Standing Committee Members
The Rev. Glenn M. Matis
President
The Reverend Mr. Glenn M. Matis was the Rector of Resurrection, Mayfair, Philadelphia (Pennypack Deanery) from 1989 until his retirement in June, 2006. Prior to going to Resurrection, he was the 1978 organizing priest to what was then the newest mission in the diocese, Holy Nativity, Wrightstown, Pennsylvania (Bucks Deanery). An on-going and abiding concern of Father Matis is new mission development and renewed mission development in all parts of the diocese. At the November 2005 Diocesan Convention, he was elected to his fourth five-year term on the Standing Committee. He was a member of the Diocesan Commission on Salaries and Pensions. He was the President of the Standing Committee from 2000 to 2004 and has been re-elected to that office. He was also elected to the Diocesan Finance and Property Committee as it became an elected rather than an appointed body at the 2006 convention. He was President of the National Network of Episcopal Clergy Association from 1997-1998. He was twice the President of the Episcopal Clergy Association of Pennsylvania (ECAP). His past service also involved him as being the President of the Mayfair/Holmesburg Ecumenical Ministerium from 1992 to 2002. Fr. Matis is a member of the American Guild of Organists.
Diane-Louise (D-L) Wormley
First Vice President
D-L Wormley is Director of Initiatives at the Philadelphia Neighborhood Development Collaborative (PNDC) where she manages a Citywide “healthy neighborhoods” program. Her work at the University of Pennsylvania included managing the Cartographic Modeling Lab, managing Penn's $5 million enhanced mortgage program, coordinating the rehab of 20 long-term vacant properties and managing the University's short-term cash as Associate Treasurer for the University.
D-L is a member of the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, a pastoral visitor at Presbyterian Hospital (4 years) and a member of the Philadelphia Liturgical Institute's Visitation team. Previously, D-L was Dean's Warden at the Philadelphia Cathedral (4 years), Diocesan Secretary and Secretary to the Convention (4 years) and Recording Secretary to the Standing Committee (3 years).
D-L is a member of several community boards, including Union Benevolent Association Foundation and Settlement Music School.
Ms. Arlene McGurk
Secretary
Ms. Arlene McGurk was elected to the Standing Committee in 2003 and has served as Secretary since 2004. Previously she was Chair of the Finance and Property Committee and before that Chair of the Program Budget Committee. She served on Diocesan Council as a delegate from Southwark Deanery for two years and during her last term on the Executive Council. She was a member St. Mark's Episcopal Church for 32 years and is now a member of St. Luke and the Epiphany. From 1963-1965 she was a novice in the Order of St. Helena in Vails Gate, New York.
The Rev. Samual Adu-Andoh
Committee member
The Rev. Samual Adu-Andoh was ordained in 1975 in Ghana. He served as chaplain/tutor at St. Monica's Convent, Secondary School, Teacher Training College, and Midwifery Training College. He obtained degrees from the University of Ghana, Sewanee, and Princeton. Sam has been in the Diocese of Pennsylvania since 1983 and for two years served as Assistant at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Doylestown. Since 1985, he has served as vicar of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Monica, West Philadelphia. Sam has served on various committees in the diocese over the years, including: Stewardship/Evangelism committees, Diocesan Council, Diocesan Unity Commission, Cathedral site Selection Committee, and as Dean of Schuylkill Deanery. He is currently serving on these committees: Cathedral Chapter, Commission on Ministry, Episcopal Community Services Board, Standing Committee, and Convenor of the Black Clergy Association. Sam is married with three children.
Mr. Christopher Hart
Committee member
Christopher was first elected to the Standing Committee in 1999, re-elected in 2004 for a partial term, and re-elected to another full term in 2007. He previously served six years on Diocesan Council representing the Merion Deanery. During the last four of those six years Christopher served as the Vice-Chair of Diocesan Council, first under Bishop Bartlett and then under Bishop Bennison. From 1994 to 1999 Christopher chaired the Resolutions Committee for our annual Diocesan Convention.
Christopher also represents our diocese as a Deputy to General Convention (elected four times). In addition, he serves as a Deputy to the annual Synod of Province III of the Episcopal Church and as the diocesan representative on the Province III Council.
Christopher is employed as Head Bookkeeper at Lumbermens Merchandising Corporation in Wayne, Pennsylvania and is an active member of St. Mary's Church in Wayne.
Christopher is a life-long Episcopalian and the grandson of a former bishop of this diocese, the Rt. Rev. Oliver J. Hart.
Jo Ann Jones
Committee member
The Rev. Ledlie Laughlin
Committee member
The Rev. Isaac (Ike) Miller
Committee member
Ordained in 1976 in Connecticut, Isaac Miller has served as a priest in this diocese for the last twenty years: three years as assistant at the African Church of St Thomas, and seventeen years as DCMM vicar of the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. Elected to Standing Committee at the November Convention, he had previously served the diocese on that committee for two terms. He has also served on the ECS board and has been a leader in Philadelphia Interfaith Action, which with support from the diocese built 135 units of Nehemiah homes in West Philadelphia some eleven years ago.
