RECTOR REFLECTS ON LEAKED STRATEGY DOCUMENT

Interview with Rev. Geoffrey Chapman

By David W. Virtue

January 23, 2004

Reverend Geoffrey Chapman, rector of St. Stephen's parish in Sewickley, Pennsylvania—the largest parish in the Diocese of Pittsburgh with 2,000 members—discusses a controversial strategy document that was leaked to major media.

Chapman led a Special Projects team providing Alternative Episcopal Oversight to at-risk churches, as recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates. While collaborating with the American Anglican Council, he is not an AAC board member.

The seven-page draft was prepared to guide churches seeking oversight and was scheduled for consideration at the Network gathering in Plano, Texas. Completed December 28, 2003, it was released to under 100 church leaders—rectors and vestry members.

On January 12, Washington Post reporter Allen Cooperman contacted Chapman about the document. Within hours, Religious News Service and The Guardian newspaper in England also obtained copies, followed by Associated Press and other media.

Chapman expressed surprise and disappointment: "It was discouraging to realize that people entrusted with important confidential strategy would put churches at risk by leaking the document."

The document outlined a definitive strategy for moving churches through oversight and realignment, proposed a replacement jurisdiction if international discipline failed, and suggested "faithful disobedience" to canon law as a last resort under extreme conditions. Chapman suspects the leak was timed to disrupt the Network formation in Plano—an effort that failed.

Chapman acknowledged the memo was premature in implying bishop approval: "It had only provisional status within the AAC and no status within the Network, which hadn't yet been formed. That implication was a mistake, and I regret it."

He emphasized the urgency of protecting orthodox churches in revisionist dioceses: "Clergy are being threatened, vows of allegiance to the Episcopal Church are being exacted, and canons are being misused to take over dissenting biblically orthodox churches. It is religious persecution, widespread, and it must be opposed."

Chapman expressed hope that the Network and American Anglican Council will work for Adequate Episcopal Oversight under guidance from the Primates and Archbishop of Canterbury.

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