A Few Parishes Leave to Join Anglican Mission in America
Episcopal News Service. September 14, 2000 [2000-128]
(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.
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. lan 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."
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.
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.