wfn.org | Episcopalians: Carey calls story on licensing of Pennsylvania rector 'simplistic'

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

September 13, 2002

2002-212

Episcopalians: Carey calls story on licensing of Pennsylvania 
rector 'simplistic'

by Jan Nunley

(ENS) Reports that Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey offered 
to license a deposed Philadelphia priest are "putting it too 
simplistically," Carey said in an ENS interview in New York on 
September 10.

The Rev. David Moyer was deposed September 4 by Pennsylvania 
bishop Charles Bennison on charges that Moyer had refused 
Pennsylvania bishops access to Moyer's parish for a decade. 
According to the organization Moyer heads, Forward in 
Faith/North America (FiF/NA), at the moment Moyer received word 
of the deposition, the archbishop of Central Africa, Bernard 
Malango, accepted Moyer into the Diocese of the Upper Shire and 
then transferred Moyer to the Diocese of Pittsburgh at the 
request of its bishop. Moyer was received the next day by 
Pittsburgh bishop Robert Duncan as a priest in good standing. 

In a letter expressing "gratitude" to Malango and Duncan, Moyer 
claimed that "the Archbishop of Canterbury believes me to be in 
good standing with him and is prepared to offer me Permission to 
Officiate in the Diocese of Canterbury and a license in the 
Province of Canterbury."

"Basically when Bishop John Broadhurst in Britain wrote to me 
and said--about that--I wrote back and said, if Father Moyer 
wanted to be resident in England then he has to apply, and then 
yes, I would give him a license, and I will certainly give a 
permission to officiate," Carey told ENS. 

"I see that Rowan Williams has come up with the same statement. 
And so basically we're singing from the same hymnbook," Carey 
said. Apparently, a similar letter was sent to Carey's 
designated successor, Archbishop Rowan Williams of Wales, who 
responded that he "could see no objection" to granting a 
Permission to Officiate to Moyer "if the circumstances arose."	

"It's not a blanket permission but it's certainly a confident 
one, because I've met him on several occasions," Carey said of 
Moyer. "I want to say the whole conflict saddens me very much 
indeed and I'm sure it must everyone here."

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--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News 
Service.