Church dismisses leadership of Versailles church

ST. JOHN EPISCOPAL MEMBERS FORM NEW CONGREGATION

By Frank E. Lockwood

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

VERSAILLES - The leadership of an Episcopal parish opposed to the

ordination of openly gay bishop Gene Robinson has been dismissed by

Lexington diocesan officials.

St. John Episcopal Church, a place where heads of state have worshiped,

has been downgraded from a parish to a mission. The move allows Bishop

Stacy Sauls to dismiss the congregation leadership and provide direct

pastoral supervision of the body. The move split the church and led to the creation of a new, independent congregation.

Sauls said the diocese executive council empowered him to take control of

the conservative parish last week, because the council feared that the

parish nine-member governing board would leave Episcopal Church USA

(ECUSA) and take away church property and bank accounts worth $1.87

million. Sauls said members of St. John who want to remain in the ECUSA

asked him to intervene.

I’m very concerned that if we had not done this, the group of loyal

Episcopalians would have lost their church, and the leadership of the

diocese could not allow that to happen, Sauls said. I think all the signs

indicated there was a significant risk that they were days away from

leaving the church.

But the dismissed members of the parish governing board, called a vestry,

say they never planned to take the assets and werent preparing to abandon

the denomination.

Instead, the parish was hoping the ECUSA would allow it and other traditionalist parishes in more liberal dioceses across the country to receive alternative episcopal oversight from more conservative bishops.

Tom Thornbury, the top governing official of St. John  until the vestry was disbanded, called Sauls intervention painful, punitive and unnecessary.

In a statement read at Sunday services, Thornbury said Sauls actions have been destructive to individual families within our parish, to the unity of the parish, and the diocese as a whole.

As a bishop, this man is expected to lead his flock, not beat it into submission, Thornbury said. The only reason we can imagine why this bishop would act in such an ... unethical manner towards us is his deep

animosity towards evangelical and orthodox Anglicans.

Sauls denies any animosity and said he is committed to working with conservatives and liberals alike.

It’s unclear how many people St. John is losing, although Sauls said yesterday it may have lost a majority of its members. The church average

attendance was about 150.

St. John has been a fixture on Versailles Main Street for more than 150 years. Two of its rectors became bishops of Lexington. Over the years, St. John visitors have included President George Herbert Walker Bush and Elizabeth II, the Queen of England and the Defender of the (Anglican) Faith.

But for the past decade, relations between St. John and diocesan leadership had deteriorated, Sauls said.

After the denomination general convention allowed an openly gay man, Lexington native Gene Robinson, to become a bishop, relations got worse.

The church protested Sauls vote supporting Robinson.

Then, the Versailles parish, which was seeking to hire a new priest (known as a rector), kept Sauls in the dark as it went about its search, the bishop said. The vestry eventually selected a finalist to lead St. John without consulting with Sauls first, the bishop said.

Former leaders of St. John say they followed ECUSA rules while going about their search. They now plan to focus on church-building, not lawsuits.

Mudslinging is not the answer, and were not going to partake in that, said former junior warden Paul Afdahl.

Pat Ewing, an Episcopalian for seven decades, says shell join the new congregation once it finds a place to worship. We’re getting rid of all that old baggage we had, and were going into a new church where we’ll be

able to ... open up our Bibles, and go by what the Bible says, she said.

The Rev. Philip Haug, interim minister-in-charge at St. John, said he has

confidence in Sauls. He has a difficult job ... and he doing it the way

he thought was right and best for the future of the church. He has my full

support.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/7705218.htm

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