wfn.org | Traditionalists raise the stakes

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

Title:

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-076

Traditionalists raise the stakes by challenging authority 
of diocesan bishops

by James Solheim

(ENS) Attempts by parishes in Massachusetts and 
Pennsylvania to leave the Episcopal Church--and an invitation by 
a bishop in Bethlehem for traditionalists in a neighboring 
diocese to cross diocesan boundaries for confirmation rites--have 
sharpened the debate over the role of traditionalists in the life 
of the church in a post-Lambeth Conference climate.

A long-standing dispute at St. Paul's Parish in 
Brockton was resolved by the courts in favor of the Diocese of 
Massachusetts in March and Bishop M. Thomas Shaw assumed direct 
responsibility for the parish. The congregation voted to withdraw 
from the church in 1996 and its rector was later defrocked for 
sexual misconduct.

Dissident members of the parish have been holding 
services on the sidewalk in front of the church, before moving to 
a nearby auditorium. Bishop FitzSimons Allison, the retired 
bishop of South Carolina, risked disciplinary action by entering 
the diocese, without Shaw's permission, to preside at a Eucharist 
on May 16. "I definitely broke canon laws," the bishop admitted. 
"Right now, I think it would be a badge of honor to be censured 
by the House of Bishops."

Allison said in a newspaper interview that he was not 
worried about punishment. "The congregation is in accord with the 
teachings of the Anglican community. The diocese is not. What 
happens here will set a precedent," he said.

Allison and other conservatives are part of a move to 
force the Episcopal Church to comply with resolutions from last 
summer's Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, especially those 
condemning homosexual activity as "contrary to Scripture," and 
advising against ordinations or the blessing same-sex unions. 
They also cite a resolution advising against attempts to force 
bishops to accept the ordination of women.

No longer a place?

In the Diocese of Pennsylvania, a prominent parish 
affiliated with the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA), an umbrella 
organization of those opposed to women in the priesthood and the 
ordination of homosexuals, voted in April to leave the Episcopal 
Church.

Bishop Charles Bennison called the action by St. James 
the Less "a very grievous thing and a very serious thing," 
expressing his hope that a meeting with the parish could 
establish a reconciliation. It is one of several ESA parishes in 
the diocese that have not paid their diocesan assessments and 
have refused to allow visitations by Bennison or the suffragan, 
Bishop Frank Turner, raising canonical issues. The church's canon 
law requires bishops to "visit the congregations within the 
diocese at least once in three years" and, during the visitation, 
to "preside at the Holy Eucharist and at the initiatory rites, as 
required, preach the word, examine the records of the 
congregation. and examine the life and ministry of the clergy and 
congregation."

The General Convention's decision to enforce the canon 
on women in the priesthood, making it mandatory in all dioceses, 
was cited by one vestry member, Becky Wilhoite, as a signal that 
"led us to believe that there really is no longer a place for us 
in the Episcopal Church." She said that the parish is "not 
leaving the diocese or leaving ECUSA to go somewhere else. We 
want to remain part of the Anglican Communion. We don't yet know 
exactly how that will occur" but she did hold out the possibility 
of oversight by an African bishop.

The rector, David Ousley, also said that Bennison's 
decision not to renew the license of an assistant at the parish 
"obviously put a crimp in the ministry." Bennison said that he 
would renew the licenses of priests in parishes committed to 
leaving the Episcopal Church only if they moved to other 
parishes. And he said that his goal was "to hold onto the 
property," arguing that "we have a responsibility to the past--
all those people who, since its beginning in 1846, gave of their 
lives and labors to build up the congregation." Three bishops are 
buried in the graveyard at St. James.

A welcome mat for traditionalists

Bishop Paul Marshall of the neighboring Diocese of 
Bethlehem, distressed by what he called "increasing 
polarization," stepped into the controversy when he invited an 
ESA bishop to preside at a confirmation service for 
traditionalist parishes in the Diocese of Pennsylvania in his own 
diocese.

Explaining his actions in a letter to the diocesan 
clergy, Marshall said, "I understand myself to be creating 
something like 'a city of refuge' for those who, for whatever 
reason, find it desirable to worship with like-minded bishops--
just as Bethlehem is already a safe place for people with other 
points of view." He granted blanket permission to Bishop Donald 
Parsons, retired bishop of Quincy (Illinois) and Bishop Keith 
Ackerman, current bishop of Quincy, to preach and celebrate in 
the diocese.

Marshall also said that he would seek support for a 
resolution at next summer's General Convention apologizing to 
those "who have been alienated or whose faith has been injured by 
any insensitivity in imposing the prayer book of 1979."

Parsons visited Bethlehem's only ESA parish, St. 
Stephen's in Whitehall, on May 18 and confirmed an estimated 40, 
the majority of them from the Diocese of Pennsylvania. After a 
meeting in New York with Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, 
Marshall did not participate but was in the congregation. 

Marshall reported on the service in a message to the 
diocese on its Web site. "The mood of the group was not defiant 
or victim-like but eucharistic," he wrote. "Reactions from the 
crowd after the service were generally quite grateful," although 
he reported one woman accosted him charging that he "chose to be 
a politician instead of a shepherd tonight." Another said that 
Marshall's action might have kept four churches from leaving the 
denomination.

Pastoral not political

In an interview with the Pennsylvania Episcopalian, 
Marshall said that his chief concern was for the youth who would 
not understand why they couldn't be confirmed. "So I do not 
understand this as a political act, I understand this as a 
pastoral one."

He said that his hand had been forced when a reporter 
"somehow got wind of this and made it a news story. I had never 
meant for this to be this public an issue--and I certainly don't 
mean it to be an embarrassment to Bishop Bennison. But on the 
other hand, I believe in what I am doing. I make no apology."

Marshall said that "you could argue that what I'm 
doing takes some of the pressure off because there aren't any 
hostages." And he is convinced that "how one treats minorities is 
an important issue for me, whether they happen to be conservative 
minorities or liberal minorities." 

As he said in his letter to the clergy, he was 
motivated "to share the hospitality and openness that we enjoy 
with those who consider themselves marginalized by changes that 
have taken place in the church."

Marshall's actions are also raising canonical issues 
since he is, in effect, allowing ESA clergy in the Diocese of 
Pennsylvania to circumvent the authority of their own bishops by 
seeking confirmation in an adjoining diocese.

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's 
Office of News and Information. Parts of this article are based 
on reports by Jerry Hames and Sharon Sheridan for Episcopal Life.