Don't Leave Home Without It

With all the discussion of late over reprobate bishops, whose true reward awaits them beyond the grave, I suspect we are all in need of some powerful spiritual renewal. For many years I have participated in an Anglican discussion list, and as inevitably does every year or so, the question recently came up about when Anglicans should make the sign of the cross. And as he invariably does, an old friend on that list, Fr Ken Peck, has again posted the words of St John Chrysostom in response. I share them with you:

"[W]hen you are about to pass over the threshold of the gateway, say this word first: I leave your ranks, Satan, and your pomp, and your service, and I join the ranks of Christ. And never go forth without this word. This shall be a staff to you, this your armor, this an impregnable fortress, and accompany this word with the sign of the cross on your forehead. For thus not only a man who meets you, but even the devil himself, will be unable to hurt you at all, when he sees you everywhere appearing with these weapons; and discipline yourself by these means henceforth, in order that when thou receive the seal you may be a well-equipped soldier, and planting your trophy against the devil, may receive the crown of righteousness, which may it be the lot of us all to obtain, through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father and to the Holy Spirit for ever and ever - Amen. (Second instruction to Catechumens)

"Let no man therefore be ashamed of the honored symbols of our salvation, and of the chiefest of all good things, whereby we even live, and whereby we are; but as a crown, so let us bear about the cross of Christ. Yea, for by it all things are wrought, that are wrought among us. Whether one is to be new-born, the cross is there; or to be nourished with that mystical food, or to be ordained, or to do anything else, everywhere our symbol of victory is present. Therefore both on house, and walls, and windows, and upon our forehead, and upon our mind, we inscribe it with much care.

"For of the salvation wrought for us, and of our common freedom, and of the goodness of our Lord, this is the sign. "For as a sheep was He led to the slaughter." When therefore you sign yourself, think of the purpose of the cross, and quench anger, and all the other passions. When you sign yourself, fill your forehead with all courage, make your soul free. And know assuredly what are the things that give freedom. Wherefore also Paul leading us there, I mean unto the freedom that beseems us, did on this wise lead us unto it, having reminded us of the cross and blood of our Lord. "For you are bought," he said, "with a price; be not the servants of men." Consider, he said, the price that hath been paid for you, and you will be a slave to no man; by the price meaning the cross.

"Since not merely by the fingers ought one to engrave it, but before this by the purpose of the heart with much faith. And if in this way you have marked it on thy face, none of the unclean spirits will be able to stand near you, seeing the blade whereby he received his wound, seeing the sword which gave him his mortal stroke. For if we, on seeing the places in which the criminals are beheaded, shudder; think what the devil must endure, seeing the weapon, whereby Christ put an end to all his power, and cut off the head of the dragon.

"Be not ashamed then of so great a blessing, lest Christ be ashamed of you, when He comes with His glory, and the sign appears before Him, shining beyond the very sunbeam. For indeed the cross comes then, uttering a voice by its appearance, and pleading with the whole world for our Lord, and signifying that no part has failed of what pertained to Him. This sign, both in the days of our forefathers and now, hath opened doors that were shut up; this has quenched poisonous drugs; this has taken away the power of hemlock:, this has healed bites of venomous beasts. For if it opened the gates of hell, and threw wide the archways of Heaven, and made a new entrance into Paradise, and cut away the nerves of the devil; what marvel, if it prevailed over poisonous drugs, and venomous beasts, and all other such things.

"This therefore do thou engrave upon your mind, and embrace the salvation of our souls. For this cross saved and converted the world, drove away error, brought back truth, made earth Heaven, fashioned men into angels. Because of this, the devils are no longer terrible, but contemptible; neither is death, death, but a sleep; because of this, all that wars against us is cast to the ground, and trodden under foot.

"If any one therefore say to you, Dost thou worship the crucified? say, with your voice all joy, and your countenance gladdened, "I do both worship Him, and will never cease to worship." And if he laugh, weep for him, because he is mad. Thank the Lord, that He hath bestowed on us such benefits, as one cannot so much as learn without His revelation from above. Why, this is the very reason of his laughing, that "the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit." Since our children too feel this, when they see any of the great and marvelous things; and if thou bring a child into the mysteries, he will laugh. Now the heathen are like these children; or rather they are more imperfect even than these; wherefore also they are more wretched, in that not in an immature age, but when full grown, they have the feelings of babes; wherefore neither are they worthy of indulgence.

"But let us with a clear voice, shouting both loud and high, cry out and say (and should all the heathen be present, so much the more confidently), that the cross is our glory, and 'the sum of all our blessings, and our confidence, and all our crown. I would that also with Paul I were able to say, "By which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world; " but I cannot, restrained as I am by various passions." (Homily 54 on Matthew 14:13)

A Response to Bishops Kleppinger and Michael

Canon 10 HCC/AR “Constitutional Canons”: “Any member of this Church who shall … initiate any action regarding a Church matter in any civil court is automatically excommunicated and removed from membership in this Church from the moment he sets pen to paper.”

By John A. Hollister+

The following two statements on the situation at St. James, Kansas City, the first from HCC(AR) Bishop Thomas Kleppinger and the second from HCC(AR) Bishop Leo J. Michael, were copied from Bp. Michael’s “Epsicoblog”. Their texts are therefore assumed to be correct statements of official HCC(AR) positions and policies.

My comments thereon are interleaved in Italics.

“STATEMENT FROM THE ACTING METROPOLITAN OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH ANGLICAN RITE

"Dear Dr. Virtue:

“We were saddened to note this posting on the status of St. James, which contains many misstatements of facts and regret to engage in such an endeavor. However in the interest of truth and justice, we would like to set the records straight. We wish you had called us before posting such an article.

