Much has happened during this last year for us individually and corporately.

 

As you all know by now, a representative group of The Episcopal Community gathered in January for a fruitful time together, sharing our hopes and dreams for the future of our order. We discovered our interests centered around necessary, but very different, issues that needed to be addressed to help us better serve the members of the Order of the Daughters of the King, in which we each had made a lifetime vow. After meeting in small groups around these issues, we left for home feeling hopeful and energized to begin our assignments preparing for and leading up to Triennial 2009.

 

We prayed that the letters we shared by mail with all those for whom we had addresses, would help our membership and clergy understand more clearly the basis of our concerns and hopes that the current leadership would comply with the laws of the State of Georgia ( where the Order is incorporated) and the by-laws as properly approved.

 

As our circle widens, we have been encouraged by the unsolicited support we have received and continue to receive. We have been and will continue to be totally transparent in our desire to serve our membership and, through them, our order. It is important for all to understand WE HAVE NO AGENDA except to serve our King, our congregations and clergy, and members in the Episcopal Church. 

If we had wished to cause any division or separation, we could have done so easily, when we found during Triennial 2006 that the trademark (on the Cross of the Order) had expired and was available, or if we had informed the Attorney General of the State of Georgia of the improprieties taking place, potentially affecting our non profit status.

Division is not the intent or desire of members of The Episcopal Community. After July 2006, the Episcopal Daughters of the King merely wished a safe place to share their concerns and to seek help in understanding the current National Council and the issues bombarding us from all sides. We feel it is important for all the members to have full  knowledge by the light of Truth's being given a place to shine and move us out of darkness, a place where we can speak the truth we were prevented  from sharing on the floor of the business meeting at Triennial 2006.

 

The Episcopal Community has evolved as the answer to our prayer; "Lord, what will you have me do ?"

Those of you receiving this newsletter who do not live in Province VII may be unaware that there is a petition making the rounds in the chapters there asking for the resignations of three of our Episcopal National Council members because they were among those who signed the document asking for accountability from the Executive Board.

It seems that some members of National Council do not want you to know  that amendments and approvals given at the Triennial Business Meeting  in Orlando 2006 were found to be illegal by the noted professional  parliamentarian hired by National Council to review our Bylaws. She  (the parliamentarian) told the members of National Council that their  election was actually invalid.

That the election was invalid  has  always been the view of the thirty Episcopal Daughters who attended  the meeting in Orlando as voting delegates, but were silenced repeatedly by the  Chair of the meeting (Past President Sharon Lundgren) by being immediately called "out of order".

 

As a result of all of this, we have 15 members of  National Council who were elected illegally. The eight Provincial Presidents are legally elected because they were properly elected from their Provincial Assemblies. From the standpoint of cost and time it makes sense to continue as we are doing until the situation can be corrected at the next Triennial Business Meeting, and the Episcopal Community supports that decision entirely. We also believe that in order to amend the Bylaws legally, only those Daughters who have a vote according to a strict interpretation of the Bylaws (rather than the broad interpretation that got us into this mess in the first place) should be credentialed to vote at Triennial 2009.

 

Until the Bylaws can be properly amended, and the various Anglican churches along with their relationship to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion are sorted out, we feel it important to call for a moratorium on the Chartering of new Anglican Chapters of Daughters of the King. We believe more thought needs to be given to the creation of a structure that can support ALL Daughters, and in which we can all have confidence.

 

We believe that the Order of the Daughters of the King is wide enough for all. However, we want to see structural clarity with each group (International, American Anglican, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic and Lutheran) having their own Leadership Team including a Chaplain to provide focused pastoral guidance. Each group would have their own bylaws, their own business meeting, and set their own dues, paying only for the services they choose to use, such as office and administrative services, subscriptions to the Royal Cross, etc. The balance of dues collected could be returned to the group's local level as they are now returned, for the most part, to Episcopal provincial and diocesan elected leadership.  All the groups could come together under a collaborative and collegial, but non-policy making, representative umbrella.  

