Category: Episcopal Church

Some news, finally, from the big Grace & St Stephens / Rev Don Armstrong / Episcopal Church property donnybrook.

An El Paso County District Court judge ruled today that the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and officials of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish in Colorado Springs must resolve their $17 million property dispute at trial.

District Judge Larry E. Schwartz concluded, after reviewing six volumes of documents filed in the last year, that he cannot make a decision based solely on matters of law because “there is virtually no agreement as to the facts.”

Armstrong led a majority of parish — the largest in the Colorado diocese — into quitting the Episcopal Church and signing up with the Nigerian-led CANA. Of course, they claimed that they got to keep the church building and associated property when they left, regardless of the canon and constitution of the diocese.

While the judge allowed the parish’s contention that they had some status as an established non-profit organization, he denied several motions they had filed to dismiss the case.

No word yet on the criminal investigation (still ongoing) against Armstrong.

The civil trial is expected to start in early 2009.

More. Info.

As previously reported here, the Archbishop of Canterbury declined to invite the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire to his decennial conference in Lambeth, as someone who has been a lightning rod of contention within the greater Anglican Communion. He also declined to invite various (mostly conservative/schismatic) bishops (the actual list is, I believe, unknown) who have been been consecrated in an irregular fashion or by groups or in circumstances not recognized by the Archbishop..

That’s his prerogative, of course. Lambeth is supposed to be a consultative gathering, a chance for the bishops of the Communion to, well, commune at table together. At the time, the ABC hinted that there might be some other activities or interactions that Bp Robinson could participate in.

Now word comes that not only will Bp Robinson not be able to attend the conference formally, he will not be welcome to preach or celebrate at services while in England. The excuse seems to be that Robinson is too controversial, and that allowing him to do so would be tantamount to offering Official Approval of him.

Citing fears of creating a controversy, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has refused to grant Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the right to preach or preside at the eucharist in England. Robinson received the news in an email yesterday morning.

Sources familiar with the email say Williams cites the Windsor Report and recent statements from the Primates Meeting in refusing to grant Robinson permission to exercise his priestly functions during his current trip to England, or during the trip he plans during the Lambeth Conference in July and August.

[…] The email, which came to Robinson through a Lambeth official, says Williams believes that giving Robinson permission to preach and preside at the Eucharist would be construed as an acceptance of the ministry of a controversial figure within the Communion.

Of course, there are plenty of other controversial figures that the ABC has not similarly enjoined.

Williams has not denied permission to preach and preside to Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who gave his support to a failed legislative attempt to limit the rights of Nigerian gays and their supporters to speak, assemble and worship God collectively. Akinola has yet to respond to an Atlantic magazine article which suggests he may have had prior knowledge of plans for retributive violence against Muslims in his country that resulted in the massacre of more than 650 people in Yelwa, Nigeria.

Williams has not denied permission to preach and preside to Bishop Bernard Malango, the retired primate of Central Africa and one of the authors of the Windsor Report. Malango dismissed without reason the ecclesiastical court convened to try pro-Mugabe Bishop Nolbert Kunonga for incitement to murder and other charges.

Williams has not denied permission to preach and preside to Bishop Gregory Venables, primate of the Southern Cone, who has now claimed as his own, churches in three others provinces in the Anglican Communion (Brazil, Canada and the United States). Nor has he denined permission to preach and preside to Archbishops Henry Orombi of Uganda, Emanuel Kolini of Rwanda, or Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, all of whom have ignored the Windsor Report’s plea not to claim churches within other provinces of the Communion.

The issue seems to be, though, that the ABC has decided that unity — of both the Communion and of his own Church of England — trumps other considerations. Though he does feel badly about it.

Sources who have read the email say Williams expresses sorrow for the way the ban on Robinson must appear to the bishop and his supporters, but says he is acting for the good of the Church and the Communion.

Abp Williams seems determined to not do anything that might give the conservative elements of the Global South an excuse to bolt the Communion — even as they proceed with plans and processes to do so. It’s disappointing that, someone who ought to be a spiritual leader, is simply fighting a pastoral holding action, seeking to avoid blame for the Communion’s break-up regardless of the cost to others — and in so doing, is probably accelerating that very outcome. By acting out of “fears” and upholding form and organizations over individuals, Abp Williams is not acting in what I would call a Christ-like fashion.

Disappointing.

Mark Harris reports on the latest-greatest from Rev. Don Armstrong and his Grace CANA crew — including their novel new assertion that they really left the Episcopal Church back in 1973, so the Colorado diocese really-truly-ooly doesn’t have any claim to the Grace & St Stephens Church property.