I am sure the Rector, Senior Warden, and Vestry of St. James wish you had called them before you seized their land, buildings, church furnishings, other property, and money. They have been dispossessed and thrown out on the street; you have merely been put to the trouble of sitting down and writing out your side of the story.

“If you are going to keep the article online, please publish the following clarifications:

“1) The property of St. James is owned by St. James, contrary to other claims.

Indeed. In fact, the deed to St. James’ church building places that property in the name of “St. James Anglican Catholic Church”, a clear sign that St. James acquired that land and building well before either the Holy Catholic Church (Anglican Rite) (HCC[AR])) or its Diocese of the Holy Trinity and Great Plains (DHTGP) first came into existence in 1997. There is therefore no rational ground for supposing that the DHTGP has any interest whatever in that property and certainly none that it has any standing to sue that Parish as a Plaintiff in its own name over control of that property. But that is just what the DHTGP has done.

“St. James’ Committee [i.e., the ‘Bishop’s Committee’ which the Plaintiffs claim is entitled to run St. James since the Bishops ‘reduced St. James to mission status’] is comprised of long term and faithful members of St. James, who wanted to protect its property.

These “long term and faithful members” are faithful to just whom, pray tell? All the members of this Bishop’s Committee were appointed by Bp. McNeley or Bp. Michael and so must be presumed to be beholden to those two. One of the four Committeemen is James Daniels, the Junior Warden of St. James who appears to believe that his duties include suing his fellow Vestry members to throw them out of office and out of the building. Another of the four is Lynn Baxter, who it is said to be paying for the DHTGP’s lawyer of record and who is best remembered for ending her term as Bursar of the Anglican Catholic Church by refusing to turn over that Church’s funds to her successor but, instead, giving them to the HCC(AR). Somehow Bp. Kleppinger’s appraisal of these Committeemen’s loyalty and faithfulness just doesn’t seem calculated to sooth the fears of the people who are being sued.

And while we’re on the subject, just what is Bp. Kleppinger’s definition of “loyalty”?

“The rector, who came from another jurisdiction,

All of the HCC(AR)’s original members, including Bp. Kleppinger who wrote this letter, and even Bp. McNeley whose Diocese is doing the suing, came to the HCC(AR) from some other jurisdiction. Even Bp. Michael came from another jurisdiction and did so as recently as February 18 of this year. So just what is the point of this dig at Fr. Cocran? How does his curriculum vitae justify the DHTGP’s interference with his ministry at St. James? After all, wasn’t its the DHTGP and the HCC(AR) that accepted him from that other jurisdiction, whatever it was?

“and a few renegade vestry members attempted to disenfranchise long time loyal members of the congregation by eliminating them from the parish roll in order to carry out their exit strategy — the vote to leave or stay in the diocese.

These "long time loyal members" in most Christian congregations would be considered ineligible ab initio for membership. Others are said to have long absented themselves from St. James.

“4.2 Of Members in Good Standing

“All Baptized members who shall have for one year next preceding have fulfilled the requirements of this Church … unless for good cause prevented are members of this Church in good standing.”

Section 4.2, Canon 4, “Canons for the Government of the Diocese of the Holy Trinity ad Great Plains”. And just what does a Buddhist Baptismal certificate look like, again?

“4.3 Of Communicant Members in Good Standing

“All members who have been confirmed by a Bishop of this Church or a Bishop of a Church in formal or canonical Communion with this Church or have been received into this Church by a Bishop of this Church, and who shall, unless for good cause prevented, have received Holy Communion at least at Christmastide, Eastertide, and Whitsuntide during the preceding year, are Communicants in Good Standing of this Church.”

Section 4.3, Canon 4, “Canons for the Government of the Diocese of the Holy Trinity ad Great Plains”.

“15.3 Of Qualifications for Voting and Holding Office

“A voting member of any Parish or Mission shall be a Communicant in Good Standing as defined in CAON 4 of these Canons, at least eighteen (18) years of age, and a member of and contributor of record, monetarily or otherwise, to the life of that Parish or Mission. Each Parish or Mission may establish such additional criteria for voting membership as it may deep appropriate. Holding of office shall be restricted to voting members of the Parish or Mission.”

Section 15.3, Canon 15, “Canons for the Government of the Diocese of the Holy Trinity ad Great Plains” (emphasis supplied)..

So when four strangers present themselves at the Annual Parish Meeting, the officers of the Parish are perfectly entitled to satisfy themselves that these strangers in fact (a) are baptized members of the Parish, (b) have been properly confirmed, (c) have taken Communion in an authorized church community during the three specified Church seasons of the previous calendar year, (d) are contributing members of the church within the meaning of the Canons, and (e) have met such other, more restrictive requirements, as may be imposed by the Parish’s bylaws.

But Bp. Kleppinger makes it quite clear that even when these alleged members have been absent from the Parish for so long that their compliance with these requirements cannot readily be verified, they must be admitted to voting status at the Annual Meeting, on pain of having the church taken away from those officers who were only trying to fulfill their expressly laid down duties.

Is one to suppose that is how Bp. Kleppinger conducts the Annual Parish Meeting at his parish of the Incarnation in Quakertown, PA?

“Ironically, in the annual parish meeting of January 20th, 2008, the parish voted to stay in the Diocese.

Let’s check the minutes on that one. Those minutes might just tell us that one of the issues discussed at the meeting was the HCC(AR)’s decision, taken several years before, to seek merger with the ACA, and the complete lack of any follow up report from the HCC(AR)’s bishops to their members on the results of that approach.

