Anglican bishop to make case for leaving Episcopal Church

Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

An Anglican bishop will make the case tonight to members of an embattled Colorado Springs parish about why they should secede from the Episcopal Church.

"We’re trying to find a way to remain faithful Anglicans during this time of turbulence," said Bishop Martyn Minns on Wednesday, hours before he was scheduled to address parishioners of the Rev. Don Armstrong’s Grace and St. Stephen’s Church.

Turbulence comes on two fronts: The Colorado Episcopal Diocese is threatening Armstrong with civil and criminal lawsuits involving allegations he misused hundreds of thousands of dollars in church money. Armstrong says the diocese is persecuting him for his conservative views.

Last month, as his legal woes mounted, Armstrong and a majority of the church vestry, or board of directors, seceded from the Episcopal Church in the U.S. to join Minns and about 35 other congregations in the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).

Minns, who is based in Virginia, represents a conservative branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion which says the Episcopal Church has abandoned scriptural authority and traditional doctrines on sexuality.

Armstrong hopes to convince a majority of his parish’s 1,500 to 2,000 members to join CANA in a vote May 20. If a majority reject the idea and want to stay with the Episcopal Church, Armstrong has pledged to surrender the parish and begin a new CANA church elsewhere.

Minns and CANA are under the authority of the Anglican province of Nigeria, which agreed to sponsor conservative churches fleeing the Episcopal Church.

Minns said he will tell parishioners he believes CANA represents "a good way forward" at a time when the Anglican Communion itself appears to be fracturing. Most of the 38 worldwide Anglican provinces object to the U.S. church’s stand in favor of gay clergy and same-sex blessings. But the U.S. Episcopal Church refuses to back down.

"We’re a mess," Minns said of the Anglican confusion. "Many things are incoherent."

Minns and 11 Virginia churches are embroiled in multiple lawsuits with their own Episcopal diocese and the Episcopal Church USA over church property. But he said he believes the Armstrong case is the only one in which the Episcopal hierarchy is accusing a seceding pastor of personal wrongdoing.

Besides talking to parishioners, Minns said he is in Colorado to support Armstrong and his wife Jessie, who have been his friends for 30 years: "I’m here because I care," Minns said. "To ditch your friends is the wrong thing to do. We must wrestle through these things together."