In an exchange of letters between Fr. Arthur W. Ward Jr., the rector, wardens and vestry of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Tonawanda and the Buffalo-based bishop, Fr. Ward wrote Garrison on April 6 requesting DEPO – a course of action approved recently by ECUSA’s House of Bishops.

St. Bartholomew’s has the largest parish income in the diocese with a budget of $470,000 and an anticipated parish income of $520,000 in 2004. It is also the numerically largest parish in the diocese with more than 1,100 attending members.

In his brief one-page letter Ward wrote, “As you are aware, we are gravely concerned about the direction of this diocese and The Episcopal Church in general. However, we also recognize that we are called by our Lord to work towards reconciliation. We are most willing to meet with you toward that purpose.”

Fr. Ward then wrote that adult candidates and youth confirmands for Holy Confirmation had asked for another bishop to administer Holy Confirmation. “As a result, there will be no candidates available for confirmation during your scheduled May 30th visit to St. Bartholomew’s. The priest said he had scheduled only one service for that day.

Ward concluded his letter saying that he was ready to meet “so that we can work towards achieving some sort of agreement that will satisfy both sides.”

On April 23rd, Bishop Garrison wrote a blistering two-page detailed letter with the following demands.

He began with a slap and put down of Fr. Ward saying, “Happily I am not planning to be with you on Sunday morning, May 30, as I have another invitation. Since I made a visitation to St. Bartholomew’s in 2003 for Confirmation, I shall not return for visitation until 2006.”

Instead the bishop will be blessing an altar at St. John’s Grace, Buffalo run by an openly homosexual priest, the Rev. Phil Dougherty.

Then the bishop listed a set of six demands on Fr. Ward, concluding by telling him that he was reassigning his deacon, and that when another priest who served with him, Fr. Clark Hubbard Jr. had found another parish that he would never license another priest to serve with him. Garrison said that an ordinand who was preparing for the ministry would also be removed from his parish.

Garrison then demanded that Fr. Ward meet with him and insisted that he bring along the Parish Register and Service Book; financial statements from the first quarter of the year, including a list of beneficiaries of your “alternative” to the Fair Share. “Fair Share” is a voluntary pledge made by the bishop to all parishes. The bishop also demanded the minutes of the vestry meetings for the same period of time.

The bishop then demanded that Ward “deliver to my office a copy of three teachings that you will prepare and deliver to the people of St. Bartholomew’s on the Heresy of Donatism and its application in the current crises with reference to Article XXVI of the Articles of Religion.”

The bishop then asked Fr. Ward how he could personally remain connected and in communion with himself during this time of estrangement—including his personal reflection on what it means to be loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them – “a question required of you at your ordinations to both the deaconate and priesthood.”

“Thirdly, how do you intend to live out the joint pastoral responsibility you share with me through accepting a “Letter of Institution” from me at your installation as rector of St. Bartholomew’s?”

Garrison told Ward he would reassign his Deacon Ed Kusmierczyk. “I no longer have confidence that you can provide him sufficient guidance in making Christ and his redemptive love known.”

Deacon Kusmierczyk has been a deacon since May and he came out of the parish. “It is mean spirited because my part time assisting priest Fr. Thomas Jones aged 47, went home to be with Lord on Dec. 26 so the parish lost a priest. It is an insensitive act by the bishop to reassign my deacon,” he told Virtuosity.

“Fr. Clark Hubbard Jr. is currently our associate rector. If he leaves the bishop said he would not allow anyone in. I don’t appreciate the bishop holding the pastoral ministry of St. Bartholomew’s hostage, and it certainly does not reflect the pastoral ministry of our Lord and the Good Shepherd image of a bishop.”

The bishop then said that an ordinand who is a candidate for the Diaconate, one John Reese, (Reitz, the bishop misspelled his name) would be also transferred to another parish.

Garrison then twisted the knife further issuing a Pastoral Direction to Ward forbidding him to present confirmands from his parish to any other bishop of this Church. “You are forbidden to invite another bishop to preach, teach, or preside at the Sacraments, except as specifically authorized by me.”