And had the Special Parish Meeting scheduled for May 4 been held, instead of having been blocked by the HCC(AR)’s seizure of the Parish, it is just possible that the people of St. James would have gotten the answer to that question asked at their Annual Meeting: that the bishops of the HCC(AR) did not report on the results of their request because when those did approach the ACA, many senior figures in which know them all too well from prior mutual membership in another church group, the HCC(AR) overture was rejected.

And then it is just possible that some of those who voted in January to stay with the HCC(AR) might have rethought their earlier votes once they found out that the HCC(AR) did not deem them worthy of receiving the information they themselves considered significant.

“Even after such a decision, the rector and his few loyalists were soliciting other jurisdictions, while declaring the see 'vacant'.

Well, if I thought my parish might possibly vote to leave its current church home, I might think it prudent to check out some possible alternatives, too.

As to the declaration that the See of the Holy Trinity and Great Plains (shades of Buffalo Bill!) is “vacant”, if my Bishop announced his retirement, and his episcopal colleagues accepted that retirement, and my Diocese held no election for a successor to our former Bishop, I’d think our See was vacant, too.

“The congregation as referred to in your article is not the entire membership of St. James, but the few disgruntled ones under the direction of the inhibited rector, that have left St. James.

If it were true, Bp. Kleppinger, that the majority of St. James’ members would side with the Diocese and only a minority would side with the Rector, then you wouldn’t have been so scared of the outcome of the proposed vote that you moved heaven and earth to make sure that vote couldn’t take place.

“2) The disciplinary action was taken by the Diocese against three clergy: the rector and two priests who have been very disobedient to the Bishop Ordinary; these include dropping the affiliation HCC-AR from the parish’s name,

Let’s get this straight. Article XXI of the HCC(AR)’s Constitution guarantees that each Parish will retain its property and no Diocese can ever sue a Parish over that Parish’s property. Title III, Canon 9 of the “Constitutional Canons” of the HCC(AR) states that “The ownership of all buildings and land acquired and used by any Congregation of this Church shall be determined according to the law of the country concerned.” Canon 10 of those “Constitutional Canons” states that “Any member of this Church who shall … initiate any action regarding a Church matter in any civil court is automatically excommunicated and removed from membership in this Church from the moment he sets pen to paper.” Section 15.6, “Of Parochial Property”, of the DHGP’s Canons states that “Each Parish shall hold title to its real and personal property and this Diocese shall have no legal or possessory interest therein.”

But what you’re telling us here is that these provisions are just the “bait” in a “bait and switch” scheme because the minute a Parish believes you, and tries to exercise what you have declared is its right to leave your church jurisdiction, you will leap in and prevent it from leaving. So your church group is like a crab trap or a lobster pot: you can swim in but you sure as heck won’t ever be able to swim out. Because just as soon as some clergyman suggests to his flock that it might want to consider voting to leave you, he will be “inhibited” for “disloyalty” and his congregation will be reduced to “mission status”, not because it has decayed in numbers or finances but just to permit its bishop to seize control of it through a “committee” of his personal henchmen (and henchwomen).

And while we’re on the subject of inhibitions, you are the same Bp. Kleppinger who, together with Bp. McNeley, swore to the Chancery Court of Mercer County, New Jersey, that a clergyman cannot be “inhibited” because there is no such thing in Canon Law as an inhibition, aren’t you? This little example of cognitive dissonance wouldn’t be what Winston Churchill termed the sanguinary purveyance of terminological inexactitude, would it now?

“changing the locks of the church and locking out his bishop ordinary, the clergy threatening to sue their bishop on charges of theft when with due permission of the senior warden (and assisted by rector) he took his personal vestments, for arbitrarily changing the bylaws of the church,

Since you are implicitly admitting that a majority of the Parish’s members voted in favor of changing the Parish’s by-laws, how could that have been “arbitrary”?

“for eliminating long term members from the parish roll (who are referred to as guests in your article) to vote to take the property out of the diocese,

We already looked at the DHTGP Canons that set out the level of continued participation in the life of the church that is necessary, first to acquire and then to maintain, voting status, and how those Canons permit the Parish to impose even more onerous requirements than the wider church does.

What we didn’t mention before is that St. James’ bylaws give the Rector the authority to make the determination of who is and who is not a voting member of that Parish.

“for suppressing all communications to the parish from the Bishop Ordinary, for soliciting to take St. James Anglican church to Rome and/or other jurisdictions,

And your point is, Bishop Kleppinger? You yourself have a lengthy history of soliciting other churches’ congregations to leave their existing affiliations in order to join you, so why is no one able to solicit one of your congregations to leave you?

“for asking for oversight from the ACC claiming they had no bishop,

To my knowledge, and I’m pretty sure I would have such knowledge were there any there to have, St. James has never approached the ACC in any way since 1997, when it chose – at your instigation, Bishop Kleppinger, along with that of Bishop McNeley – to leave the ACC.

Now I do certainly agree with you that we should all take offense at any allegation that the ACC has no bishops. You yourself know that’s not true, because you used to be one of them. In fact, that’s how you became an undoubtedly valid bishop in the Apostolic Succession in the first place.

“for illegally convening meetings against canons.

So of course you had to go to court to prevent those “illegal” meetings from taking place. It would have been silly to wait for their results and then, if you thought any law or bylaw had been broken, go to court for a “declaratory judgment”, seeking to determine the validity vel non of those meetings’ actions.

“Despite their disloyalty to the diocese they had been extended an olive branch (on the April 20th meeting) but rejected any reconciliation. When this was not heeded, according to the diocesan canons, the parish was reduced to a mission status, and the said Committee was appointed to be in charge of the administration of the property.

“You haff all zee rights in zee vorld. Und if you are effer sso ssilly as to try to use zem, ve haff vays of dealing vith trouble makers like you.”

