April 2025 Reunification Discernment Committee Meeting Summary

The Episcopal Dioceses of Northern Indiana and Indianapolis Reunification Discernment Committee 
Meeting Notes for April 2025

The Reunification Discernment Committee met via Zoom on April 8, 2025.

Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows of the Diocese of Indianapolis offered an opening prayer.

Draft Models
The Committee has been hard at work preparing draft models in order to resource this ongoing, collective discernment. Models representing various dimensions of diocesan life will be shared in early May and will include drafts of a Constitution and Canons, Unified Budget, and Healthcare Model as well as reminders of the model shared at our Fall diocesan conventions for Ministry of the Episcopate.  

These models are tools to help us all begin to see and better understand how a reunified diocese could look and how it might operate. These models will also function as a means by which members of our dioceses can participate in shaping a reunified diocese (or help current dioceses improve themselves) by entering into discussion around them and offering ideas and feedback on them. The work of building these models is ongoing and your feedback will play a vital role in the next steps of their development.  

Feedback forms will be made available in May and ALL input received will be read and considered as the discernment process moves forward and the models are revised.  By extending the discernment process into 2026, there is more time for engagement, collective learning, and discernment. Please join us in this work!

Deanery and Neighborhood Gatherings 
Committee members are looking forward to participating with members of the dioceses at Neighborhood (Indianapolis) and Deanery (Northern Indiana) meetings in May and June.  

Members of Leadership Bodies invited to join the Committee in Kokomo, May 10
As shared in the February and March Reports to Leadership Bodies, the Committee has invited all members of the Standing Committees and Councils of both dioceses to the Reunification Discernment Committee’s meeting on May 10th in Kokomo. By then, the Committee will have distributed the draft models (included below) for a Constitution and Canons, unified budget, healthcare, and ministry of the Episcopate.  It is important that in building and refining these models, we receive input specifically from those serving on leadership bodies as well as from members throughout both dioceses. 

Updates were presented by each of the Teams of this Committee:
Constitution & Canons: The Committee was encouraged to examine the first draft of a model Constitution and Canons and to share feedback soon so that the Team can be ready for broad distribution soon. 

Stewardship & Financial Resources: A model for clergy healthcare has been distributed and a model draft budget for a reunified diocese will be distributed soon.

Engagement and Communications: The Team is considering a “photo album” with all of the parishes of both dioceses contributing a photo and description to a page. The team is reaching out to see if there might be a person or small team willing to take on this project.

Bishops and Staffing: Lots of collaborative work continues in developing a staffing model for a reunified diocese. 

The meeting closed with prayer. 

Closing

Please remember that the website episcopalindiana.org has lots of information concerning the Committee’s work, the history of the dioceses, and this process generally. We thank you for your attention and input as we continue this process and ask for your continued prayers for this Committee, our Bishops, and dioceses as we walk through this discernment together, faithful that the Spirit is at work here and will get us where we need to be.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Bishop of the Diocese of Indianapolis
The Rt. Rev. Douglas Sparks, Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana
The Rev. Clay Berkley, At-Large, Diocese of Northern Indiana
Mr. Evan Doyle, Diocesan Council, Diocese of Northern Indiana
Mr. Paul Kincaid, Standing Committee, Diocese of Northern Indiana
Ms. Joan Amati, At-Large, Diocese of Indianapolis
The Rev. Hilary Cooke, At-Large, Diocese of Indianapolis
Mr. George Eastman, Standing Committee, Diocese of Indianapolis
The Rev. Ted Neidlinger, Diocesan Council, Diocese of Northern Indiana
Mr. Greg Seamon, Executive Council, Diocese of Indianapolis
Ms. Brenda Rigdon, Diocesan Council, Diocese of Northern Indiana
The Rev. Allen Rutherford, Executive Council, Diocese of Indianapolis
Ms. Stephanie Pawlowski, At-Large, Diocese of Northern Indiana
Ms. Katherine Tyler Scott, At-Large, Diocese of Indianapolis