SPECIAL REPORT

The global anatomy of a local church conflict

by PamelaW. Darling

What might have avoided notice as a purely local diocesan matter has instead attracted attention around the Anglican world. Among leaders of the Episcopal Church, USA, and so-called "traditionalist" groups who want freedom to preach "orthodox" doctrine and traditional

morality – and to be exempt from the church’s canons – "Accokeek" has become a test case.

The facts of this case, well-documented on the Internet [see URLs below], are as follows: On December 13, 2000, Barbara Sturman, senior warden of Christ Episcopal Church in Accokeek, Md., notified the Bishop of Washington, Ronald Haines, that the church planned to call Samuel L. Edwards, of Fort Worth, Tex., as rector. Because Haines was about to retire, he asked Washington’s Suffragan Bishop, Jane Dixon, to take over (upon Haines’ retirement, Dixon became the Bishop of Washington, Pro Tempore). Canon law allows the bishop 30 days in which to "communicate" with a parish before a call is issued. Even after a call, the bishop is to ascertain whether the candidate is "duly qualified."

A few days after receiving the message from Sturman, Dixon, through her staff, "communicated" that approval was contingent on a satisfactory interview. An appointment was set for January 10, 2001, within the 30-day limit. On January 3, Edwards e-mailed Dixon’s office that he could not keep the appointment and the interview was rescheduled for February 26.

Meanwhile, certain members of the congregation shared with Dixon their distress over Edward’s views about the "hell-bound" Episcopal "Unchurch." Edwards had for the last eight years been Executive Director of the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA), which had morphed into Forward in Faith, North America (FIF/NA). In various articles on the FIF/NA website, Edwards expressed the opinions of many traditionalists charging a decline of theological and moral leadership in the Episcopal Church. His writings also reflected the increasing frustration of many dissidents: "Those who are determined to keep working with the system of ECUSA [the Episcopal Church, USA] must do so in the full and certain knowledge that, if they are to bring the hell-bound machinery of that institution to a halt, the substance which gums up its work will be composed of their selves, their souls and bodies."

"I was alarmed by Father Edwards’ explicit encouragement of people to ‘gum up the works’ and leave the Episcopal Church," Dixon says. "I wanted to see where he was on those things. I needed him to guarantee that he would obey his ordination vows, obey the canons of the church. He equivocated."

At the interview, Dixon says Edwards stood by his earlier statements, would not promise what he might do in the future, would not promise to obey the bishop and her successors, would not promise that Christ Church would remain in the Episcopal Church.

After the interview, Dixon notified the senior warden and Edwards that she could not approve him as rector. But Edwards had already signed a contract with the parish and moved his family into the rectory. The canons permit a member of the clergy to function without a license in a diocese other than her/his own for up to 60 days, so Edwards could legally officiate at Christ Church until May 25.

Meanwhile, lawyers and canonists on both sides were hard at work. The terms of Canon III.17 were hotly disputed – had Dixon violated the 30-day limit; was she within her rights to deny that Edwards was "duly qualified"?

On March 16, Frank Griswold, the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, issued a statement: "I cannot imagine a bishop, as chief pastor of a diocese, approving the election of a priest to serve a congregation when that priest has a marked and publicly stated antipathy – far beyond comment and critique – toward the church in which he was ordained. Therefore, as Presiding Bishop, I am in complete support of Bishop Dixon’s decision."

More than 60 bishops signed a letter of support for Dixon, while letters chastising her came from a handful of other bishops. On May 15, the Presiding Bishop met with traditionalist bishops, the president of FIF/NA, and Charles Nalls, the attorney representing Edwards and the Accokeek parish, for a "candid expression of views" about the place of traditionalists in the church.

As the 60 days came to an end, Dixon notified Sturman and Edwards that she was coming to Christ Church to celebrate the Eucharist and appoint an interim priest to serve them while they looked for a rector.

On Sunday, May 27, the senior warden stood in the church door and told Dixon she could not come in unless she would sit quietly in the pew while Edwards celebrated. Dixon, who had come with some supporters – including the now retired Bishop Haines – announced that she would celebrate the Eucharist on the adjacent church basketball court. Half of those in the church followed Dixon, while the rest remained for the service conducted by Edwards. Members remaining inside were augmented by supporters from several area parishes.

The scene verged on the chaotic as Edwards’ supporters attempted to disrupt the bishop’s service and police called by the parish to remove "trespassers" milled around uncertainly. Above the heckling, Dixon announced that Haines, now retired as diocesan bishop, would serve as interim rector for Christ Church. Another retired bishop, Edward MacBurney, read a statement from Jack Iker, the bishop of Edwards’ home Diocese of Fort Worth. Iker condemned Dixon’s actions and made the unprecedented – and unlawful – declaration that he was taking Christ Church under his pastoral care and protection and giving permission to Edwards to serve as rector.