“The rector and the vestry were defiant to accept the writ from the diocese, and went ahead and held a vestry meeting. Since this was not heeded to, the same writ was filed and obtained as an injunction. This was done to in order that the majority of the parish maintain ownership of the property. The attorney is Mr. James Wirken for the Diocese of Holy Trinity and Great Plains and Mr. James Daniels is the diocesan chancellor.

Since regardless of the outcome of the proposed vote, had it been taken, the Parish would have remained the titled owner of its own property, these sentences do not appear to convey any factual information.

Now this “majority” business is interesting, however. The Complaint to the truth of which you swore, to enable the Diocese to effectuate its seizure of the Parish assets – that’s the same Diocese, Bishop Kleppinger, that your man Bp. Leo Michael says did not take over the property (see below), while your lawyer says it did take over that property, and even though that Diocese’s name is on the suit papers as the sole Plaintiff and on the Temporary Restraining Order as the beneficiary for whom the seizure was made -- states that St. James can only vote to leave your church at a meeting where (a) the bishop being left is notified of the meeting and gets to preside at that meeting and (b) three-quarters of the parish membership votes to leave.

But that “requirement” is laid down in the DHTGP’s Canons, not in the parish’s bylaws, under which all decisions are reached by the vote of a simple majority. So the Complaint to which you swore claims that the Canons of the Diocese trump the bylaws of the Parish.

“3) Also the appointment of the new bishop for the diocese was in keeping with the apostolic and diocesan canons, which were endorsed by the clergy and laity of the entire diocese, except these few former members of St. James.

And these “apostolic canons” are just what, precisely? Can you give us the dates and places of meeting of any Councils of the Church to the canons of which you are here referring?

The appointment of the new bishop, Bp. Michaels, most certainly was not in keeping with the Diocesan canons. Those canons comprise 35 pages of single-spaced typescript, five of which, or more than 14% of the total, are devoted to the calling, electors, timing, conduct, presiding officer, order of business, opening prayers, mode of proceeding, and other minutia concerning the electoral synod by which the Diocese is to choose its new bishop.

Even if all of those requirements could have been complied with in the four days between the time you and the rest of the HCC(AR)’s bishops accepted Bp. McNeley’s resignation and the time you, as Acting Metropolitan, notified the Diocese that you had usurped its right to elect his successor, the fact is that no attempt was even made to comply with these requirements.

“Bishop Leo Michael left the UECNA on February 10th, 2008 as acknowledged by its leadership and was elected by the college of bishops on February 14th, 2008.

I think we’ve already said just about everything that can be said on the subject of that “election”.

I don’t know about you, Bp. Kleppinger, but if one November I went to the polls in my home state of Ohio, expecting to vote for a new Governor, and instead of a ballot was handed a letter from the Governors of all the other states that they had decided we didn’t need to elect our own Governor because they had already chosen one for us, I would regard the Governor’s Mansion down in Columbus as being technically vacant. I wouldn’t care how loudly those other Governors chanted that they had passed a new set of rules that trumped Ohio’s election laws, I would insist that the guy who moved his furniture into the Mansion was an imposter and a usurper.

“The alleged statements of Bp. Michael in the said April 20th meeting as stated in your article, are totally false, and witnesses can attest the same.

I’m sure that all the Defendants agree with you,that what those Defendants heard Bp. Michael say at the April 20 meeting was, indeed, false. And witnesses other than yours can, and will, attest that the reports are true that say he made those statements. As Victor Hugo Schiro, the late New Orleans undertaker and sometime Mayor once said, “Don’t believe any false rumors, unless they come from me.”

“The HCC-AR is part of the continuing church movement, governed by the college of bishops, the apostolic and diocesan canons, served by faithful clergy. In matters of protecting the faithful and congregation, we are accountable to the Lord and we will continue to serve in the biblical, sacramental and apostolic orthodoxy. Any other twist, is to add insult to the body of Christ.

Speaking of twists, if I’ve managed to decode this somewhat tortured syntax, this Englishes as “I said it, so it’s true, and if you don’t believe me, just ask me”.

“In Fide,

“And what I tell you is the genuine ‘infide scoop’.”

“+Thomas

“Ad majorem Dei Gloriam ~ To the Greater Glory of God”

I really dig that little tilde in the middle there. That’s the mathematical symbol for “more or less to the Glory of God”, right?

“www.holycatholicanglican.org”

You just can’t know how glad I am to see that after only ten years and “~” $350,000 spent trying to get you to tell people the truth about who you are and who you are affiliated with, you’ve finally stopped using URLs that claim you are still part of, or actually are, The Anglican Catholic Church.

Well, so much for the organ grinder; now we need to hear from his assistant.

“Of ownership and of governance

“Posted by Bp. Leo Michael

“Some like to fish in the troubled waters, without hearing both the side of the story.

“Without hearing both the side of the story.” Is that anything like sneaking into court to get an injunction that the people on the other side know nothing about, and then springing it on that side by having a process server drop papers on them right before they can exercise their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights of freedom of association (that means “meeting”) and free speech (that means telling other people anything you want them to hear, even when Bp. Kleppinger, Bp. McNeley, or Bp. Michael don’t want them to hear it)?

“In the light of what happened at St. James, in Kansas City, MO, there was a story published on Virtue Online filled with inaccuracy, false quotes, and falsehoods.

Yes, I am quite confident that the VirtueOnline story was published “in the light of what happened at St. James”. And I happen to know that the facts related in that story were checked with, among other sources, the “Pastoral Letter” that appears on the DHTGP’s website, the pleadings you had filed into the court record in Kansas City, and the HCC(AR) “Constitutional Canons” that your lawyers filed into the court record along with the DHTGP Canons they also lodged there.

