WASHINGTON D.C.: ANGLO-CATHOLIC PARISH TO HOST GRISWOLD, GOMEZ

The Christian Challenge — June 26, 2004

A noted Anglo-Catholic Episcopal parish in the nation's capital has announced the visits next year of an outspokenly conservative Anglican provincial leader, followed by a liberal one — namely, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold.

The invitation by the well known St. Paul's, K Street, Washington, to the presiding bishop — among other things the chief consecrator of openly homosexual Bishop Gene Robinson — raised some eyebrows among local traditionalists.

Nonetheless, the rector, the Rev. Andrew Sloane, announced in the parish publication, The Epistle, that Bishop Griswold would be at the parish for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil of Easter, 2005. Fr. Sloane did not say what role Griswold would play in these observances.

Fr. Sloane also announced that the Archbishop of the West Indies, Drexel Gomez, would be at St. Paul's for Candlemas, February 2, 2005, "to celebrate and preach with the Bishop of Washington's permission. Archbishop Gomez has been to St. Paul's before, and his sister, Myrtle, is a faithful member of our congregation."

"These visits speak of the high and broad esteem in which this parish church is held in the wider Church and are also expressive of the respect for diversity that is possible within Anglicanism," Sloane wrote. "We shall be delighted and honored by their presence and their office."

Asked about Griswold's visit, one St. Paul's parishioner candidly approached the matter thus: "Fr. Sloane has said many times that one cannot experience Holy Week at St. Paul's without being changed."