Fr. Ward said he was shocked and surprised at the tone and tenor of Bishop Garrison’s letter. “He had said on March 30th at a clergy day event that he had supported and voted for DEPO and that he would allow parishes to have alternative pastoral oversight in consultation with him.”

Fr. Ward said that he and the wardens and vestry have sent a letter asking the bishop to reconsider his demands and the bishop responded by writing another letter dated May 6th in which he said he was sorry that we perceived his original letter as threatening. They were not threats but simply consequences, he said. However, Garrison considers Fr. Ward to be in rebellion against the church and he says that I do not respect him.

“I am very concerned with the bishop’s approach for it seems to me that he is trying to set me and St. Bartholomew’s up for further disciplinary action. We certainly appreciate the prayers and moral support of all our sisters and brothers who are standing with us and for the One Holy and Apostolic Faith of the Church.”

Bishop Garrison is not backing down, said a disappointed Ward. “He believes his requirements set forth in this letter are within the canons and constitutions and within his right as bishop.”

On April 29, Bishop Garrison wrote another letter, this time to all his diocesan clergy saying that he was forbidding two other orthodox rectors in his diocese because the warden of St. Stephen’s, Niagara Falls told him he would not allow his grandson to be confirmed by him.

Garrison responded by recalling the actions of the five retired bishops acting in the Diocese of Ohio saying that what they did was an “indecent violation of Church order” and then issued the following pastoral directive to Fr. Roger Grist of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church in Buffalo and to Fr. Richard Molison of St. Stephen’s in Niagara Falls, saying “you are forbidden to present confirmands to any other bishop of this church…you are forbidden to invite another bishop to preach, teach, or preside at the Sacraments, except as specifically authorized by me.”

Reached at his parish the Rev. Dr. Grist told Virtuosity, “I am surprised, the bishop seems to be trying to keep us from having a bishop who would be in line with the faith once delivered. Furthermore what he is really saying is that he would only allow a bishop of his choice.”

“He is not trying to bring about reconciliation, and he accuses us of causing division.
He won’t cut us any slack, nor does he seem to be interested in the recent DEPO resolution passed by the House of Bishops. He is determined to have it all his way.”

The Rev. Dr. Grist said that DEPO means nothing to him. “He has also reinterpreted the diocesan canons related to the Fair Share (pledge system). He made it mandatory (it was voluntary) at a March meeting of the Diocesan Council but it has never been brought to a Diocesan Convention. Any parish that does not pay its fair share, he makes into a dependent parish. The bishop can then act unilaterally, and that is what he has done to Fr. Ward.”

Fr. Richard Molison, St. Stephen’s told Virtuosity, “I don’t sense any ministry of reconciliation with my chief shepherd. This is the second of two letters he has written to me both of which have not been very pastoral. Our concern, those of us who are orthodox in this diocese, is to have this tested before Holy Scripture not the canons. I find this difficult to accept.”

Virtuosity has learned that there is a coalition of five parishes seeking to bring about orthodox teaching in the diocese. They are St. Stephens in Niagara Falls, St. Mary’s in Salamanca, St. Peter’s in Forestville, St. Bartholomew’s in Tonawanda, and St. Michael’s and All Angels in Buffalo. All are members of the American Anglican Council (AAC). Bishop Garrison has vigorously spoken out against the AAC and the Network.

At their last diocesan convention Garrison accused the AAC of being a right-wing conspiracy saying it was “wreaking [the] havoc of schism” with “groups financed by American philanthropists.”

The bishop is facing a crisis in his diocese, Virtuosity was told. He has had to face staff cuts owing to a loss of income from about 50 percent of the diocese’s parishes that are either unable or unwilling to pay their ‘fair share’ this year. “This involves some 30 parishes, (out of 63). The bishop is facing a huge deficit for the coming year. This is a huge red flag,” said Fr. Molison. The short fall is about $220,000 in a $1.1 million dollar budget, he said.

“The bishop is saying it is about economic factors, but a number of people have left The Episcopal Church, and five orthodox parishes have vocally condemned the Robinson consecration. It is not about economics, the orthodox parishes are thriving even as revisionist ones suffer with no gospel,” said Molison.

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