So would you care to point to precisely which parts of that story dealing with these matters of public record were in your view inaccurately reported?

I presume the “false quotes” to which you refer were the quotations attributed to you as what you said at the various Parish meetings. While you may now deny having said those things, I can assure you that the article correctly quoted its informants, i.e., people who were present at those meetings and who say you said those things.

If you, like the late Richard Nixon, taped the meetings, we would all be glad of the chance to hear them and so put to rest this “he said, she said” quibbling.

“I wish facts would have been checked into.

The people of St. James wish facts would have been checked into before the Sheriff descended on them to lock them out of their Church building just before the Feast of Pentecost, one of the most important feasts of the Church year, all on the say-so of Thomas Justin Kleppinger, a man who happens to reside not in Kansas City but in Quakertown, PA and who has never even been a member either of the DHTGP or of St. James. Yet he felt it was perfectly in order for him to swear that, of his own personal knowledge, every jot and tittle of the long “factual” litany contained in your Complaint was absolutely true. I sure wish my crystal ball was tuned in as well as his is, I’d make a mint at the races.

Nor, to this day, have any of those people from St. James been given a chance to tell their side of the story to the judge from whom you obtained this heavy-handed injunction. They were supposed to have a hearing on that Tuesday morning but instead all they got was an ultimatum from your lawyer: “Roll over and die before Friday or we will destroy you” and, as to the clergy defendants, “we will also deprive you of your livelihoods and deprive the Rector of his home”.

“This does not build up the body of Christ or give any credibility to the continuing movement.

And your seizure of St. James to make it your personal Cathedral does “build up the body of Christ” and does “give credibility to the continuing movement”?

How do you think it will affect those who might otherwise have considered joining a “Continuing Church” to learn what your own lawyer has described your game plan in filing this suit to be? This is his description, in a letter he wrote earlier this month:

“2. This is where matters stand at the Parish based, among other things, upon information provided us from “inside” the group of dissident clergy/parishioners:

“a. The Diocese has taken possession of the church premises; taken possession of all check books and accounts; and changed all of the locks;

“b. All of the clergy have been ‘inhibited’, a kind of ‘suspension’ pending trial;

“c. The dissidents have no money and no base with/from which to mount any opposition;

“d. [Name omitted], their lawyer, was selected through the Mo. Lawyers Referral Service – you and I know what that means;

“e. They have no money to pay [that lawyer];

“f. We understand they hope to encourage [name omitted] to take the case anyway in expectation that his attorneys’ fees and costs can be taxed against the Diocese;

“g. We have no indication [name omitted] is stupid enough to do that;

“h. We are told, from inside the dissident group, that they do not intend to fight, that they do not have the wherewithal to fight and that there intention is only to leave; and

“i. The dissident group consists only of 6-7 people, none of whom is able to fund litigation.”

In contrast, of course, the author of this appreciation, Jim Daniels, and Lynn Baxter, are two of the members of your “Bishop’s Committee” and also, between them, can bankroll your suit out of their pocket change. This will keep the suit going indefinitely, or at least until the flock of the congregation you chose for your Cathedral have collapsed of psychic and spiritual inanition. A fine example of even-handedness, Bp. Michael.

“The problem at St. James had nothing to do with ownership of property. The faithful of St. James still own it.

Well, if you define “faithful” to mean “faithful to Leo J. Michael”, they do. But if you have your way, they won’t have it for long. As your own lawyer has also written:

“10. As to the form that settlement can or should take, I am thinking of a consent decree.

“11. The reasons I am thinking of a consent decree are as follows:

“a. In order to avoid facing this problem ever again, we are thinking about placing all of the Parish’s physical assets, building, improvements, personalty, etc. in a foundation;

“b. It would avoid a potentially difficult sales job in and among the remaining parishioners if the Parish could be ordered to establish such a foundation by consent decree;

“…

“e. Third, last time I did this, I obtained a consent decree immunizing the Diocese from further ‘molestation’ and that has been comforting to have.” (Emphasis supplied.

The only way I can read this is that the HCC(AR) bishops have a master plan, designed to circumvent their Constitution and Canons on parish ownership of property and that plan involves using court proceedings that are ostensibly filed against dissidents to strip even the “loyal” parishioners of their assets. Those assets will then disappear into a “foundation” controlled by the bishops, creating a situation similar to the Roman Catholic one where the bishop is a “corporation sole” and holds title to all parish property as well as diocesan property.

Also, the only way I can read “the last time I did this” is that you guys have already started to put this grand plan into execution.

Hang onto your wallets, folks, your bishops are in town.

“The problem was one of church governance.

Yep, like “are we going to follow the Constitution and Canons we had written down, or are you guys going to make up new rules as we go along?”

“The rector, coming from another jurisdiction,

Just refresh my memory here, Leo. What was your ecclesiastical affiliation on February 13 this year? And what, again, was it on February 14? You didn’t give yourself a little Valentine’s present in the form of a new church, and a new diocese, did you?

“reduced parish membership, changed church’s name, changed the bylaws, locked out his own bishop, threatened to sue his bishop on false charges of theft, refused reconciliation, denied the authority of any bishop, conspired with a small group

Hmmm. And just how is a parish supposed to exercise the right that was guaranteed to it to leave the DHTGP and the HCC(AR) that it only joined by the process of exercising the same right to leave the ACC, if it isn’t allowed to change its bylaws or to deny the authority of the bishop it is trying to leave? The same bishop who turned his lawyers loose to take away the Parish’s property and convert it into his own “foundation”? That bishop?

