NORTHWEST TEXAS: Diocese Cannot Find Three People Interested in Running for Bishop
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
3/19/2008
The Diocese of Northwest Texas has a problem. It can't find enough candidates to run for bishop.
Outgoing Bishop Charles Wallis Ohl Jr.'s., legacy of persecuting fleeing evangelical parishes is apparently so unattractive no one wants to take his place. The diocese is also in a financial free fall since two significant donor parishes fled the diocese.
St. Nicholas Church, a parish with the largest average attendance in the diocese, left when the dissident majority chose not to litigate, because they felt this was neither good Christian stewardship, nor a good Christian witness. The majority of St. Nicholas Church, now Christ Church Midland, is part of the Anglican Communion under the ecclesiastical authority of the Church of Uganda.
Christ Church has already built a new church building, located on 16+acres of newly purchased land. It has received over $2,036,327 to pay for this, and has a remaining debt of less than $200,000. It also has operating fund pledges for 2008 of over $933,000, compared to roughly $500,000 when the congregation left the Diocese of NWT.
