wfn.org | A few parishes leave to join Anglican Mission in America

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2000-128

A few parishes leave to join Anglican Mission in America

by Jan Nunley

     (ENS) A group of conservative Anglican leaders has alleged that a "state of 
pastoral emergency" exists in the Episcopal Church as a result of resolutions 
passed at the Denver General Convention regarding the women's ordination canon 
and human sexuality. But efforts to persuade congregations to defect from the 
Episcopal Church seem to have proved largely unsuccessful.

     Calling themselves the "Nassau Coalition--A Broad-Based Consultation on 
Anglican/Episcopal Essentials," the group met in Nassau August 21-23 to discuss 
the implications of resolution A045, which calls for "continued monitoring" of 
compliance with the canons on women's ordination, and D039, which asks for 
pastoral support of lifelong, committed relationships outside of marriage.

     The group produced a "circular letter to the archbishop of Canterbury and 
the other primates of the Anglican Communion," condemning the resolutions and 
asking the Primates and the archbishop of Canterbury to provide "an alternative 
arrangement" for conservative ministry "as a matter of urgency." The letter 
added, "Many have already left; many more are leaving," but provided no 
statistics. 

     The list of signers includes three of the 38 Anglican primates, eight 
American conservative bishops, a bishop from Brazil and one from Singapore, 
representatives from nine conservative organizations--all but one based in the 
U.S.--and one bishop of a "continuing Anglican" church. All but four of the 
bishops are listed as members of the U.S-based Ekklesia Society on the 
organization's Web site, www.ekk.org/bes.htm. The Ekklesia Society was the 
coordinating body for the Nassau meeting, according to a report by Andrew Carey 
in the Church of England Newspaper.

'Unhelpful,' says presiding bishop

     Before entering the hospital for surgery on September 11, Presiding Bishop 
Frank T. Griswold commented briefly on the declaration. "It is unhelpful to have 
bishops from other parts of the Anglican Communion seek to disrupt the life and 
work of this church," he said, "but it is heartening to know that almost without 
exception, the mission of the gospel and common vision in the Episcopal Church 
continues uninterrupted in the unity of the faith."

     The Rev. Ian Douglas, associate professor of world mission and global 
Christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
remarked that the term "broad-based coalition" used by the Nassau group may be 
misleading. "It probably does look broad-based, from within that community," 
Douglas said. "There are people on that list who accept women's ordination and 
people who oppose it, people who accept the 1979 Prayer Book and people who 
don't. There are Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals and charismatics, and certainly 
there are people who are not from the U.S. But you'd be hard-pressed to say it 
was 'broad-based' in any wider theological or ecclesiological sense."

No groundswell for leaving

     Since the Denver General Convention, there have been scattered reports of 
priests and parishes leaving the Episcopal Church and affiliating with the newly 
formed Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), the umbrella organization for 
"missionary work" undertaken in the U.S. by the Church of South East Asia and the 
Church of Rwanda. Priests and parishes which affiliate with the AMiA will be 
received into the Church of South East Asia under Bishop John Rodgers (formerly 
of Pittsburgh), or the Church of Rwanda under Bishop Charles Murphy (formerly of 
South Carolina). Both were consecrated as "missionary bishops" in January, but 
neither has been recognized as a bishop by the archbishop of Canterbury or 
Griswold.

     "While we are aware of the efforts of the AMiA in a few U.S. churches, there 
has been no substantial undermining of the health or ongoing mission of the 
mainstream church in America," commented Griswold. "We continue to uphold a 
position that is generous, broad and inclusive of divergent points of view while 
holding on to the unity of one body in Christ."

     An informal survey of 32 diocesan bishops via e-mail revealed that only 
three dioceses have had parishes transfer to the AMiA's jurisdiction. Only one 
knew of a parish contemplating such an action, and three believed there is at 
least one parish in their diocese which might leave. "As orthodox Anglican 
clergy, in an orthodox Anglican diocese, under an orthodox Anglican bishop, there 
is no pressing motivation to request such a change in affiliation at this time," 
said a conservative bishop.

     When asked if they have a contingency plan for dealing with parish property 
or the status of clergy in departing congregations, most said they had no such 
plans--and didn't anticipate needing them in the future. "This is a fairly non-
politicized diocese," wrote one evangelical bishop. The remainder were split 
between those who saw themselves taking the situation on a case-by-case basis, 
and those who said that the canons are clear on the subject: the property stays, 
the clergy are deposed.

Florida, Colorado parishes depart 

     Ironically, the congregations and priests which have left for the AMiA have 
been from dioceses with a moderate-to-conservative theological reputation, 
although both the Nassau Coalition bishops and the AMiA's Murphy and Rodgers 
claim their focus is on the needs of those in liberal dioceses with a "non-
orthodox" bishop. Some observers have wondered whether that's missionary work, or 
just old-fashioned intramural "sheep-stealing."

     In the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, a group of 80 parishioners from 
the 257-member St. Francis of Assisi Church in Gulf Breeze, Florida, along with 
their rector, the Rev. Mark DiCristina, announced they were leaving to form the 
Anglican Church of the Messiah on August 20. A week later, 412 members and three 
priests from St. Andrew's-by-the-Sea in Destin, Florida, voted to break away from 
the Episcopal Church and were received into the Church of Rwanda by Murphy. 

     On September 7, the diocesan standing committee authorized Bishop Charles 
Duvall to inhibit DiCristina and two of the three Destin priests from acting as 
clergy of the Episcopal Church. (The third is canonically resident in Alabama.) 
They have six months to respond. The new Anglican congregation will be given a 
chance to buy its building and property from the diocese if they do not return to 
the Episcopal Church within six months. Meanwhile, the diocese has presented them 
with a $10,000 per month lease, subject to "the option to continue Episcopal 
services…subject to agreeable times," and has asked that both parties "refrain 
from using derogatory language with reference to each other." On September 9, the 
parish's senior warden rejected the offer and the lease terms as too expensive, 
and promised to vacate the property by September 15.

     Even as the Florida parishes were negotiating their departure for the Church 
of Rwanda, two small Colorado congregations and four priests joined the Church of 
South East Asia under Rodgers. 

     All but 20 members of Grace Church, Buena Vista, are meeting in a former 
Baptist church as the Anglican Church of the Saviour. All three of the parish's 
clergy, the Revs. James Stone, Alan Sulzenfuss and Kathy King, have departed 
also.

     The Rev. Dennis Garrou, formerly of St. Barnabas, Cortez, led a group of 33 
to incorporate as the Anglican Church of St. Philip the Evangelist, Cortez. "One 
of the straws that broke things for me was a former vestry member at St. Barnabas 
who said, 'People ought to have the freedom to disagree with the Bible,'" Garrou 
said. "That wasn't the kind of church we wanted to be part of."

     The Denver Post reported that Colorado's Bishop Jerry Winterrowd is "taking 
a wait-and-see attitude" about the departures, although in a pastoral letter to 
the diocese, Winterrowd said the priests face disciplinary action. Those 
remaining with the two Episcopal parishes will be served by a missioner priest 
until further notice.

     "It's not exactly a groundswell," commented Douglas, who added that the 
critical issue in any such departure will be ownership of property. 

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News 
and Information.