“We guarantee you the right to leave, you just aren’t allowed to do it.”

“and eliminated long time members of the parish roll from the voting list and prohibited proxy voters,

With the “long time members of the parish roll”- see above quotations from your canon law.

“only to have a majority vote of his coterie so that he could take the church and its property to Rome,

Well, if Fr. Cochran did suggest that his people should swim the Tibur, and I have no reason to think he ever did, I can sure see why that would upset you, Leo. After all, you yourself swam that same river in the other direction, didn’t you?

“against the will of the faithful

We’re back to that sticky old point about who is faithful to whom, and over what, aren’t we?

“or the benefactors who had bequeathed the property in perpetuity for Anglican worship.

I know this is going to come to you as a shock, Leo, but in this country when dead people vote it’s considered infra dig. Only those big-city machine politicians do that and the Church is supposed to be above such shenanigans. What we do for our departed members who were donors of memorials is guarantee them that, so long as the church building continues to be used as a church, we will maintain those memorials where they were put. Beyond that we can’t, with honesty, promise them anything. All buildings are subject to the ravages of time and chance, just look on the works of Ozymandias, King of Kings, and despair.

“Also, I was quoted on virtueonline saying, ‘Maybe you aren’t worthy of me’ and ‘Yes, I have the ability to take you to court and take this property.’ How arrogant of me to have uttered such words, I would be totally lacking the basic requirement of humility that Christ demanded of His followers. What followed this false report was very sad.

What follows false reports is usually very sad. What followed the false Complaint filed with the court was not just sad, it was in the literal sense pitiful, and outrageous, too.

“Even Bishops in the continuing movement lowered themselves to grab the opportunity and claim to have holier than thou attitude, stating that they maintain the three principles of St. Louis, 1928 BCP, Male Clergy and Property ownership, as if the problem with St. James was the diocese grabbing the property.

“As if the problem with St. James was the diocese grabbing the property.” Now just think of that. Since Bp. Leo Michael assures us that the diocese didn’t grab the property, why do you suppose that diocese’s lawyer said, as quoted above, “The Diocese has taken possession of the church premises; taken possession of all check books and accounts; and changed all of the locks”?

How do you suppose Jim Daniels got that so wrong? Wasn’t he the guy who did it, after all?

“This same bishop

It sure would help to have a name here, or at least a description of his office. The “Continuing Church” has a lot bishops, almost as many per capita as the HCC(AR) does, do it’s real hard to figure out which one you’re complaining about here.

I mean, we’d all like to know who’s sending out “important warnings” so we can avoid them, same’s we’d also like to know who’s likely to be running around, foaming at the mouth and waving a .357 Magnum, so we can duck for cover.

“has sent out ‘IMPORTANT WARNING TO ALL IN THE CONTINUING CHURCH’ to the people of the continuing faith regarding the church property as though the people have been deprived of the property, which is not the case. They are totally off the mark. Too bad this story has been passed as truth and capitalized on by those with an axe to grind.

Yeah, you gotta to watch those axe grinders; they’re even sneakier than the organ grinders.

“I’m committed to the growth of God’s kingdom than be sullied by the insolence of such people.

If I could decode this, I’d comment on it. Under the circumstances, however, anything I said about it would be pure speculation. Could it be expressing the same sort of thought as Groucho Marx’s immortal “I wouldn’t join any organization that would have someone like me as a member”?

I guess I shouldn’t feel bad about this gap in my understanding; I don’t read Sanskrit or Ugaritic, either. Isn’t it just amazing how the usefulness of American education declined under the influence of the “progressive” movement? You just never know when you could really use one of those bits of arcana you passed up in favor of taking Home Ec. because that cute girl registered for it, too.

I did learn in high school all about King Gilgamesh, and used to feel pretty good about that, too, but that was crushed when my kindergartner climbed into the car after school and asked, “Do you know who King Gilgamesh was, Daddy?” I mean, I didn’t get this until TWELFTH GRADE and he gets it IN KINDERGARTEN? And he’s learned to read TWO WHOLE YEARS EARLIER than I did? And he was analyzing the parts of speech in sentences in kindergarten when I didn’t learn that until 9^th Grade?

To heck with it; my self-esteem just can’t cope with these evidences of inadequacy. Translate it into Basic English, Leo, and I’ll give it another try. Until then, this just goes into the file with all my old Dan Quayle quotes.

“There is plenty to be done and we will accomplish everything, God being our helper.

You don’t, perchance, think you’ve done enough already?

“The HCCAR is not a one man show in terms of running the church. There is a hierarchy, there is collegiality, there are canons that are guidelines, and there is discipline. At St. James the faithful are being cared for, those disobedient to canons are being held accountable by the very canons that they had professed by.

“The very canons they had professed by.” That’s odd: I read all 35 pages of the DHTGP Canons and all six pages of the HCC(AR)’s “Constitutional Canons”, and I don’t recall one tiny bit about religious professions.

“(For those who questioned whether there are canons at all, they know we do have them now).

(“We had to stay up all night to grind them out before the meeting, but no sacrifice is too great when you’re doing God’s work.”)

“In case of the property ownership, the intent of those who have gone before us needs to be revered and perpetuated.

Unless those bygone donors would have wanted their gifts to stay with the Parish rather than disappearing down the black hole of the Bishop’s new “foundation”, of course.

“To attack a fellow bishop out of ignorance is unchristian. Do what you can to further the growth of God’s kingdom: if you can’t ask the Lord for grace and strength.”

Could it be: “If you can’t ask the Lord for grace and strength, [then instead] you can do what you can to further the growth of God’s kingdom”? Or, maybe it’s: “Do what you can to further the growth of God’s kingdom [but] if you can’t [then] ask the Lord for grace and strength.”

