Northern Indiana diocese releases detailed reasons for decision not to reunify with Indianapolis
The Cathedral of Saint James in South Bend, Indiana. Photo: Cathedral of Saint James
[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Northern Indiana Standing Committee has released a lengthy statement outlining the reasons the diocese, in November 2025, decided it wasn’t ready for reunification with the Diocese of Indianapolis, saying the decision “came from a renewed understanding of our own identity.”
No single factor led to the votes at the diocesan convention last year, the standing committee said on Oct. 1. The Diocese of Indianapolis also voted on a resolution that acknowledged the reunification talks without moving forward with a plan to reunify. Both dioceses said they intended to “continue and expand this Season of Collaboration.”
“Several themes emerged” during the discernment process, the Northern Indiana standing committee said. “Many people expressed a desire for a more compelling vision of what a reunited diocese would become. … Though leadership was asked many times for reasons for ‘why reunify,’ no sufficient or convincing answers were given by leadership.” The standing committee did not specify which leaders it was referencing.
The standing committee also cited practical concerns, such as preserving ministries that have long been part of the diocese’s identity, as well as uncertainty about how Northern Indiana congregations and members would be represented in a combined diocesan structure.
“Despite sincere efforts by leaders in both dioceses, we have not yet built the depth of relationships that many believed would be necessary to support such a significant step,” the standing committee said in its Oct. 1 statement.
As the diocese prepares for its next convention on Nov. 7, it also has begun discernment about the role of diocesan bishop. Bishop Douglas Sparks announced in February that he intended to retire in August 2027.
“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 his February message.
The two dioceses in the state of Indiana had announced in January 2023 that they were launching a process to discern whether to reunify as one statewide diocese. That process coincided with several other examples of dioceses considering new partnership models as churchwide Episcopal leaders called for new approaches to addressing denominational decline.
In Wisconsin, the state’s three Episcopal dioceses reunited as one in 2024. Also, that year, the dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan agreed to a juncture and combined as the Diocese of the Great Lakes. And in Pennsylvania, the dioceses of Central Pennsylvania and Bethlehem completed their merger at the beginning of 2026 to become the Diocese of the Susquehanna.
Similar conversations about cross-diocesan collaboration 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. In 2025, the two dioceses decided to part ways rather than maintain their six-year partnership.