Isaac and Rose and their daughter, Klancy, came to Philadelphia from Atlanta, where he served as college chaplain to the Atlanta University Center and as rector of St. Timothy's Church, Decatur, Georgia. Prior to ordination Isaac was a founding lay member of the Union of Black Episcopalians in the late '60's.
The Very Rev. D. Joy Segal
Committee member
The Very Rev. D. Joy Segal came to ordination from a very successful secular career which spanned over twenty years in management positions. Over the years of her corporate career she functioned as Systems Administrator, Controller, CFO, General Manager and CEO, and, prior to leaving her career to pursue ordination, was responsible for over 300 employees in a multi-million dollar organization. She has found that her administrative and organizational experience, mentoring skills, and teaching abilities, honed in her corporate career, have proved invaluable in parish ministry, the building up of lay leadership, and the understanding and facilitation of team ministry. Joy was active in her home parish of All Hallows, Wyncote for many years and it was within that community that she discerned her call to ordination. She attended two years of seminary at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and her final year at General Theological Seminary in New York before being ordained to the diaconate in June, 2001, and to the priesthood in June, 2002. Since then she has served as Assistant Rector of Church of the Messiah, Gwynedd (2001-2003) and Interim Rector of Trinity Buckingham (2003-2006) before accepting the call to become the 25th Rector of Gloria Dei (Old Swedes) Church in Philadelphia, where she began her tenure on February 26, 2006.
Joseph A. (Joe) Suprenuk
Treasurer
Joe has been a member of Trinity Church, Gulph Mills for 25 years. His parish activities have included Accounting Warden, Nursery School Treasurer, choir member, chalice bearer and lector, capital campaign committee member, Interfaith Hospitality Network volunteer and organizing member of St. Joseph's Guild (church maintenance).
Professionally, he was employed by the Diocese as acting controller after 25 years of experience as a CFO and Financial Controller in the private sector with budgeting and cost control responsibility. Additionally he has considerable Sarbanes-Oxley consulting experience. Currently he is Vice President of Finance, Insight Pharmaceuticals Corporation.
It was during the time he was employed by the Diocese that he realized what was happening financially and became so alarmed that he resigned during a Finance and Property Committee meeting when he became aware that there was a resistance and in fact, unwillingness to effect change. Consequently, he decided to run for the Standing Committee. In addition, Joe was elected to the Finance and Property Committee as it became an elected body rather than an appointed body at the 2006 convention.
Norman M. McCausland
Committee member
Michael Rehill
Communication
Records of actions and consents of the Standing Committee can be found in the News section under “Governance”. 2006 and 2007 articles can be found in Governance archives.
History of the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania
by the Rev. William Duffey
With the possible exceptions of Connecticut and New York, Pennsylvania’s standing committee is the first in the Anglican Communion. The concept of the standing committee was essentially the creation of William White, Pennsylvania’s first bishop, whose genius provided the impetus and rationale for the founding of the Episcopal Church. White guided the nascent church in the creation of an American episcopate that would be recognized in England but at the same time be acceptable in America among a populace suspicious of English models. In short, the American episcopate, while in historic continuity with the ancient church, would reflect the democratic spirit of the new nation. White’s achievement was an episcopate established in apostolic succession to the Church of England but limited in power by the will of the American clergy and laity. The standing committee was one of the instruments designed to achieve this limitation.
It may be argued that Pennsylvania’s standing committee in particular was to provide a model for the new democratic church (and for what would become the Anglican Communion). White’s associates convinced him that episcopal polity was essential, but White wanted to be certain that the new republic understood that American bishops would be different from English bishops, for if they were not, the new nation would never accept them. Thus his notions of limited episcopal power. In this conception of limited power he was influenced by the new American constitution, then being written in White’s city by persons of his acquaintance. Under White’s influence the federal constitutional system of checks and balances was incorporated into the constitutions both of the national church and his diocese, but modified. The result was a system of checks and balances appropriate for an independent, non-established church, different from those of a civil government and from the Church of England.
The correspondence of the diocesan bishop to the executive branch of civil government is not specifically stated in the founding documents. The power of the bishop to function as an executive is implied; moreover, it is clear that he or she is to function as a limited executive. Specifically, the standing committee was to function as a council of advice to provide a check upon and balance upon episcopal authority. The other check and balance was to be provided by Convention, the legislative branch of Episcopal government vested with plenary legislative power. The concept of the standing committee was one of the essential devices developed to assure that the American bishops in their capacity as the executive branch of diocesan government would be answerable to laity and clergy while at the same time being free to exercise the sacramental responsibilities of the historic episcopate.