But wait: those two versions are mutually contradictory, sort of like “Constitutional Canons”. I guess it just depends on whose oxymoron is being gored.

The Vatican and Aliens

Someone on the newsdesk mentioned the recent story on the Vatican recognising the possible existence of aliens.

A colleague, an Irishman, said "yeah, they're called Protestants."

More on St. James Kansas City

It appears that some people are confused about why I have posted the story about St. James in Kansas City, MO. Some of the comments have gone into so many details that the main point needs to be brought out and placed on center stage. Thanks to a very fine piece by the archbishop of the United Episcopal Church, North America (UECNA) the main point has been made abundantly clear. Writing on May 7th, Archbishop Stephen C. Reber, in a piece called PARISH OWNERSHIP-A MUST, wrote:

The following is just a brief summary of the UECNA's position. As a Church of the Continuum there are three major points that are essential, indeed sacred and special.

I. The use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

II. An all-Male Clergy

III. Ownership-control of the local parish buildings and property by the local Vestry.

To break any of these essential points is to break them all. To pick or choose or disregard any of these points for any reason is to forever separate oneself from both actual or spiritual association of the Articles of St. Louis and all that they stand for. There is no reason or justification ever to pick and choose, or to compromise on these points.

Those persons or organizations deliberately dishonoring these points give evidence to their outright dishonesty, self-aggrandizement and/or outright fraud.

Archbishop Reber got to the one point that matters most. The Episcopal Church (TEC) has used financial matters, especially ownership of church property, as a weapon to use against people who have sought to be true to their convictions, and their consciences. They have used the Denis Canon, which made the Diocese the owner of all church property.* Even before that canon (1979), it was clear that they were going to claim the property of parishes trying to break away as the Continuing Anglican Churches were forming their Constitution in 1977. The use of financial pressure to establish and propagate apostasy and heresy was something that the framers of the Affirmation of St. Louis understood, and so they made it impossible for this tactic to reappear in the Continuing Churches. So, one of the Articles of the Affirmation says, ""Financial Affairs: The right of congregations to control of their temporalities should be firmly and constitutionally recognized and protected."

When and how the Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite (HCC/AR) became a separate jurisdiction is beside the point for purposes of this post. What matters is that their Constitution embodied the principle quioted above from the Affirmation of St. Louis, as Fr. John Hollister reported to us in a comment.

"Constitution Part II
". . .
"ARTICLE XI -- OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THIS CONSTITUTION AND CANONS
"All words and provisions of this Constitution and Canons shall be interpreted strictly in accordance with their plain literal and grammatical meaning at the time of writing.
". . .
"ARTICLE XXI -- OF THE TEMPORAL AFFAIRS AND POSSESSIONS OF CONGREGATIONS
"The right of Congregations to control of their temporalities, and to freedom from claims of any Diocesan or Provincial or Synodical Trust or implied Trust asserted by the adherence of such Congregation to the Communion of this Church, or by its adherence to the Constitution or Canons of any Diocese, Province, or Synod shall be forever recognized and protected.

"No person or ecclesial body in this Church shall ever resort to any civil court for the purpose of depriving any congregation departing from this church of any property or right pertaining to it."

This, then, became part of their Canon Law.

The two bishops, Rt. Rev. James McNeley and Leo Michael, by trying to take over the parish property, violated this part of their Constitution, and by resorting to civil law, violated it further.

Furthermore, they disobeyed the clear teaching of the Apostle Paul, the word of God in holy Scripture:

"Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren."

I Corinthians 6: 1-8.

By filing the lawsuit against St. James, these two bishops renounce the Affirmation of St. Louis, violate the Canon Law of their jurisdiction, and disobey Scripture.

Little details about who struck John are not the issue that matters most. Imitating the worst behavior of Katherine Jefferts-Schori and her thugs is the issue. Blowing the whistle on bad behavior by churches that claim to descend from the original Denver Consecrations of 1978, and that claim to adhere to the principles of the Affirmation of St. Louis, is necessary no matter how unpleasant. Otherwise, the little fixes that spoil the vines get to set precedents, both in courts of law, and in the human imagination. The plague can spread to others.

For the good of all, I ask these two bishops to drop their suit. If they win they lose, and everybody loses with them. And, besides that, their actions constitute sin from which they need to repent for the sake of their own souls.

* Oddly enough it is the very success of the Denis Canon in courts of law that presents TEC with a problem now, as they try to sue the entire Diocese of San Joaquin for realigning with the Province of the Southern Cone.

Summer Work Camp for Anglican Teens

I am passing on a call from Lisa Marion to anyone who has, or knows, young folk between the ages of 14 and 20 who might be interested in participating in a summer work camp in Valdosta, Georgia June 20-28.

Here's what it's all about.

Valdosta, the birthplace of Doc Holliday, is a modern Southern town with a big heart in a world where too many people just look the other way. The citizens of Valdosta are determined to fix the homes of their less fortunate neighbors. The entire community has made a commitment to eliminate all substandard housing by 2020.

You'll have an amazing opportunity to help with this as you tackle projects like ... replacing rotten siding for an elderly widow, giving a disabled man the gift of mobility with a wheelchair ramp, fixing rickety front steps for a single parent with low income. Or, you may boost a struggling family's self-esteem by making their house look like a million bucks with a bright new coat of paint.

Come experience true Southern hospitality, and after a hard day's work, kick back in one of the newest and best air-conditioned schools you've seen in a long time. Brave the Georgia heat and visit a real hot spot for meaningful ministry.

Check out the information at www.stmatthewsacc.com/youth.

