestry, I went to a seminar and a priest from one of the well-endowed churches was there, and we are talking about budgets, and he says, with a perfectly straight face, ‘Oh, I never look at the budget. That’s the vestry’s job.

I do not do that.’ I mean, I know I blanched. I think if I could have changed colors I would have. He looked at me and said, ‘What did I say?’ I am looking at him, and thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is a different world.

This is just a different universe.’

And so being in a church that has its struggles, you understand how important your fellow parishioners are, how you have to support each other to get things done, how you have to live with people’s foibles and they have to live with yours, and how you have to use outside resources to get things done, how you have to be really attentive to grants and other opportunities. And again, because we are in a community that struggles, you have to open your doors. We have Narcotics Anonymous. We have members who spend a lot of time in food pantries. I’ve done some of that. And so, you really feel like you are closer to the rawness of society when you’re in a small parish, in a small village that has its struggles. You really sense that.

“You really feel like you are closer to the rawness of society when you’re in a small parish.”

20

Winter 2023

PHOTOS BY GRAHAM STOKES

Do you see the wheels moving on racial justice issues?

I think the whole issue of trying to figure out how those of us who want to move forward on racial understanding and healing can do it—it is very complicated. You have diversity in the Black community.

You have diversity in the white community politically and socioeconomically. So, you have a whole bunch of dynamics out there. And I go to a pool hall, so I know some very conservative people. We may disagree on politics, but have the same values about work and family.

So, I think it is very complex. I think the church is struggling with it. Sometimes large white churches are inviting a Black pastor or bishop and saying, ‘We’re addressing racism.’ But what are you doing in your personal life? If somebody said to me, ‘Well, what can I do?’ I’d say, ‘Well, you can contribute money to your local NAACP. You can volunteer.’ I mean, one thing our chancellor, Joe Dehner, and his wife, the Rev. Noel Julnes-Dehner, do is sponsor a summer reading program, which is a wonderful program, which touches 200 to 300 kids a year in Ohio.

That is a great program because it will help equip people to be successful.

But now, here is my flip side. Here is the controversial side. What I struggle with is sometimes I sense the church has gone too far down the path of therapeutic insight. Not that it’s not important, not that it can’t inform how you see the world, but somehow, sometimes I think we are a little too sold on that model.

It is like everything is about my trauma, my healing, my past. That is where I see it go overboard. I know I have seen people in my family go to a priest and get help when they need it. So it is very important to have skills in that. But to always apply a therapeutic model to everything, I think is overuse.

Are there other issues you look at and say, ‘All right, we’re healthier than we were two years ago’?

Yeah, I would hope. Now I do not know this for a fact, but I would hope people feel a little more trust in the diocese. I think Bishop Smith has done a wonderful job of stabilizing us and modeling what a bishop should do. I mean, it is an incredibly complex job. It is an isolating job. You have a lot of political under-

currents of what you can do and cannot do. Who can you trust? It may not be a 24/7, but it’s an 18/7 kind of thing. And as Bishop Smith has said, ‘I never leave my office knowing all the work is done.’

A new bishop is coming. What kind of things are you hoping Bishop-elect White will carry forward or initiate?

Becoming Beloved Community is an especially important initiative in our diocese. Through the work of Amy Howton, Miriam McKenney, Ariel Miller and others, people have been able to make personal connections. I think that is extremely important. Part of racial reconciliation or racial learning is having personal connections, so people know who you are. I think supporting that and expanding that is important.

Helping us with Procter Camp is especially important. Looking at racial and gender issues and figuring out what’s the right way forward. Collaborating with the deacons so that they will feel more empowered.

I believe together we will work on the great mystery in the Episcopal Church: how to bring more people into the church. We have a great tradition which is resonating with a lot of folks.

And then, of course, we have to look at the internal stuff. The systems have to be right-sized or the energy has to be directed to the right places. I mean, we have a real gap in our outreach to the Hispanic community.

We really have to think about that from what I can see.

I mean, it is just a plate of work.

What are your initial impressions of Bishop-elect White?

I think she is a tremendously gifted individual. She has a strong analytical mind, and I think she understands the diocese very well, understands the people.

