Diocese of Massachusetts Asserts Control Over Parish Governed by Independent Corporation
Episcopal News Service. March 27, 1996 [96-1426]
(ENS) The power struggle for control of a prominent Anglo-Catholic parish in Boston's tony Beacon Hill may have entered its final stage, following the action of a special convocation of the Diocese of Massachusetts.
Last November the diocesan convention passed a canonical amendment that requires the democratic election of wardens and vestries in all parishes. That set up a direct confrontation with Church of the Advent which has been governed by a self-perpetuating, independent corporation.
The corporation of Advent voted to amend its constitution to remove the provision requiring conformity to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church which provoked a "godly judgment" in February from Bishop Thomas Shaw. He directed the corporation to withdraw the vote and institute a form of government consistent with the canons. Instead, on March 1 the corporation voted 13-5 to withdraw from the diocese and the Episcopal Church.
On March 3 members of Advent elected a new vestry and wardens, by a vote of 198 to 11. They also affirmed their desire to remain a part of the diocese and asked the bishop and Standing Committee to place the parish under the direct supervision of the bishop as a mission church.
"There are many members here of the congregation of the Parish of the Advent -- men, women and children, clergy and lay -- who have petitioned the Standing Committee and me in overwhelming numbers to assure them that they are full members of the body of Christ," Shaw said in his opening remarks at the special convention March 23.
Shaw said that Advent's former corporation "refused to follow the godly judgment and so now, in accordance with the canons of the church, in an effort to serve the body, I have to come to all of you. That is why we are here today. It's really holy business."
The one-hour meeting closed with the Eucharist. "We spent the first part of the morning coming together as a church to solve a problem," said Robert Bacon, president of the Standing Committee, in his sermon. "Now, after having done our work, it is time to celebrate the Eucharist together as a family and go back out to continue the Lord's work around this diocese."