wfn.org | Historic Mobile parish added to AMiA list

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2000-154

Historic Mobile parish added to AMiA list

by Jan Nunley

     (ENS) Members of Christ Church in Mobile, Alabama's oldest 
Protestant congregation, voted on October 1 to sever ties with 
the Episcopal Church. According to a press release issued by the 
parish, the vote to leave, 251 to 29, came after 10 hours of 
debate. The parish reports 700 baptized and 550 confirmed 
members. 

     While the press release states that the congregation will 
continue to worship in the 1840 structure, which takes up a whole 
city block in downtown Mobile, that may not go unchallenged. 
Bishop Charles Duvall of the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast 
released a brief statement on October 2.

     "The diocese has pledged to support those committed 
Episcopalians who remain at Christ Episcopal Church," the 
statement said. "While we respect the decision of those who wish 
to leave the Episcopal Church, we will take the actions necessary 
to make the land, buildings, and property available to 
Episcopalians who wish to continue to worship there."

      "The time had come to disassociate ourselves from a 
denomination that had drifted from its Anglican roots," the Rev. 
Tim Smith, rector of the 177-year-old congregation, told the 
Mobile Register. "I believe it was a decision that was made after 
a lengthy time of prayer and fasting." 

     Smith acknowledged that the decision "has been a long time 
coming." He has a history of involvement with groups dissatisfied 
with the Episcopal Church. He was one of five rectors who joined 
together in January 1996 as a short-lived group calling itself 
AWAKE. The group compiled a "Catalog of Concerns" about the 
Episcopal Church under former Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning. 
Later that year, Smith apparently associated with Concerned 
Clergy and Laity of the Episcopal Church in an "open letter" to 
Presiding Bishop Browning, published in the Washington Times and 
USA Today, that deplored what they saw as a liberal drift in the 
church.

     Smith was also a member of the Mobile-based Trust Group, 
which demanded in March 1997 that the New York state attorney 
general's office probe the handling of trust funds held by the 
Episcopal Church. As reported by ENS (April 3, 1997), the group 
claimed that treasurer Stephen Duggan provided insufficient 
information about the management of nearly 1,000 trust funds 
totaling about $200 million, particularly during the tenure of 
the previous treasurer, Ellen Cooke. Cooke is currently serving a 
five-year prison sentence for the embezzlement of $2.2 million 
from the church. The two-year investigation by the attorney 
general's office found that the trust funds are being managed 
properly. According to Duggan, responding to the Trust Group's 
complaint cost the Episcopal Church a total of $400,000.

No surprises on AMiA list

     In a "progress report" issued by the AMiA Steering 
Committee, presented at a meeting held September 27-28 at St. 
Stephen's Church, Sewickley, Pennsylvania, the group claims 17 
congregations have joined AMiA to date. An analysis of the list 

reveals that most made the decision to depart months--and in some 
cases, years--before the Denver General Convention. Others appear 
to be "continuing Anglican" or independent congregations seeking 
to be affiliated with an Anglican province through the AMiA's 
connections with Rwanda (through Bishop Chuck Murphy) and South 
East Asia (through Bishop John Rodgers).

Congregations under Murphy

*St. Andrew's, Little Rock, Arkansas, a congregation of about 
200 in the Diocese of Arkansas. The parish formed in 1997 over 
the objections of Arkansas bishop Larry Maze, and obtained 
episcopal oversight from the Rwandan Bishop of Shyira, John 
Rucyahana, rather than its own bishop. 

*St. Andrew's, Morehead City, North Carolina, a congregation 
of 600 in the Diocese of East Carolina. The parish's vestry 
decided in mid-March that the parish would leave ECUSA and align 
with the Anglican province in Rwanda. On April 30, Murphy 
performed his first episcopal act, confirming 19 persons and 
receiving one at St. Andrew's. East Carolina bishop Clifton 
Daniel III told the parish and its rector, the Rev. C. "King" 
Cole, that they could leave ECUSA but without their property. 
Cole maintains that the property was deeded in 1952 by the bishop 
and diocesan trustees to St. Andrew's vestry and its successors 
for the sum of one dollar. Daniel also refused to issue letters 
dimissory (transfer letters) for Cole and assistant priest John 
Grayson to the Rwandan province.

