As some dioceses embrace life together after mergers, others decide against closer partnerships

The dioceses of Indianapolis and Northern Indiana have said they hope to “continue and expand this Season of Collaboration” despite ending reunification talks. Photo: Trinity Episcopal Church in Indianapolis.

[Episcopal News Service] Several diocesan mergers in recent years have contributed to discussions across the church over how best to structure The Episcopal Church’s local expression of the faith. At the same time, other dioceses have decided to move ahead separately after considering closer partnerships.

The two Episcopal dioceses in the state of Indiana, Indianapolis and Northern Indiana, had announced in January 2023 that they were launching a process to discern whether to reunify as one statewide diocese. Last fall, however, the two dioceses decided to halt those talks, and in November 2025, each diocesan convention passed resolutions saying they were not ready for reunification but would seek to “continue and expand this Season of Collaboration.”

In both dioceses, “each of our congregations has faithfully engaged the question of whether we are called in this time to once again be the Diocese of Indiana. This has been a process of extraordinarily faithful discernment,” Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows said at the time. “The decision to call not for reunification but for a period of robust collaboration is an act of extraordinarily faithful discernment.”

Northern Indiana Bishop Douglas Sparks also addressed the future potential of reunification, at the diocese’s convention in November and again on Feb. 25 in a message to his diocese announcing his timeline to retire by August 2027.

“It is clear to me that the possibility of reunification with the Diocese of Indianapolis is some years away, if ever,” Sparks said. That said, Northern Indiana will need to decide sooner about how to handle its leadership transition.

“During the next several months, working with the leadership of our diocese, we will consider whether to elect the next and ninth bishop of Northern Indiana or, because we are serious about continuing to consider the possibility of reunification with our siblings in Indianapolis, to call for the election of a bishop provisional until that decision is made,” Sparks said.

In an interview with ENS, Sparks acknowledged there were certain differences in size, structure and expectations of the two dioceses that posed challenges to reunification, though he appreciated working alongside Baskerville-Burrows to initiate conversations about possible partnership models.

Similar conversations had been underway since 2018 in the dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York. Though a merger was never openly considered, the two dioceses in April 2019 began sharing a bishop and combining some administrative and ministry functions.

Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe had led the partnership as bishop diocesan of Northwestern Pennsylvania and bishop provisional of Western New York before stepped down from both dioceses to take office in November 2024 as the denominational leader. In 2025, the two dioceses decided to part ways rather than maintain their six-year partnership.

Now, Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York are conducting separate bishop searches as they look past their former partnership and resume their earlier identities as separate dioceses.

Northwestern Pennsylvania’s bishop search has progressed to interviews, after the search committee reported this month that it had received more applications than expected. “We ask your continued prayers for the candidates who are being interviewed, their families, and the search committee,” the Very Rev. Melinda Hall, the search committee chair, said in an online update Feb. 18.

The Diocese of Western New York is close to publishing a diocesan profile for its bishop search and accepting applications. Interviews are expected to start this spring.

The Rev. Luke Fodor, standing committee president in the Diocese of Western New York, said in a written statement to ENS that both dioceses learned lessons from their work together that now is informing their plans for the future.

“Our partnership with Northwestern Pennsylvania was a bold and faithful experiment,” Fodor said. “While it wasn’t built for the long term and was shaped by external factors beyond our control, we learned a great deal from the experience, and we’re grateful for the courage it took to try something new on behalf of sharing the Gospel more widely.”

Several other dioceses are in varying stages of exploring new identities after undergoing mergers. There have been four such combinations since 2022 under Episcopal Church Canons that govern reunions, involving dioceses that had previously been part of the same diocese, and junctures, a separate but similar process by which two dioceses can merge even if they do not have a shared history.

In 2022, the Fort Worth-based Episcopal Church in North Texas reunified with the much larger Diocese of Texas. Then in 2024, the three dioceses in Wisconsin reunified to become one statewide diocese. Also that year, the dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan agreed to a juncture. Now known as the Diocese of the Great Lakes, the combined diocese has begun seeking its first bishop.

And in Pennsylvania, the dioceses of Central Pennsylvania and Bethlehem voted to reunify and, in January 2026 they became the new Diocese of the Susquehanna, a name taken from the river that runs through the region.

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.