Before she retires next year, the Rt. Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, Bishop Suffragan of Washington, seems determined to leave her mark on the diocese. Known mostly for her forced visitations upon Anglo-Catholic parishes in her diocese in 1996, Bishop Dixon has struck again, battling with a small Maryland congregation over the calling of a rector [TLC, April 1, 22]. Christ Church, Accokeek, Md., has called the Rev. Samuel Edwards as its rector. Bishop Dixon, who has taken upon herself the uncanonical title "Bishop Pro Tempore" of Washington, says Fr. Edwards cannot be the rector, apparently because he does not believe women can be priests, because he can recognize Bishop Dixon only as an administrative authority, and because he has written some articles in the past with which Bishop Dixon does not agree.

Canon law gives a diocesan bishop the right to reject the call of a priest to a parish. Unfortunately, Washington has not had a diocesan bishop since the Rt. Rev. Ronald H. Haines retired at the end of 2000. That's where Bishop Dixon comes in. Recent cases in Long Island, Southern Virginia, and elsewhere have shown how the canon which gives the bishop 30 days to act upon a call can work. The problem with the Accokeek situation is that Bishop Dixon took more than 60 days to notify the senior warden of Christ Church that she objected. Meanwhile, Fr. Edwards signed a three-year contract with the parish and moved his family from Texas to Maryland.

From all indications, Fr. Edwards is a duly qualified priest who holds views that while certainly in a minority in this church, are widely accepted and tolerated throughout the rest of the Anglican Communion -- beliefs held by faithful Episcopalians for more than 200 years. Bishop Dixon's tyrannical behavior is an abuse of power. If she's serious about the inclusivity that she and Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold espouse, she'll allow Fr. Edwards to become rector of the church which called him.