In an online story published by The Wall Street Journal, titled “Twenty-first Century Excommunication,” and accompanied by a video interview of the reporter, Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, the recent property disputes of The Episcopal Church were grossly mischaracterized. I have served as the Episcopal bishop of San Diego for almost seven years, and in that capacity dealt with three congregations in which the ordained leaders and their followers attempted to leave the Episcopal Church with parish property. In these dealings, I was threatened with death and told I will go to hell by those who claim to love Jesus more than I do. Other colleagues have had similar experiences, from death threats to being spit at during church services. Ms. Hemingway would have you believe that the animus we have received is about scriptural interpretation, but make no mistake: this is about power.
To fully understand this situation, it is important to grasp the canonical (i.e. legal) structure of The Episcopal Church. Parishes are creations of the diocese in which they are situated, in some cases deriving their tax exempt status because they are an irrevocable part of the diocese. As a condition of ordination, clergy vow obedience to their bishop. Congregations begin as mission churches under the direct supervision and financial support of the bishop with property held by the diocese. When such a church becomes a parish, by vote of diocesan legislature, the congregation pledges to be subordinate to the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church as well as the constitution and canons of the diocese. After becoming a parish, they may incorporate under the religious incorporation statutes of the state in which the congregation is situated. The diocese will usually transfer title to real property to the parish at that time to be held in trust for The Episcopal Church.
When individuals purported to alienate property which had be given to The Episcopal Church, I was bound by my fiduciary role as a bishop to prevent that from happening. Because The Episcopal Church, like so many others, follows state laws of incorporation, I had no alternative but to file suit in civil court to remedy the matter. This is analogous to a landlord finally going to civil court to gain relief from a non-paying renter or an owner using legal means to deal with a squatter. Thus, those leaving The Episcopal Church were catalysts of these law suits by breaking their solemn vows and by attempting to seize property they had no right to possess.
What is particularly regrettable about Ms. Hemingway’s piece is confusion about the relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, which is easily remedied with a simple visit to the Anglican Communion’s official website, http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm?year=2011&month=7&day=17 . There you will find every diocese of The Episcopal Church in their cycle of prayer; you will not find The Anglican Church in North American on that list. This is not to say they do not need our prayers. It is simply an indicator of who is an Anglican and who has merely appropriated the label. You will not find Missouri Synod Lutherans there either. Thus, The Episcopal Church remains a constituent member of the Anglican Communion. Despite Ms. Hemingway’s interpretations, our leader (called a primate), the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, is a participant in the Meeting of Primates of the Anglican Communion; Robert Duncan, the leader of the breakaway Anglican Church in North America, is not. At our last House of Bishops meeting, a gathering of all bishops of The Episcopal Church, we were visited by the primates of Japan and Central Africa. Like an eclectic extended family, we have our differences, but we regularly gather together.
Ms. Hemingway suggests that The Episcopal Church is depriving these departing Episcopalians of a relationship to Anglican bishops and foreign dioceses. Oddly, these individuals claim to desire a relationship with a bishop of their own choosing. But bishops are those who by definition maintain order and oversight over the church. To put it in historical terms, this is rather like choosing to succeed from the nation when the current leadership is not to your liking. Thus, when the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church urges her colleagues not to provide aid and comfort to those who would undermine our church, she has history on her side.
In the final analysis, no one has been excommunicated; rather some individuals have left our church. On their way out, they have tried to take what does not belong to them and, in an unimaginative attempt to cover their unseemly behavior, they have pointed the finger at their victim, The Episcopal Church. The Wall Street Journal and Ms. Hemingway have either been duped or shown a stunning lack of care in reporting. The only thing in this story that has been excommunicated is the truth.
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Thank you for the truth and for expressing our collective dismay with those who purport to tell the "truth".
ReplyDeleteI also find it “interesting” (in the ha ha, what a bunch of hypocrites way…) that 3 of the local break away leaders have either broken away or been ejected from the break aways for not being able to follow their own rules – 2 for divorce and marital infidelity issues and one, because he never should have been a priest in the first place… when you get so high and mighty and judgemental, it is hard for some of them to remember that the rules apply to them as well, not just their “followers” -
ReplyDeleteVery well said.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, the facts remain the same. Episcopal Church members and whole Dioceses are leaving TEC organization, and no one is coming in behind them. [& it seems well past the threshold of turning that around.]
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, there are plenty of other churches that offer the bible teachings & hope of Jesus Christ, and they do it in a straight forward, honest manner.
Most people want to simplify their lives, as they are under stress & strain, and trials. In trying to please Man, TEC needlessly has made a maze of things. To have the leader of TEC say, "we can't sell to someone who wants to put us out of business", "no competing branch of Anglican Communion can impose on our Mission strategy, "I'd rather have a baptist church or a saloon than the ACNA".
A more Worldly statement would be hard to find. This type of sentiment, is very unattractive to seekers -- who already know what the World has to offer. Nothing good.
LGM, you are so predictable! Every where I see you, you are full of doom and gloom.
ReplyDeleteFACT: Every denomination in the US is shrinking, from the liberal to the conservatives. The SOuthern Baptists are very worried, and they are hardly in danger of being too liberal. Tne only thing that keeps the Roman Catholic numbers stable is immigration, as cradle American Catholics are fleeing the faith.
FACT: Poll after poll shows that young people consider Christians to be over preoccupied with sexuality, hypocritical, and irrelevant to their lives. They are rejecting exactly the rigid conservatism that you promote, which for too long has been the public face of Christianity in this country.
FACT: in Bishop Mathes' own diocese, arguably the most liberal parish is the Cathedral. And they are vibrant and growing, adding new members, precisely because of their embrace of inclusion and social justice--what you might call their "worldliness".
These FACTS show that your prognostications of Episcopal extinction are inaccurate hyperbole. And repeating them can't be good for your blood pressure.