I mean, I do hope she is patient with herself, because we went through a very difficult period of about 15 years. Bishop Smith has helped us steady the ship.

My hope is that together we can find a way to start to grow the diocese. And I guess the other hope—and I think she will do it—is that she takes full advantage of the mentorship that other bishops give to new bishops. And I also hope we, as a diocese, do not think, ‘Oh, she’ll come in and fix all the problems.’ We need an understanding that this is a growing process for us to do together.

Connections Magazine

21

God, Procter and the Great Outdoors

BY JERU SA LEM GREER

God willing and the people consenting,

The Reverend Canon Kristin Uffelman White will be ordained and consecrated a Bishop in the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, and Tenth Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio

Saturday, February 17, 2024 eleven o’clock in the morning The Right Reverend George Wayne Smith and the Standing Committee request the honor of your presence at

The Greater Columbus Convention Center 400 North High Street Columbus, Ohio

Reception to follow

22

Winter 2023

DEACONS AND PRIESTS

ATTENDING BISHOPS

Cassock, surplice, red stole

Rochet, chimere, tippet

In 2021, the Episcopal Church sponsored a poll entitled Jesus in America that looked at American opinions and habits regarding religious life. One surprising piece of data revealed that most everyone, regardless of religious profile, agreed that being outdoors or in nature is spiritually fulfilling.

Worship movements such as Wild Church, Farm Church, and Hiking Church have sprouted up across the country and across denominations responding to this new reality. People are no longer just meeting God outdoors alone on solitary walks or fishing trips; they are also gathering together outdoors to meet God. There is significance in this trend since, according to Priya Parker, a gathering researcher and facilitator, how we gather shapes how we think, feel, and make sense of the world. “Gathering,” she wrote in her book, “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters,” is “the conscious bringing together of people for a reason.”

Like Jesus with the disciples in the garden, or with the multitudes on the shore, shouldn’t the church be about the work of bringing people together for a reason, such as new life in Christ, and to help people experience belonging, belonging to God, to creation, to each other, and even to themselves? As the Body of Christ, shouldn’t we follow the example of a God who comes close to us, meeting people where they are, including the great outdoors?

Over the past year, I have begun to wonder if perhaps camps and conference centers could answer this call, becoming leaders in engaging the church and our communities in connecting folks to God, each other, and the great outdoors.

Which brings us to the ministry of the Procter Center. Our world is very different than it was in 1952 when Procter was gifted to Southern Ohio, but the words of Bishop Henry Wise Hobson in welcoming that gift still ring true. The need for a physical space that can provide “refreshment of body, mind, and spirit,” where we

can “develop a worthy rural program which will enrich the life of the whole Diocese” and “strengthen the unity and build up team work” is still great — perhaps greater than ever before. This is why the future and vitality of Procter Center matter so much — for our diocese, our communities and for the wider church. The mission of Procter (as articulated by its Board of Advisors) is to embody and teach creation care, spiritual development and hospitality by becoming a beloved community together. I believe that in this mission we can meet and minister to the needs of loneliness, spiritual hunger and a hurting creation within our diocese, our province and even within the wider Episcopal Church.

Over the next few months, the Procter team — which comprises Procter staff, advisory board members, Bishop-elect White, diocesan formation staff and me — will be spending time in prayer and discernment as we begin exploring sustainable and invitational ways of living into this mission. As we consider a strategic plan for the next five years, and consider what improvements or changes need to be made to everything from beds to cabins to land use to programming, we will be asking the question, “Does this choice embody and teach creation care, spiritual development and hospitality, and does it move us closer to becoming a beloved community? If it doesn’t, can we make a better choice?”

My hope is that this exercise will help us become firmly rooted in the ministry that God has given us to do and expand our imagination for what is possible — to become a place where people from far and wide, in times of hope and times of confusion, can, in Bishop Hobson’s words, “gather to gain vision, to learn what is of essential value… and to come to know Christ more personally.”

Jerusalem Greer is the interim executive director of Procter Center. She was previously manager for evangelism and discipleship on the Presiding Bishop’s staff.

Connections Magazine

23

412 Sycamore Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 513.421.0311 diosohio.org ©2023 The Diocese of Southern Ohio