New Anglican Diocese Formed in West
Episcopal News Service. May 19, 1977 [77173]
Los Angeles, Calif. -- Breakaway parishes and priests from the Episcopal Church in Southern California, Nevada and Colorado have formed a temporary diocese of the North American Province of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The new diocese and the province are part of a breakaway movement of Anglo-Catholics who say the Episcopal Church has departed from tradition by approving the ordination of women as priests and the "radical alterations to the Book of Common Prayer."
The Rt. Rev. Albert A. Chambers, retired Bishop of Springfield (Illinois) and currently president of Anglicans United, has confirmed about 100 persons as members of the new Diocese of the Holy Trinity.
Bishop Robert C. Rusack of the Diocese of Los Angeles and the diocesan standing committee had apparently asked Bishop Chambers not to take part in the formation of the Diocese of the Holy Trinity, which took place in Los Angeles. However, Bishop Rusack was reported to be planning no action against Bishop Chambers.
In a recent visit to Denver -- where he confirmed 27 persons -- Bishop Chambers was reported to have admitted he "may have bent a canon, " but added that "I couldn't live with myself if I hadn't done this."
Like other dissidents in the Church, Bishop Chambers believes it is not they who have left the Episcopal Church; they believe the Church has left them because it has voted to ordain women, has relaxed its stand on abortion, and has watered down its divorce and remarriage laws, he said.
The bishop said he sees no reason to resign from the Episcopal Church or from the House of Bishops.
Bishop Chambers has accepted a request to be "visiting bishop" of the Holy Trinity Diocese, composed of "nearly 30 congregations" in the western United States, including at least one in Colorado, four in Los Angeles, and one in Nevada.
Bishop Chambers says he doesn't mind being called a rebel because his conscience "is as clear as a bell." However, he said he had no desire for a new position. "It would be idiotic to elect me a bishop; I'm 71; I'm retired." Until the new diocese has its own bishops, he said, he will serve as a pastoral leader to the growing group.
The diocese is reportedly planning to elect its own bishop in July.
Bishop Chambers, who retired in 1972 after 10 years as Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, and who now lives in Dennis, Mass., said there are now 10 priests in the Diocese of the Holy Trinity. In the press he was reported saying that he expects the bishops for the dissidents will come from among the ranks of their own clergy, because he knows of only one or two other bishops of the Episcopal Church who may join the group. There are now 16 priests in the new diocese, he said.
Bishop Chambers said he has visited eight of the secessionist churches for confirmations. He predicted the movement will eventually have three jurisdictions in the U. S., with a bishop for each.
Four churches have left the Diocese of Los Angeles -- St. Mary of the Angels, Hollywood; Our Saviour, Los Angeles; St. Matthias, Sun Valley; and Holy Apostles, Glendale.
The first congregation to sever its relations with the Episcopal Church was St. Mary's Church, Denver, Colo. Last November the congregation voted to secede from the Diocese of Colorado. Similar action was taken by the congregation of St. Christopher's Episcopal Parish, Boulder City, Nev., in January.
The four congregations in the Diocese of Los Angeles are being sued by the Bishop and diocese with regard to the use and disposition of the church property. Judge Charles H. Vogel of the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that Bishop Rusack should not be a party to the lawsuit, which will have no effect on the future of the litigation.
The four parishes had argued unsuccessfully that the court had no jurisdiction over the cases. The judge ruled that the Diocese of Los Angeles could bring a lawsuit of this nature against the parishes, though the bishop was an invalid plaintiff.
The diocese also applied for a preliminary injunction against the sale or dispsition of the property of the four parishes pending a trial and final decision by the court. The four parishes offered to stipulate such an injunction voluntarily and the terms were worked out by attorneys for both sides. The preliminary injunction will remain in effect until the trial has been completed in the County Superior Court, probably within nine to twelve months.
The Evangelical and Catholic Mission -- another group of Episcopalians who have affirmed their opposition to the Convention's approval of women in the priesthood -- was established last winter with the expressed purpose "to strengthen the theological, spiritual, and moral life of Anglicanism." That group has vowed to remain loyal members of the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Stanley Atkins of the Diocese of Eau Claire (Wisconsin) is the chairman.
The Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen -- an organization of 16 membergroups of "traditional Episcopalians" -- has also rejected what it calls "the schismatic actions" of the 1976 General Convention "which separated that body from the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of the Creeds" when it approved the ordination of women to the priesthood, adopted the Proposed Book of Common Prayer, and made "decisions which indicate further departures from Scriptural and Christian morality and ethics."
The Fellowship has called a Church Congress in St. Louis on Sept. 14-16. Mr. Perry Laukhuff, Amherst, Va., is president of the Fellowship.