The founders of the Episcopal Church departed from the Constitution of the United States by declining to establish a judicial branch with the same broad powers of the civil American judiciary. Church courts were empowered only to try cases involving heresy and clerical conduct. They do not have authority to interpret the constitution of the church and its canon law except as it may relate to cases of conduct and heresy. Unlike England which has a system of state recognized church courts, in America chancery and equity decisions were delegated to civil courts. This represents a modification of the federal system of checks and balances among the branches of government. In the case of the church, the main checks upon the executive are exercised by the diocesan and national conventions and by the several standing committees. Together with the Convention and the episcopate, standing committees are the guardians of the integrity of the several dioceses.
Rights and duties of the Standing Committee
The institution of the Standing Committee is enshrined in the Constitutions both of the Episcopal Church and the diocese of Pennsylvania. Standing committees were created in the original national church constitution of 1789 and have remained unchanged in every iteration thereafter. Similarly Pennsylvania’s Standing Committee is created in the constitution of the Diocese of Pennsylvania adopted in 1814 where it also remains unchanged to this day.
Article IV of the constitution of the national church establishes a standing committee for each of the several dioceses and sets forth standing committee’s duty to be the bishop’s council of advice. Title I canon12 of the canons of the national church further describe the rights and duties of standing committees. The canon provides for the organization of standing committees and requires them to keep records of their proceedings. The canon defines a quorum and the number of members competent to act. The canon also provides for the summoning of the committees at the will of their presidents and also upon the request of their bishop whenever the bishop shall desire their advice. Most importantly, the canon provides that standing committees “may meet of their own accord and agreeably to their own rules when they may be disposed to advise the bishop.” This provision thus vests them with the broad power to advise the bishop sua sponte, i.e. on their own initiative. At their discretion they may advise the bishop on any matter they choose, and they may do so regardless of whether or not the bishop has requested their advice.
The members of the standing committee are elected by the convention of the diocese and thereafter are independent of it except that they may report to convention and shall have such further duties as shall be given it by either the General or Diocesan Conventions. Over the centuries certain duties have been laid on standing committees, principally those requiring bishops to obtain their consent with regard to specifically enumerated actions which may be contemplated by the bishop.
From the broad advice power flows two implied powers. First, in order to advise the bishop the standing committee may require him or her as the executive to provide them with information concerning the affairs the diocese in order that the Standing Committee may render informed advice. Second, given the differences in the system of checks and balances between the Episcopal Church and the federal government, and given the concern of the church founders for an episcopate with limited authority, there is a reasonable assumption in the creation of a council of advice that bishops must heed the advice they are given by the standing committee at least some — arguably the majority — of the time. Clearly bishops cannot ignore their standing committees completely for an indefinite period of time, for that would undo the very purpose for which standing committees were created, the limitation of episcopal authority.
The standing committee also has the power to establish the budget of the episcopal function of the diocese and through the appropriate agencies cause an assessment to be levied upon the several parishes and missions of the diocese in support of the budget they have established.
Diocesan Council
Diocesan Council is an instrumentality of Convention created by canon and is a relatively recent innovation. Council has neither independent status nor prerogatives of its own and can be dissolved by Convention at will. The acts of the standing committee, by virtue of its constitutional standing, are superior to those of diocesan council, and the judgment of the standing committee would prevail in cases where the acts of the two bodies may seem to be in conflict so long as the act of standing committee in question lies within its constitutional ambit.
In the current situation the bishop is seeking to deprive standing committee of authority it has historically exercised and cause the exercise of the authority in question to devolve upon the diocesan council claiming that the language of canon 6.2.1 of the Diocese of Pennsylvania laying out the duties of diocesan council (“Between meetings of the Convention, the diocesan council shall have the power of the Convention, subject only to any limitations or directives adopted by the Convention itself, or by these Canons.”) or some other novel interpretation of canon by the bishop authorizes diocesan council to exercise such authority. Such an attempt on the part of the bishop is probably unlawful, and the exercise of such authority would probably be ultra vires, and should be strongly resisted. It may indeed be grounds for a charge leading to presentment.
As to the language “Between meetings of the Convention, the diocesan council shall have the powers of convention,” it is unique in the canons and is nowhere defined except to say that Convention may delimit this authority and give directives to Council as to what Council shall do. It is very difficult to know exactly what this language means. It is easier to say what it does not mean. It does not mean that diocesan council can enact on its own initiative any canon or authorize any program it wishes. Only Convention has that power, and since that power is constitutionally vested, Convention could not delegate it away even if it desired to do so. The language probably means that at most Council can implement and supervise work initiated by Convention since the language which follows specifically requires diocesan council to formulate policies and determine program. The implication is that the policies and programs Council can act upon are only those which Convention has begun. Diocesan council may then act on them in such a way as to provide a housekeeping or secretarial/ministerial kind of oversight. Council’s additional secretarial role is to prepare an annual program budget for the Convention’s consideration.
