Denver Parish Votes Withdrawal
Episcopal News Service. November 30, 1976 [76370]
DENVER, Col. -- In a stormy parish meeting from which the Bishop of Colorado was excluded, St. Mary's Church here has voted to become the first Episcopal parish to withdraw from the Church because of the decision of the General Convention to ordain women to the priesthood.
It is not immediately known what effect the vote will have as Church canons ordinarily bar the withdrawal of a parish unit from the diocese and Church without action by the bishop. Colorado Bishop William Frey has already stated that the action is not valid.
After a four-hour congregational meeting, the vote to leave was 197-79. For the moment, the congregation is an "independent Anglican parish," according to the church secretary.
Bishop Frey disagrees, noting that the change in its articles of incorporation which the parish approved require his permission, which he will not grant.
In a letter mailed to members of the parish before the Sunday meeting, Bishop Frey said that while individual members of the congregation may wish to leave the Episcopal Church, "St. Mary's will continue as a congregation of the Episcopal Church in this diocese."
He said he planned to appoint a vicar to look after the religious needs of the St. Mary's minority, noting that some members have been "begging" him to do all he could to keep St. Mary's within the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Frey has forbidden Father James Mote, St. Mary's rector, to function as a priest because of his actions. Father Mote indicated earlier he no longer considers himself under Bishop Frey's jurisdiction.
Father T. Rayner Morton, parish curate, has not resigned from the Episcopal Church, and Bishop Frey planned to meet with him. Father Morton abstained in the vote. In Episcopal polity, curates serve at the pleasure of rectors.
The parish meeting was closed to all except voting members. It was broadcast on the public address system to Bishop Frey and others in the basement of the church, although only the presiding officer (Father Mote) could be heard clearly.
Bishop Frey said he was "bothered" and "saddened" by the "childish gesture" of refusing to allow him into the meeting.
When he tried to enter, he was told by an usher guarding the door, "You have to have an orange ticket."
"I'm the Bishop of Colorado, you realize that," he replied. "Yes," said the usher, suggesting that he try to obtain a ticket.
John Archibald, a member of the vestry, refused the bishop's request for a ticket. "I think the bishop is not a member of this corporation," said Mr. Archibald.
A suggestion offered during the meeting to admit Bishop Frey was ruled out of order by Father Mote.
After the vote, Father Mote said he hoped none would leave the parish, nor consider the outcome of winners and losers.
He told a press conference he had been "forced to leave" the Episcopal Church because the decision on women priests resulted in a "new Protestant denomination" which he "cannot tolerate."
"I would sell pencils on the street before I would compromise my principles," he said.
St. Mary's began its fight against the decision of General Convention in Minneapolis in September with a resolution submitted to Colorado's diocesan convention early in November. This called for secession of the entire diocese from the national Church, and was overwhelmingly defeated. The parish rector and several delegates walked out of Convention.
Then Bishop Clarence Haden of Northern California, who also disagrees with the General Convention action, was invited to speak. He was asked to consider taking the Denver parish under his jurisdiction.
Addressing St. Mary's Nov. 15, Bishop Haden asserted, "the faith I have loved and served has been betrayed. " However, he suggested that the parish consider representation with the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen. This group he said, hopes to organize a "Continuing Episcopal Church" which will "uphold the Faith."
"If you simply leave the Diocese of Colorado the cost will be dear," he cautioned. "You will be out in limbo, for under the Constitution of the Episcopal Church it is not possible for a parish to become a part of another diocese than their own."
However, the date for the vote was set. Following the meeting Bishop Frey said, "I believe the parishioners who voted to leave the Church have unnecessarily isolated themselves from many people who love them, and from many who, in fact, stand with them... to me the important issue that was voted upon Sunday at St. Mary's wasn't the ordination of women, but whether the unity of the Body of Christ is of any importance.
"It is small wonder that society as a whole pays little attention to a Church so beset by internal wrangling."