During the next several weeks, as dozens of Christ Church parishioners worshipped with Haines at a nearby hall and Edwards officiated in the church, the lawyers got busier. Nalls filed a charge of trespassing against Dixon and a complaint (later withdrawn) in criminal court against Dixon’s husband, for allegedly pushing the junior warden in the midst of the confusion on the basketball court.

On June 25, 2001, Dixon filed suit in federal court to compel Edwards to remove himself from Christ Church and to require the vestry to welcome their bishop. That same day, the Presiding Bishop wrote to all bishops: "I have been unsuccessful in my extensive efforts to assist those involved … [to] find a way forward that would satisfy their several concerns."

Two weeks later, Dixon sent a complaint about Edwards’ officiating without a license to his Fort Worth bishop, Iker. Two sets of ecclesiastical charges against Dixon were filed with the Presiding Bishop, who forwarded them to the Review Committee of the House of Bishops, as the canons provide. As this issue went to press, the matter was in the hands of the secular court, and the disciplinary processes of the Diocese of Fort Worth and the House of Bishops.

Analysis

For those opposing women’s ordination, Jane Holmes Dixon – the second woman to be ordained a bishop in the U.S. church – had for many years been a source of particular aggravation because of a series of visitations she made to churches in that diocese that did not accept the ordination of women. By all accounts these were difficult events and contributed to her reputation among some as a feisty, aggressive leader. Many wondered why she appeared to be forcing herself on congregations that did not want her.

There was a precedent. When John Walker was first elected Suffragan Bishop of Washington in 1971, there were churches that would not welcome a black bishop. Diocesan Bishop William Creighton authorized visitations by Walker to every congregation in the diocese to heighten awareness of the evils of racism and its power to divide the Christian community. (Walker eventually became Washington’s diocesan bishop.)

Dixon was the next suffragan bishop after Walker. Many remembered how his courage in going where he was not wanted helped the diocese move forward in race relations. They saw Dixon’s visitations as another round in the battle for acceptance of all people into the life and ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church.

There was one big difference. Despite the systemic racism in church and society, which continues to this day, most racial discrimination was illegal by 1971. No one could claim any moral imperative for excluding Walker from the church. On the other hand, in 1993 discrimination against women in the church was still protected by a screen of "conscience," rationalized by "theological convictions" about the proper role of women. Persons attempting to exclude Dixon claimed a theological imperative to protect an all-male ordained ministry. They also claimed a canonical exemption, citing the infamous "conscience statement" adopted by the House of Bishops in 1977, following the 1976 vote to ordain women.

Never ratified by the General Convention (in fact, repudiated in several forms), this statement has nonetheless been used repeatedly to legitimize continued discrimination. Even among staunch supporters of ordaining women, many still counsel endless patience, forbearance and tolerance for "conscientious" theological views opposing women, even if they would never dream of making similar remarks in defense of discrimination against black clergy.

A ‘church within the church’

Days before the bishops adopted that 1977 "conscience clause," more than 1,700 people dead set against the ordination of women and/or the new prayer book gathered in St Louis to consider their alternatives. By meeting’s end, some had left the Episcopal Church to form the Anglican Church in North America. They elected bishops, who were subsequently consecrated by a retired American Episcopal bishop, a bishop from the Philippines who was later disciplined for participating, and a bishop from Korea, "in absentia," who later denied having given his consent. It was the first sizable breakaway since the Reformed Episcopal Church departed in 1873.

Many of those who did not join the schismatics in St. Louis were members of the Evangelical and Catholic Mission (ECM), formed a few months earlier. They were intent on creating "a supportive ecclesiastical entity within the Episcopal Church," where they could maintain a separate succession whose orders would not be tainted by the presence of women or those who ordained women. Offspring of the anglo-catholic American Church Union (ACU), the ECM was first headed by ACU president Stanley Atkins, Bishop of Eau Claire; then by Atkins’ Eau Claire successor William Wantland; and later by Robert Terwilliger of Dallas.

Terwilliger ordained Sam Edwards to the priesthood in 1980. The ordination of women was already part of the discipline of the Episcopal Church when Edwards was ordained, but Dallas was among several dioceses still rejecting it as a "novelty." Edwards was soon writing for the ECM newsletter, The Evangelical Catholic, and served as its features editor from 1986-1989. By this time, the Diocese of Fort Worth had separated from the Diocese of Dallas, the ordination of women being one issue that led to the division.

In 1988, pressure on traditionalists escalated with the election of Barbara C. Harris as Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts. It was "the final crisis," a "direct assault upon the unity of the Church," and other traditionalist groups joined ECM in protest. A letter from ECM bishops, drafted by Edwards, summoned sympathizers to a "Synod" in Fort Worth hosted by its bishop, Clarence Pope. Some 1,500 people created the Episcopal Synod of America, electing ECM president Pope as ESA president, and elaborating on the ECM notion of an ecclesiastical entity in the church.

