The Rt. Rev. Whayne M. Hougland Jr., Bishop of Western Michigan, gave an update April 13 on shared ministries with the Diocese of Eastern Michigan:
Today, the Diocesan Council and Standing Committee gathered in a joint meeting to consider the invitation offered to us by the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan — to enter into a period of conversation around deepening our shared ministries and to share a bishop during that time.
And today, your elected leadership has voted unanimously to support me in accepting the invitation to dance — to take the next steps in faith, working alongside our friends from across the state.
Here is the motion as it was passed by the joint body:
We, the Diocesan Council and Standing Committee, support our pastor and Bishop, the Right Reverend Whayne M. Hougland, Jr., as he lives more fully into his calling, particularly as concerns also serving as bishop provisional of the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Michigan and leading our two dioceses for up to five years, in the embrace of the expansive opportunity that this calling offers to the Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan.
… I will leave for sabbatical on May 1st and will return in mid-August. In late October, the Diocese of Eastern Michigan will hold their annual convention. There, it is expected that they would hold the official election and pass the bishop’s crozier from their current bishop provisional, the Rt. Rev. Cate Waynick, to me.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