Lisa can be reached at upperroomlisa@gmail.com or (949) 219-0911.

Church Congregation Locked Out

The affirmation of St.Louis says the following:

"Financial Affairs
The right of congregations to control of their temporalities should be firmly and constitutionally recognized and protected."

The following report is shocking. Bishop Leo Michael commented on The Continuum once. He and the other players are free and able to comment here on this blog, and explain their actions- if they can. They may explain, as well, how they differ in principle from TEC's Katherine Jefferts-Schori, whose confidence has been evidently fortified by Beers (David Booth Beers, that is). How many Beers do these allegedly Continuing Church bishops need? The following was prepared by a correspondent and verified by reliable sources.-Fr.Robert Hart

Bishop seizes local congregation’s property to prevent vote to leave his jurisdiction

KANSAS CITY, Missouri -- On Friday, May 2, Diocesan Bishop James McNeley and Bishop Leo Michael (Assistant Bishop already named by Bishop McNeley to be his successor) seized the building, bank accounts, and personal property of St. James Church, Kansas City, under a court order they obtained without prior notice to the congregation, its Rector (Rev. John Cochran), Senior Warden, or Vestry.

Although the suit was signed by another Kansas City lawyer, it was planned and written by James F. B. Daniels, St. James’ Junior Warden, who also acts as an attorney for the two Bishops and their diocese. Prior to the actual seizure, Daniels did not notify other officers of the parish that the suit had been filed.

Bishop McNeley and Bishop Michael sought this temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent St. James’ holding a special parish meeting on Sunday, May 4. That meeting had been called to vote on St. James’ separating from or remaining with the Bishops’ Diocese of the Holy Trinity and Great Plains (DHTGP) of the Holy Catholic Church (Anglican Rite) (HCC[AR]).

The Circuit Court of Jackson County scheduled a hearing on the Bishops’ TRO for Tuesday morning, May 13. The Bishops’ court filings ask the Court to issue a permanent injunction against St. James after the motion hearing and without affording the parish a trial on the Bishops’ claims. According to a letter by James Daniels, the Diocese’s Chancellor and author of the suit, the injunction proceeding aims to transfer all St. James’ parish assets to a new “foundation” independent of the parish and controlled by McNeley, Michael, and their personal appointees.

Representatives of St James say this suit is the “flight test” of a new procedure for HCC(AR) Bishops to deprive other HCC(AR) congregations of their assets. The Bishops’ suit against the parish and their attempted takeover of parish property are expressly forbidden by the HCC(AR)’s Constitution, sources said. Autonomy of parish property is common to all the “continuing Anglican churches” which began in the late 1970s by separations from the Episcopal Church (ECUSA). These were reactions to ECUSA’s ordaining women clergy, promoting homosexuality, and abandoning Scripture as the source of moral principles.

Most of these withdrawing Episcopalians lost their parishes and property to the Episcopal Church. This experience made local ownership of parish property a cornerstone of the “continuing church” movement. Since the HCC(AR) formed in 1997 in a schism from one of the original “continuing churches”, HCC(AR) members have declined to eliminate the constitutional guarantee of parishes’ freedom to leave that body with their property intact.

When the TRO was served on the parish, McNeley and Michael’s agents changed all locks on St. James’ building and seized all of the parish’s bank accounts, records, and property. This halted all parish operations including regular worship services by the parish’s Rector, one of the named defendants in the suit. The Bishops announced that services would be held in St. James’ building by Bishop Michael or his nominee.

Thus the Bishops prevented the special membership meeting that St. James had scheduled for Sunday, May 4, immediately after the Sunday morning service. That followed another such meeting the previous Sunday, April 27, at which the parish voted to remove from its by-laws all references to either the DHTGP or the HCC(AR).

These meetings arose out of confrontations with the two Bishops at St. James’ annual parish meeting on January 20 and again with Bishop Michael on April 20. At the January parish meeting, the two Bishops appeared, bringing with them four “guests” whom they insisted be allowed to participate in the meeting as though they were members, in what the Bishops called “insurance votes." Parish officers rebuffed this attempt to stack the parish’s list of voters.

On Sunday, April 20, Bishop Michael appeared without notice to the parish’s Rector or Vestry. He said he had previously arranged this visit with James Daniels, the Junior Warden who is also Michael’s lawyer in the current suit. Here, just as in the later seizure, Daniels did not give advance warning to other parish officials.

Bishop Michael came on April 20 with Daniels who was acting as the DHTGP’s Chancellor or in-house lawyer. After the Sunday service, Michael, who had previously stated he wanted St. James for his cathedral, told the parishioners “Maybe you aren’t worthy of me” and “Yes, I have the ability to take you to court and take this property.”

Michael and Daniels then threatened the parishioners with what they called "the nuclear option." Daniels has explained “the nuclear option” as the way ECUSA’s Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts-Schori, and her Chancellor, David Booth Beers, currently proceed against ECUSA parishes seeking to leave that church. This “nuclear option” is based on the fact that only communicant members can vote on church business, such as whether to withdraw from the national church. National church officials then claim that any member who casts a ballot against the national church forfiets, by that vote and retroactively, any status as a communicant member of the church and so ceases, after the fact, to be an eligible voter.

Thus, ECUSA has said and the HCC(AR) now appears to say, it is never possible to hold a valid vote to leaving either of those church groups.

Bishop Leo Michael resigned from another continuing church body, the United Episcopal Church of North America, on February 18, 2008, three days after Bishop McNeley’s pending retirement became official on February 15. The other HCC(AR) Bishops quickly appointed Michael as McNeley’s successor despite church and diocesan Canons that require a successor bishop to be elected by the clergy and people of the diocese, sources close to St. James say.