The police investigation into fraud is ongoing, both the Episcopal parish and the breakaway CANA one down in Colorado Springs are hanging in there, and Don Armstrong continues to preach his gospel of love and kindness.

Because of the national body’s theological slide and vengefulness toward conservatives, Armstrong said, his group aligned with CANA – the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – the conservative North American missionary of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

He said the allegations against him, and his subsequent defrocking by the U.S. church, came about because of his opposition to the church’s liberalism.

“It was clearly a witch hunt,” Armstrong said. “We are an enemy of the agenda of the national church and have been effective against them in the books we’ve written and the papers we’ve published. So to take us out sends a message to the rest of the clergy: ‘Do what you are told and keep your mouth shut.'”

 

[…] Armstrong said the few hundred Episcopalians who chose to leave his downtown parish a year ago have not affected Grace’s budget and ministry growth.

“We didn’t lose significant members,” Armstrong said. “We lost people who were troublemakers.

In his Feb. 17 fundraiser homily for Grace CANA’s legal defense fund, Armstrong compared Episcopal leaders to devil-possessed “pigs” whom he plans to run “over the cliff,” an allusion to a biblical parable in which Christ sends exorcised demons into a herd of swine.   

“We are naming the evil, not wishing ill will on anyone,” Armstrong said later.

It’s ironic that, the day after we had a very pleasant dinner party with several folks from our parish (the monthly “Hungry Flock” group who had to be postponed a week because of my illness), I read about another “dinner party” being stood up, as Abp Akinola of Nigeria explains to some Church of England evangelicals why his block of African provinces won’t be attending Lambeth.

Now, for those not in the Anglican/Episcopal Know, Lambeth isn’t just a business conference or something. It’s a three-week gathering of the bishops of the Anglican Communion, with their spouses, at the personal invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to meet and pray and talk and, well, draw closer as a family. They talk and try to discern and teach, but the “legislation” bit is insubstantial (and a lot dodgier) than the fellowship aspect.  It’s a combination of a retreat and Thanksgiving — not a command performance or a congress, but a coming together. A communion, in many ways.

And Abp Akinola has made it clear that he and his don’t want to play any more — primarily, it seems, because Canterbury and most of the Anglican primates haven’t slapped down the Episcopal Church (or the Canadians, for that matter) for ordaining a gay bishop (excuse me, for ordaining an openly gay bishop). Indeed, there might be gay cooties in the air there.

They don’t feel they can sit at table with people with whom they disagree or even disapprove of. They see no value in it, and makes them uncomfortable. And, after all, it’s not like Jesus made a point of sitting at table with folks with whom he disagreed …

That’s okay, though. Sad, but okay. Hopefully it’s one of the final chapters in this long (but remarkably swift) breakup of the Anglican Communion. Abp Akinola can go on his way with his fellow “orthodox” and found whatever sort of organization they want. And the rest of us will simply get back to muddling along with, you know, important things. The bishops (those who want to go) can get together at Lambeth, hopefully resolve some differences (or learn to get along again), and the stuff the church should be spending time and attention on — feeding the poor, clothing the naked, comforting the afflicted, etc. — can be gotten back to.

Sometimes Thanksgiving is a bit easier, and a bit nicer, when the crazy, rude, racist, drunken uncle decides not to show up. A bit sad, but a bit of a relief.

Father Jake points to this report from a team of visitors from the UK, part of the Inclusive Church organization of the Church of England, and what they found as they visited around in the Episcopal Church. It’s actually pretty encouraging, and worth reading (for those with any interest in the subject).

Contrary to popular perception the Episcopal Church is in good heart, and maintaining a significant position in the USA as a church which is both broad and welcoming; which covers a wide churchmanship with big differences of opinion and yet is determined to stay together. Given the sort of coverage the secessionist dioceses and parishes get in the UK, it’s a remarkable thing to learn that out of around 7,200 congregations across the country less than 100 have sought to leave. And out of around 110 domestic Dioceses, only 2 are likely to seek to secede. We’re talking very small numbers, less than 2%. Many of the other parishes which might previously have wanted to leave are now recognising that to be part of a greater whole is valid and important, and real efforts are being made to develop understanding between those of different positions.

It’s true to say however that there is widespread anger because of the way that the Episcopal Church has been perceived to be treated by the Primates and by senior members of the hierarchy in the UK and around the world. The position of welcoming lesbian and gay people is not some arbitrary piece of rights-based legalism; rather, it’s worked out from the profound desire that “the Episcopal Church welcomes you” and is rooted in an understanding of the Gospel and Baptism which seeks to turn no one away.

(Emphasis mine)

Hardly an unbiased source, of course, but given all the brouhaha, sometimes it’s also important to get some other pictures of “how others see us.”