Calling themselves "the Church within the Episcopal Church," they assigned ESA bishops to various areas of the country, elaborated on ways of being "in (or out of) communion," and sought a non-geographical "Tenth Province," a traditionalist overlay on existing Episcopal Church dioceses. Women, sexuality, the interpretation of Scripture, the language used about God – in all these areas these traditionalists saw a capitulation to the godless spirit of modernity, a plunge into heresy and immorality led by false teachers such as prolific author John Shelby Spong, the then Bishop of Newark, various feminists and the "homosexual lobby." In their view, there were now two churches in the Episcopal Church, one orthodox and the other apostate, "hell-bent," having abandoned the traditional faith.

Cultivating global allies

In 1993, Edwards became Executive Director of the ESA, and later facilitated its transformation into Forward in Faith, North America (FIF/NA), affiliated with the original FIF group in England. In the process, Edwards helped create an international traditionalist movement. Some bishops in provinces formerly part of the colonial empire were easily persuaded that the American church had plunged into heresy and rampant licentiousness and readily joined the struggle.

At the 1998 Lambeth conference of Anglican bishops, traditionalists hosted a well-equipped lounge and other amenities for sympathetic bishops. Afterwards, electronic communication made it possible to maintain relationships and develop plans quickly, across continents and oceans. Traditionalists in the U.S. were buoyed by the support and encouraged to dream that together they could rescue the Anglican Communion from its slide into false teaching.

In January 2000, with no notice or authorization from anybody, primates of the provinces of Rwanda and South East Asia consecrated two American priests in Singapore, and sent them home again as Anglican bishop-missionaries. They were part of a new group of evangelical American clergy and sympathetic overseas bishops to be called the Anglican Mission to America (AMiA). The new bishops, emphatically not recognized as Anglicans by the Archbishop of Canterbury, gathered up dissident clergy and congregations from dioceses around the country, and from earlier splinter groups. In January 2001, the AMiA and FIF/NA signed a joint statement pledging "mutual commitment to work together for the establishment of an orthodox jurisdiction in North America."

Challenging the structures

The March 2001 Primates Meeting — the "showdown" that didn’t happen — left traditionalists frustrated once again. Meeting with Presiding Bishop Griswold in May, they pressed him to honor the primates’ "commitment" to enable traditionalist bishops to assume oversight of parishes at odds with their own bishop. But Griswold had no authority to do such a thing. When Jack Iker took it upon himself to provide alternative oversight to Christ Church, Accokeek, he was pursuing that goal, however uncanonically. Disregarding lawful structures and processes, Iker was moving on a parallel track with the AMiA. On June 24, 2001, AMiA bishops and supporters gathered in Denver, Colo., to ordain four more American priests to the episcopate.

Only two days after the Denver consecrations, Dixon filed suit to remove Edwards from Accokeek. Publicity naturally linked the two together. The AMiA, having given up on the Episcopal Church, was creating its own substitute institution. Dixon, perhaps regarding Edwards as an AMiA advance man set on reclaiming the Diocese of Washington from "revisionists" like herself, took forceful action to protect the unity of the existing institution.

Even though Dixon has had to do her job in an institutional structure that is still profoundly sexist — marked by many patronizing "brother" bishops and traditionalist reports full of feminine put-downs and vitriol so disproportionate it can only be explained by misogyny – the Accokeek conflict is not primarily about sexism or the ordination of women. It is, instead, about the inevitable clash between those who believe God calls the church to theological uniformity – Edwards asserts that unity comes only "from sharing the mind of God" – and those who seek to protect the institution because its stability creates holy space for a diverse community of faith. As Dixon observes, "We can have this marvelous diversity and toleration because we have an institution in which to live. That’s what our polity has always been about: We can be the Anglican Communion because we respect the rules."

Even after the last chapter of the Accokeek story is written, the tension it represents will continue to challenge the structures of the church. These challenges will accelerate because of the speed and reach of electronic communication. Anyone can now become part of an international Anglican conversation. Anyone can publish briefs and counter-briefs, prayers and exhortations, stories and screeds about events in the life of the church.

Initially, such anarchic communication gives an advantage to "outsiders" who have had little prior access to channels controlled by those with institutional power. Once that stabilizes, controlling the flow of information may prove more important to those who value theological conformity than to those who value diversity within a common structure. Accokeek is a test case for both hypotheses.

To be continued.

Philadelphia-based Pamela W. Darling is a church historian and author of New Wine: the Story of Women Transforming Leadership and Power in the Episcopal Church. Many documents chronicling this story appear on the website of the Diocese of Washington (www.us.net/edow/news/accokeek.htm) and of Forward in Faith/North America (www.fifamerica.faithweb.com/Reading/news.htm).