By David W. Virtue
Virtue Online
June 15, 2009
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=10639
In 2002 when Charles E. Bennison, the Bishop of PA, was busy inhibiting and ultimately "deposing" Fr. David L. Moyer, Dr. George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote a letter to the now disgraced and deposed Bishop of Pennsylvania telling him politely to back off throwing the Anglo-Catholic priest at Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, PA. out of The Episcopal Church.
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In hitherto unpublished correspondence, Carey, in a hand written letter, told Bennison, "I am fully conscious of the fact that I have no jurisdiction in the matter ...however allow me to offer a reflection or two. The first arises out of the House of Bishops' decision to produce a Covenant which, as I understand it, is the provision of arrangements where there is a breakdown between a Bishop and a particular church. I welcome and applaud this attempt to provide supplementary epsicopal care. What worries me, Charles, is that your situation will be the first real 'acid' test of the Covenant. Any inhibition of Fr. Moyer will suggest the Covenant is essentially value-less and will be seen as a major blow to Frank Griswold as Presiding Bishop.
"My second thought in this post Easter Season is that the call to 'feed my sheep' does mean putting up with the mess that sheep make.. I've not seen a clean sheep-pen yet."
Carey went on to explain the pain and struggle he had faced over the prior eleven years regarding the ordination of women. "From that experience I urge you to err on the side of generosity and grace: give space to Rosemont to go its own way for a time...the shepherd has to walk the way of the cross as the healing may take many years: YOU have to take the 'high' moral ground by walking the 'low' way of humility."
Be assured of my thoughts and prayers, Charles.
Yours ever
+ George
Bennison was not the only bishop Carey spoke to about the Moyer case. The Rt. Rev. John Broadhurst, chairman of Forward in Faith, wrote Carey requesting that Fr. Moyer be licensed to preach in England. Carey wrote to Broadhurst saying that he was watching the "impending deposition of Fr. David Moyer with great anxiety and even new hope that we might persuade the bishop not to take this drastic action."
"I can confirm gladly that I have the highest regard for David and would have no hesitation in giving him permission to officiate in the Diocese of Canterbury. Indeed, I will go one step further to say that were he to seek a license to officiate ion the Province of Canterbury, I would be glad to offer it."
Another notable figure weighing in on the side of Fr. Moyer was the then Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Rowan Williams. In September of 2002, he wrote to Fr. Geoffrey Kirk saying he saw no objection to granting him Permission to Officiate in this diocese or considering him for a license here if the circumstances arose. Williams said Moyer was "not guilty of any moral or doctrinal delinquency, and is respected as a priest of disciplined life, personal spirituality and great teaching capacity."
Eight bishops in The Episcopal Church also weighed in saying they supported Fr. Moyer offering him a license to function in their respective dioceses. They include:; Bishop Herzog, Albany; Bishop Peter H. Beckwith, Springfield; Bishop Paul V. Marshall, Bethlehem; Bishop John W. Howe, Central Florida; Bishop John-David Schofield, SSC, San Joaquin; Bishop Jack L. Iker, Ft. Worth; Bishop Stephen H. Jecko, Florida; and Bishop Andrew H. Fairfield, North Dakota.
Bennison failed to heed the advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold. He went ahead and summarily inhibited and later deposed Fr. Moyer.
Moyer was first taken under the ecclesiastical wing of the Bishop of Pittsburgh, The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan. He subsequently came under the authority of the Archbishop of Central Africa, The Most Rev. Bernard Malango. Moyer was later ordained a bishop in The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), the parent body of the Anglican Church in America (ACA), coming under the authority of The Most. Rev. John Hepworth. Moyer was named Bishop of the Armed Forces by the ACA's House of Bishops.
Then suddenly the tables were turned and it was Bennison who found himself on the defensive. Two presentments were brought against him, one by the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania for his financial mishandling of the diocese and the second on charges that he failed to stop his brother (a priest) from the sexual abuse of a minor when Bennison was a priest in California.
Following an ecclesiastical trial, Bennison was found guilty and deposed. Bennison, however, is not going quietly. He is appealing one last time for clemency. He was found guilty on two charges of misconduct unbecoming a member of the clergy by an ecclesiastical court that recommended he be deposed. Bennison has appealed saying that some 200 letters have suddenly appeared that, if taken into consideration, could modify his sentence.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori recently announced that the retired suffragan Bishop of Long Island, Rodney R. Michel, 66, would be the new assisting bishop for three years in the diocese. He began April 1.