*Church of the Holy Spirit, Roanoke, Virginia, a parish of 
700 in the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. On March 2, the 
parish opted out of the Episcopal Church. "When they built their 
church building, they established an independent non-profit 
corporation to hold title to the property, allowing them to leave 
any time," wrote Bishop Neff Powell to the diocese. "Should they 
ask to return as an Episcopal Church, I will welcome them back 
with open arms, possibly killing the fatted calf." By May, Powell 
had inhibited Holy Spirit's rector, the Rev. Quigg Lawrence, 
following an investigation in which the Standing Committee 
unanimously determined that Lawrence had "abandoned the Communion 
of this Church." Powell will depose Lawrence at the conclusion of 
the six-month period unless Lawrence makes a retraction or denial 
of the Standing Committee's findings.

*Emmanuel Church, New Bern, North Carolina, a mission of 
about 50 in the Diocese of East Carolina. Its members split from 
Christ Church, New Bern, but are linked to St. Andrew's, Morehead 
City. 

*St. Andrew's-by-the-Sea, Destin, Florida, a congregation of 
about 600 in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. 412 members 
and three priests voted on August 27 to join the Anglican Mission 
in America. Currently, 593 of St. Andrew's members have requested 
transfer to the Anglican Church, and 18 new members have been 
added. The Revs. Mike Hesse, Rob Grafe and Forrest Mobley have 
been inhibited from acting as priests of the Episcopal Church. 
Diocesan officials offered to lease the buildings to the new 
congregation for a $10,000 per month leasing fee plus "all 
expenses of operation and maintenance including mortgage payments 
and all insurance premiums… [The] Anglican congregation will be 
given the opportunity to buy the property, but if those 
negotiations are not successful, the Standing Committee of the 
Diocese intends to sell to the highest bidder." The parish has 
been meeting at the Destin Community Center, while some 60 
parishioners who remained with the ECUSA congregation meet in the 
parish's 72-year-old building.

*Messiah, Gulf Breeze, Florida, a congregation of about 120 
in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. The Rev. Mark 
DiCristina, rector of St. Francis of Assisi in Gulf Breeze, 
resigned from the Episcopal Church USA in late August. DiCristina 
and 80 parishioners then established the Anglican Church of the 
Messiah in Gulf Breeze. DiCristina has also been inhibited. The 
remaining congregation of St. Francis of Assisi who did not break 
away from ECUSA will continue as an Episcopal Church in Gulf 
Breeze. 

*Two unnamed church "plants" in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Congregations under Rodgers

*St. Philip the Evangelist, Cortez, Colorado, a congregation 
of about 50, split from St. Barnabas, Cortez, in late July, when 
the Rev. Dennis Garrou, led the group to incorporate as the 
Anglican Church of St. Philip the Evangelist, Cortez. 

*Anglican Church of the Savior, Buena Vista, Colorado, a 
congregation of about 150, split from Grace Church, Buena Vista, 
in late July. The new congregation meets 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, departed with them; about 20 members remain with the 
ECUSA parish.

*St. Paul's Parish, Brockton, Massachusetts, with about 100 
members, is affiliated with the Province of Rwanda, but overseen 
by Rodgers. A dispute between St. Paul's and the diocese, dating 
from 1993, was resolved by the courts in favor of the Diocese of 
Massachusetts in March 1999. Former rector James Hiles was tried 
on charges of sexual misconduct dating from 20 years before, and 
defrocked. Supporters claimed Hiles was deposed because he 
opposed the diocese on sexuality issues and women's ordination. 
Dissident members of the parish held services on the sidewalk in 
front of the church, before moving to a nearby auditorium.

*Good Shepherd Fellowship, Scotts Valley, California is 
listed as a "new plant."

     No current ECUSA information exists for Christ Church, 
Atlanta; Church of the Redeemer, Glenview, Illinois; Christ the 
King, Campbell, California; Church of the Resurrection, Wheaton, 
Illinois; or The Light of Christ Anglican Church, Denver. Two 
other "loosely affiliated" churches--Christ the Redeemer in 
Spokane, Washington, and Trinity Church, Greenwich, Connecticut--
are not listed as ECUSA congregations in their respective 
dioceses. 

     The report says that, "other churches are expected to be 
added shortly." One possible candidate is the parish of St. James 
the Less in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, which voted in April 
1999 to leave the Episcopal Church. The Philadelphia parish and 
its rector, the Rev. David Ousley, have long been affiliated with 
the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA), now Forward in Faith/North 
America (FiFNA). 

     Another possible addition is St. Bartholomew's, Swartz 
Creek, a parish of 85 people in the Diocese of Eastern Michigan 
which left ECUSA in March, leaving its building behind. Its 
rector, the Rev. Gene Geromel, was a vice-president of the ESA 
(now FiFNA) and was active in a 1996 attempt to create a non-
profit organization using the name "PECUSA, Inc.," a variation on 
the corporate name of the Episcopal Church. 

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