Fate of Little Rock Traditionalist Parish Still Unsettled
Episcopal News Service. September 28, 1998 [98-2228_Z]
(ENS) The fate of a mission congregation formed last spring in Little Rock, Arkansas, without the support of the diocese or Bishop Larry Maze, is still not settled. Efforts by a Rwandan bishop to provide episcopal oversight and preside at confirmation in late September, despite a resolution from the Lambeth Conference reaffirming its respect for diocesan boundaries, were called off -- at least for now.
The mission congregation was started in the fall of 1997 and, when they called a rector the following January, Maze warned the Rev. Thomas Johnston of South Carolina that he would be violating the canons of the church "by accepting an irregular call in a diocese where he was not canonically resident." Johnston said that "he knew the canons and had prayerfully decided to take this call in spit of our objections," said Maze.
Before the diocesan council could take action, "to our utter amazement on April 13 we learned that the bishop of South Carolina had earlier received a request to transfer Mr. Johnston to the Diocese of Shyira, Rwanda, Africa, and on April 6 had complied with the request," Maze told his diocese. The action effectively removed Johnston from "accountability to the America church." In effect, "what had been a national dispute involving the integrity of diocesan boundaries is now an issue transplanted to the larger Anglican Communion."
In 1988 Lambeth passed a resolution that "reaffirms its unity in the historical position of respect for diocesan boundaries and the authority of bishops within those boundaries," Maze pointed out. The resolution said that it would be "inappropriate behavior for any bishop or priest of this Communion to exercise episcopal or pastoral ministry within another diocese without first obtaining the permission and invitation of the ecclesial authority thereof."
The Lambeth resolution in 1988 arose when Bishop Graham Leonard, at that time bishop of London and now a Roman Catholic, visited a traditionalist parish in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"My simple but clear concern and commitment is to give St. Andrews and Rev. Johnston spiritual asylum," wrote Bishop John Rucyahana in June to Maze. "I am saddened even more that you got to a point where church leaders force people into schism. I pray that this congregation remains Anglican up to a time when you resolve your differences or give it a flying bishop, who will nurture their faith from your province." He said that the congregation had been "pushed to the edge and applied for a refuge and they have it. I hope that you and your province will find a solution to this problem."
In a letter to Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey just before the Lambeth Conference began in July, Rucyahana repeated his allegation that the parish was being formed "because they disagreed doctrinally" with the bishop, noting that Maze had signed the Koinonia Statement that emerged from the 1994 House of Bishops meeting in Indianapolis. The statement says that sexual orientation is morally neutral and that it is possible for God to bless monogamous same-sex relationships.
Rucyahana dismissed the Lambeth resolutions, saying that "the issue of boundaries and collegiality cannot hold when the central unity in Jesus is damaged."
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold and Maze met at this summer's Lambeth Conference with Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini and Rucyahana in an effort to head off any further confrontation, only to find that Rucyahana had not called off his plan to go to Little Rock. In a letter to Kolini, Griswold reminded him of Lambeth's position on the integrity of diocesan boundaries and asked the primate "to make clear to Bishop Rucyahana that his current plan is most unwise and harmful." Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey also used his office to intercede with both sides.
In his own letter of July 28, Maze said that the offer of asylum "is based on misinformation" the bishop had received. "There simply is no situation in which people are being denied a place in the Diocese of Arkansas because of what they may or may not believe. It is rather a case in which diocesan leadership must be free to decide where, when and how new congregations are formed."
"It's clear to me that St. Andrew's has become a cause for conservative groups in this country," Maze said in a telephone interview. "And the sad thing is that well-intentioned local Episcopalians are getting caught up in that cause, one that doesn't have anything to do with our life as a diocese," he added. "There is no conversation on the local level in an attempt to resolve the issue."