Following their victory in deposing Bennison and smelling blood in the water, the Diocesan Standing Committee decided last month to go after the parish property of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, PA, and filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County court arguing that Bishop Moyer had "abandoned communion" and that the parish had engaged in some sort of "de facto withdrawal".
Attorneys for Good Shepherd's fired back saying the civil courts have no jurisdiction over such disputes where the subject matter is strictly and purely ecclesiastical in character. Questions of religious doctrine as to which of two groups is a denomination's "true church" or whether a denomination's governing body has remained faithful to the views and practices of its founders are doctrinal disputes that the First Amendment forbids civil courts even to consider, much less decide, said Paul F. Danello, Bishop Moyer's attorney.
The Good Shepherd attorney said the parish has taken no actions to withdraw under either Pennsylvania civil law or the canons and constitutions of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. "On the contrary, it has been the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania that has seen fit to become the aggressor and to attack Good Shepherd in civil court."
Danello said that the case of Fr. David Ousley and the Church of St. James the Less, which the diocese sued and won, was not comparable. That parish transferred all church property to a newly formed corporation that was independent of The Episcopal Church. The Church of the Good Shepherd has not done that.
Danello further argues that Moyer remains a validly ordained priest in The Episcopal Church and that his inhibition and deposition have no bearing on Moyer's priestly character, "in other words, the validity of his priestly ordination and his sacred status as a priest are unaltered even if he is restricted from exercising them in The Episcopal Church."
The attorney cited the 1979 Dennis Canon, an ecclesiastical rule that it has unilaterally adopted stating that the local congregation holds parish property in trust for the national church, as the basis for their argument. Good Shepherd's position is equally straightforward: "the First Amendment does not exempt church hierarchies from the normal rules of civil law for creating and establishing property interests."
"No principle of trust law states that a trust can be created by the declaration of a non-owner that the owner holds the property in trust for the non-owner. The pretext for the application of the Denis Canon is not that parish sought to alienate the property of The Good Shepherd or to remove it from the Diocese, and the Diocese does not allege that there were such actions. Rather, in a novel attempt at canonical legerdemain, the Diocese declares that the respondents are '"ineligible'" to serve in their positions."
Danello said that the parish has neither sought nor desired this litigation. They are prepared to defend themselves against the Diocese's unjust claims whether in the Orphans Court of Montgomery County, before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania or the Supreme Court of the United States.
Arthur Waldron, history professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a parishioner of Good Shepherd, wrote an article condemning the actions of the diocese, saying that the Diocese and the national Church would prefer to see an empty building, i.e. St. James the Less in East Falls. "Mrs. Katherine Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, has testified that she would prefer to see an Episcopal church converted to a saloon rather than be used as an orthodox Anglican church. With other Episcopal churches in the Diocese losing members, the Diocese knows that an empty building will result from their 'successes' in the litigation."
He said the present church building was a donation to the already-established parish by Harry Banks French, of the company then called Smith, Kline, and French, as a memorial to his wife, Augusta Graham French, who died in March 1892 and their son, Harry Banks French II, who died in May of the same year.
"From the beginning, Good Shepherd was an outpost in America of the movement, begun in the 19th century at Oxford University that called upon Anglicans to recognize and cherish their Catholic heritage, always present, but neglected after Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the pope and Rome in 1534. Philadelphia was long a bastion of that movement with its 'seven sisters' Anglo-Catholic parishes including, among others, the jewel-like St. James the Less (now closed by the diocese) and - perhaps most famous of all - the beautiful 'shrine church' on Cherry Street, St. Clement's."
"Churches like Good Shepherd, however, have been attacked in recent years owing to immense changes in the doctrines and practices of the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church. Orthodoxy is questioned or even scorned: (now disgraced) former Bishop Charles Bennison of Philadelphia dismissed Scripture with the words, "we wrote the Bible, we can re-write it." Morality now includes sexual activity outside of marriage even among priests and bishops."
Now the diocese is coming to get Good Shepherd. The threat of the diocese is to expel the congregation from their church and to throw Bishop Moyer and his family out of their home. The heart-rending question for the faithful at Good Shepherd is: will their parish, now be eliminated?
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