In this way, the Order of the Daughters of the King can continue to welcome all women who wish to "Lift High the Cross", while identifying and providing for the distinct needs of each individual group.

 

We would like to know what you think. Please feel free to share your thoughts at http://www.dokepiscopal.org/contact.htm

Comments from the Web Site:

From Pat in Tennessee:

I just went through your whole website for the first time, and I am just overwhelmed with the riches I found there, especially in the Resources section.  I am so happy to have you be a beacon of light for us out here in the dark, trying to make sense of what is going on in our beloved Order.

Thank you for your courage and willingness to fight for us.

A Sincere Effort to Strengthen the Order

In President Joan Dalrymple's column in the most recent issue of The Royal Cross, she devotes quite a bit of space to what she names "late breaking news" about the formation of The Episcopal Community of Daughters of the King.  At the end of the column she poses a couple of questions about the Community's formation.  She asks, "--are the efforts of The Episcopal Community rooted in a divisive political agenda promoted by disaffected members, or a sincere effort to strengthen the Order?"

 

These two questions have helped me see the essence of the ongoing controversy that has weighed down the Order since Triennial 2006 in Orlando, and earlier. 

 

First, let me speak to the comment that the Community may have "--a divisive political agenda promoted by disaffected members."  The Community's motivation has never been to promote a political agenda;  in fact, we organized to watchdog what we feel is  the current DOK leadership's political agenda.  The Order's leadership since approximately 2000 has sought to make sure the women leaving the Episcopal Church were able to continue to be Daughters of the King, even at the expense of "interpreting" (manipulating) bylaws.  Those in leadership during these eight years have aligned the Order with the more conservative side of the Episcopal Church, and have actually been privy to organizational information and planning of the break away congregations.  This is a political agenda. 

 

On the other hand, the only plan the Community has ever had is to help keep the Order's historic roots in the Episcopal Church.  Many of us have served on National Council and we understand the necessity of the Order not being involved in the issues of the larger church, nor of "taking sides" in matters of theology.  We can have our own personal thoughts and feelings about matters of theology, but the Order cannot.  For if she does, she reduces herself to church politics, and then the Order isn't a safe place any longer for all to express their theological views. 

 

Those of us who have sought solace in the Episcopal Community, and those who are yet to join us, are committed to a collective effort to help strengthen the Order at the grassroots.  We believe the majority of the Order (probably 90%) are women whose only "agenda" is to pray and minister in good faith at their local churches.  Who has been nurturing these Episcopalian women when the leadership has put 90% of its energy for nearly eight years into figuring out how women leaving the Episcopal Church can still be Daughters?

 

Watching and challenging decisions and actions by the leadership of the Order that seem against current bylaws and/or ethical procedures will continue to be a part of the Episcopal Community's work.  Educating members of the implications, as we see them, will also be done.  One of the problems we have seen over and over during this current administration is that decisions are made and actions are taken by the Executive Board when some of the members National Council have not been consulted. 

 

The Circle of Leadership, many of whom have served the Order at the National level, offer themselves as resources for educating and refining chapters and dioceses.  Written materials are also being created that will help build chapters and encourage individual Daughters during this tumultuous time.  Resources being considered at this time include studies on living our vows in community and as Daughters at Large, how to be accountable to God and one another, how to maneuver the waters of diverse theologies, how to be in unity without being uniform.     

 

The Episcopal Community will continue to make every effort to provide the information necessary for each Daughter to make an informed decision, especially on issues that will be voted upon at Triennial.  The Community is also focused on raising up among the Order's membership good leaders for the welfare of all, and providing leadership development and communication workshops to this end. 

 

Finally, the Episcopal Community, women who are deeply imbedded in the Order of the Daughters of the King, is committed to continuing to find ways to work with the National Council in a collective sincere effort to strengthen the Order.  We are committed to bring the Order back to its original purpose of being the praying arm of the Episcopal Church.  And, we are committed to work and pray in concert with those Daughters whose chapters have left the Episcopal Church and chosen to become Affiliate chapters in the Order, with their own theological oversight, all with the help of God.