According to the Quad City Times four churches, including the Cathedral, will continue as part of the Episcopal Church. Quoting the Presiding Bishop “We are working to assist in the reorganization of diocesan affairs.”
It now appears that four churches, including St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Peoria, Ill., the largest in the diocese, will continue to align with the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, which includes churches in the Iowa Quad-Cities, has no intention of leaving the national affiliation, officials have said.
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“We pray there will be no litigation,” the Rev. Ed den Blaauwen said Monday. Den Blaauwen, the rector of Christ Church in Moline, is also the newly appointed vicar general of the diocese that is now aligned with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, based in Argentina.
Church resources would be better used for Christian activities than in the courts, he added.
The Episcopal Church will protect its history and heritage, said the Rev. Charles Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop of the national church in New York City. Church officials will not give away property to a foreign province, he said, adding, “This is our heritage and, more than that, the heritage of those who have not even come our way yet.”
The Episcopalian (sic) Church still exists in the Quincy Diocese, Robertson stressed. “Our first concern for followers is that they know that our church continues,” he added.
According to Episcopal Church statistics Diocese of Quincy membership in 2007 was about 1850 with an average Sunday attendance of 1000 and St. Paul’s Cathedral in 2007 was about 400 with an ASA of 220.
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