The Diocese of Pennsylvania has filed suit against the flagship parish of the Forward in Faith movement in the US, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, seeking control of the property.
Last month’s pleading, filed on behalf of the diocesan standing committee, asked a suburban Philadelphia court to eject the Rt Rev David Moyer and his congregation from the property, arguing the parish’s secession from the diocese violates canon law which requires parish property to be “held or used for the work of the Episcopal Church.”
The battle between Rosemont’s rector and the Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles Bennison, began in 2002, when Bishop Bennison deposed Fr Moyer for “abandoning the communion” of the Episcopal Church for contumacy.
Here we go again. If The Episcopal Church had any class, they’d leave Good Shepherd alone already.
I’ve heard that the TEC diocese has already been approached with an offer to purchase the GS “curate’s House” if and when the diocese obtains possession, and that another developer has expressed interesting in purchasing the church itself, tearing it down and using it for “commercial development.”
“Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant,” Tacitus, *Agricola,* ch. 30:
Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace. (Lord Byron)
I think there is actually some legitimacy to this action. From what I understand, this guy went off and became a bishop in another denomination. That is kind of peculiar. Sad that it has to end in lawsuits, but peculiar nonetheless.
I guess Anglican and Episcopalian are now incompatible.
I thought Bennison had been deposed because of his involvement with a cover-up of sexual misconduct by his brother.
More ‘waging reconciliation’ double-talk, I guess.
Archer,
the article says:
[i]After he was deposed, Fr Moyer was received by the Traditional Anglican Communion, a continuing church group, and is now a bishop within that church. Following the conclusion of the litigation last year between Bishop Bennison and Bishop Moyer the standing committee in Pennsylvania started legal proceedings to gain control of Rosemont.[/i]
Is the Traditional Anglican Communion a different denomination from the Church of England and her affiliates? I’ve no idea.
Yes. The TAC is not in communion with Canterbury and certainly not with TEC. The TAC is very Anglo-Catholic and is seeking communion with Rome (with some progress it seems).
My understanding is that the TAC is part of the “continuing Anglican” movement, although very much on the Anglo-Catholic end as opposed to (for instance) the REC which I believe is pretty strongly in the Reformed tradition. So no, not part of the Anglican Communion as such, and definitely distinct from the Church of England.
As #6 notes, the TAC comes up on this blog from time to time because it is seeking full union with the Roman Catholic church, and people who would be in a position to know have suggested that things are looking good for them.
[i] Off topic comment deleted by elf. [/i].
Thanks for the clarification.
Jim Elliott
I’ve never known what to make of the splinter Anglo-catholic groups like the TAC. They say they are catholic and in liturgical form probably are at least in the Anglican sense, but they aren’t in Communion with anyone else and broke off from a mother church, thereby making them de facto Protestant in the true sense of the term “protest.” As an Anglo-catholic myself, I find that baffling.
I would never classify the Reformed Episcopal Church as part of the Continuum. If you want to learn about the Continuum, you might start reading: http://anglicancontinuum.blogspot.com/
Then visit: http://bishopdavidsblog.blogspot.com
The Church of the Good Shepherd never left the Episcopal Church. Moyer was targeted by Bennison (there were other priests who respectfully asked the bishop not to come beside him) and, regardless of motive, his deposition became a sort of “don’t let this happen to you” example. During the Bennison years a lot of clergy became adept at “duck and cover” maneuvers as more and more revisionist clergy were brought into the mix. The result, of course, is an entity that attacks its own heritage. BTW Moyer is an assistant bishop in the Diocese of the Murray, part of the Anglican Church of Australia. He was also re-licensed by two ABCs as a priest so saying he is not Catholic is like saying Cranmer, Ridley and others who spoke truth to power for the sake of the faith and were victimized for it are outside the pale.
Luv, Luv, Luv, makes the world go round.
#10 How charitable of the odd rabbit to draw attention to John Hepworth’s marital difficulties. If this has to be discussed (elves?), one should also point out that Hepworth has already offered his resignation to the Holy See, should discussions toward unity develop further.
Having been divorced and remarried is practically a badge of honour among the hierarchy of TEC. A sad decline for a communion that once had the strictest marriage discipline in Christendom.
+Moyer is notable because the Archbishop of Canterbury (George Carey) wrote to Bennison, asking that he not go through with the deposition; and after Bennison proceeded, the ABC still recognized Moyer as a priest. Only then did Moyer accept the call to be a bishop with the TAC.
Things are looking neither good nor bad for the TAC to be in Communion with Rome, although there has been posturing both by those (liberal RC’s) who don’t want more traditionalist influence in the RCC, and those who want the TAC to have some official status. I suppose it is remarkable, though, on one level, that the RCC has been evaluating the issue for more than a year without saying “no.”
I also see that Adam12 noted that +Moyer was explicitly recognized as a valid priest, and welcomed to minister in multiple Provinces, by not only the ABC, but several other Primates as well. How many TEC priests have had such a degree of recognition? Perhaps none but Moyer–but that doesn’t stop the supercilious Pharisees here and elsewhere from looking down on modern-day Saints.