Bishop and Traditionalists Dispute Reasons for Departure of Western Kansas Cathedral Dean
Episcopal News Service. January 13, 1994 [94004]
Although the former dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Salina, Kansas, has left the Episcopal Church, Bishop John Ashby of Western Kansas and a group of traditionalists are disputing the reasons for the departure.
According to a press release from the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA), an organization of traditionalist Episcopalians, the Very Rev. Richard Hatfield resigned his post at the cathedral because he refused to attend a service in which diocesan clergy would reaffirm their ordination vows. Hatfield, an opponent of women's ordination, stayed away because one of the priests in the diocese is a woman.
Following the service, Ashby sent letters to Hatfield and his associate, the Rev. Canon Joseph Kimmett, expressing his disappointment over their absence. "It was a private expression of my feeling on the subject," Ashby said in an interview.
In a letter to the clergy of the diocese, Ashby acknowledged that "there is nothing in canon law or the Prayer Book that requires priests to renew their ordination vows." However, he added, "to refuse to renew ordination vows in the presence of the bishop and the clergy and the people of convention is to break the bond of collegiality that exists between bishop, clergy and the diocese."
ESA Executive Director, the Rev. Samuel Edwards, described Ashby's letter to Hatfield and Kimmett as "deplorable.... The real thing at issue here is whether the community commands a higher loyalty than the truth." He contended that the two clergy were being penalized "for holding and acting upon beliefs which are the historic and still-predominant belief of universal catholic Christendom and which are still lawful to hold and to act upon in the Episcopal Church."
However, Ashby insisted that his correspondence to Hatfield and Kimmett "was not intended to be a test to determine whether or not people who oppose the ordination of women to the priesthood can live and work in this diocese -- they can and do," he said.
Following the departure of Hatfield and Kimmett from the cathedral, both sought almost immediately to join the Antiochian Orthodox Church. Each renounced his orders in the Episcopal Church and Hatfield was ordained a priest in that denomination on January 6 -- only days after his resignation from the Episcopal cathedral took effect.
"It is quite clear that plans and arrangements for this change to the Orthodox tradition had been in the works for a very long time, and that my reprimand caused nothing to happen that not been intended for some time," Ashby Although Hatfield has established a new congregation in Salina and has already attracted some former parishioners from the Episcopal cathedral, a new provost at the cathedral is already bearing fruit, according to Ashby. "Christ Cathedral is already showing positive signs of renewal and revitalization... we shall see the cathedral emerge as a strong and vital congregation...," he said.wrote. "These things do not happen overnight."