Los Angeles Bishop Seeks Reconciliation with Departing Clergy, Parishioners as Legal Deadline Nears
Episcopal News Service. August 29, 2004 [082904-1]
Bob Williams
Keeping a second weekend open for reconciliation with people who have left three Episcopal parishes and aligned with a Ugandan diocese opposed to openly gay clergy and same-sex blessings, Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno preached this morning on "true religion" as a matter of remaining "bonded together using all our skills to settle our pain and grievance."
Bruno called for "unconditional love" to be extended to a group said to number 1,700 people -- from All Saints, Long Beach; St. James, Newport Beach; and St. David's, North Hollywood -- who have in the past two weeks voted to disavow the Episcopal Church and to affiliate with the Anglican Diocese of Luweero, Uganda. The parishes are among the 147 congregations of the six-county Diocese of Los Angeles, where overall membership is estimated at about 85,000.
The bishop said he hoped for reconciliation before a Monday-morning deadline that calls on departing clergy, wardens and vestry members to respond to letters hand-delivered to them August 27 from diocesan attorney John R. Shiner of the Los Angeles offices of the law firm Morrison & Foerster.
The letters call on each congregation to adopt one of two courses of action: either "immediately surrender control of the Parish corporation and Parish property to the Bishop and those congregants who have elected to remain as faithful members of the Church" -- or affirm an alternate nine-point plan of action to "preserve the status quo of the Parish, its loyal congregants, and the Parish's real and personal property until the matter is either resolved by the Church or by a court of competent jurisdiction."
The latter requirements stipulate that the breakaway groups not conduct worship services or other activities on site without written permission of the bishop. The requirements also proscribe the use of any printed materials of the church, including the Book of Common Prayer, and calls on each parish to provide the attorney within five days a current financial statement and a copy of the parish register.
Clergy familiar with such proceedings tell the Episcopal News Service that the letters reflect a widely held view that "parishes do not leave the Episcopal Church; individuals do."
In an August 27 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Newport Beach rector Praveen Bunyan called the letter unfortunate. "We're just worshipping in our own property," he told the Times. "We're doing what is legally our right. We will continue to have worship services here. We have peace about it."
Bunyan and other clergy affiliated with the congregations -- all of whom have been inhibited from priestly ministry by action of Bruno as bishop -- have refused interview requests from ENS. Bunyan was elected rector of St. James Parish after the retirement of the Rev. Canon David Anderson, current president of the American Anglican Council.
Meanwhile, Bruno reiterated reconciliation themes Saturday in remarks to the diocesan Commission on Gay and Lesbian Ministries. Referring to clergy and laity from the three congregations, "If they walked through these doors right now, I'd welcome them with open arms -- and I know you would, too," Bruno said to applause from 80-plus people gathered with commission members at a Los Angeles reception. Praising the commission's faithfulness through a decade of reconciliation dialogue and forums, Bruno encouraged commission members and friends not to be deterred in their work by the current struggle. "You're absolutely worth it," he declared.
Various commission members have joined with the Rev. Canon Brian Cox of the national Reconciliation Institute and with lay leader Cynthia Drennan of St. James, Newport Beach, in leading a series of diocesan workshops aimed at creating understanding and tolerance of differing points of view. The most recent workshop in this series was conducted in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts at the invitation of its bishop. Reconciliation efforts also included the 2002 "Hands in Healing" national tour which emphasized the eradication of violence in all forms.
Preaching today to a congregation of about 150 during his Sunday pastoral visit to St. John's Church in Los Angeles, Bruno said: "In difficult times when it is easier to walk away, we must choose for that which is difficult and 'let mutual love continue' as it says in the Epistle to the Hebrews. We are obligated to be the community of true religion, and not to flee because it is easier than being faithful to our vows."