Parish, diocese reach amicable agreement on transfer of property, legal issues

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, May 20, 2006

BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Religion Writer

COVENTRY -- At a time when parishes seeking to leave the Episcopal Church have been hit with lawsuits and strong resistance from their local dioceses, members of one parish here are counting themselves lucky.

It's been three months since the 350-member parish of St. Andrew and St. Philip Church on Fairview Drive served notice, through an overwhelming vote at its annual meeting, to withdraw from the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island -- and by extension, the entire U.S. Episcopal Church -- as of June 30 because of what they see as the denomination's turn away from biblical authority.

The Rev. Mark Galloway, the rector, says the move did not turn directly on the denomination's decision to allow an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, to be consecrated in November 2003 as an Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire, but on the deep divisions within the Anglican Communion his consecration triggered.

Simply put, he said, the parish voted to take the route taken by roughly 65 other parishes around the country that have decided that the Episcopal Church's membership in the Anglican Communion is tenuous because 22 Anglican primates around the world have formally declared there is now an "impaired relationship" between themselves and the U.S. church.

Although parishioners had braced themselves for the kind of nasty fights that have greeted parishes around the country that have also voted to leave and to seek affiliation with an African bishop in Kenya, they found, they admit, that Rhode Island Bishop Geralyn Wolf's response has been most gracious.

INDEED, AFTER SEVERAL months of quiet back-room negotiations involving Bishop Wolf, chancellor Edward Bennett, and key parish leaders, both sides have come up with an agreement -- to be voted on by the congregation this Sunday at 1 p.m. -- that specifies how various legal aspects, including transfer of property, will be handled.

Harry Saccatti, who was senior warden when the standing committee voted to recommend withdrawal from the denomination, said, "everyone thinks this is about Gene Robinson. It's not. It's something deeper. Things are happening in the Episcopal Church where they are changing the word of God and what it means, and that's why we can no longer walk side by side with the Episcopal Church."

Saccatti said that the key event for him was at the diocesan convention last year when delegates rejected several resolutions that would have affirmed that the denomination needs to follow biblical standards. One resolution, which would have called on the denomination to accept the Windsor Report -- with the finding that it needed to stop ordaining gay priests and bishops and repent, was tabled.

"They didn't even have the guts to vote it down."

When members of St. Andrew and St. Philip came together on a February afternoon to decide whether to quit the Episcopal Church, the vote to leave was 69 to 1.

FATHER GALLOWAY SAYS the issue now is no longer about leaving. That's been decided, he says. The issue before the congregation is whether to approve an agreement that will make it possible for both sides to walk away from each other without resorting to lawsuits and threats.

It was a sign of that willingness to talk and reach out that Bishop Wolf herself, along with the chancellor, went before the parish on May 7 to explain and answer questions about the pact from about 50 parishoners.

"If I had my druthers, you will change your mind and not leave us, because I have personal affection for all of you," she acknowledged, setting the tone for the meeting.

Under the agreement, the Canterbury Mission Society, a local group that was started by a number of conservative churchgoers and currently headed by Saccatti, will buy the church's 12,000-square-foot building and 2.2 acres of surrounding land for $600,000 -- half of what the bishop says is the real appraised value.

Bishop Wolf said she could not allow the group to take the land for free, given that so many people who donated to the parish over the years had always expected the church to remain in Episcopal hands.

At the same time, she said, she doesn't believe Christians should be fighting each other over tangible property. What matters, she said, is people's journey of faith. "I don't want to squabble over things made of human hands."

Father Galloway says the parish, with a decided evangelical bent, has been a member of the Anglican Communion Network for at least a couple of years. The network is made up of conservative Anglicans upset with the direction that the U.S. Episcopal Church has taken on a number of social issues, and has enjoyed an increasingly warm relationship with the Anglican Church's hierarchy in Africa.

AS PART OF THAT WARM relationship, a number of Anglican bishops have offered to provide pastoral support to American parishes looking to quit their ties to their national church. The Coventry parish would, under the arragement, come under the jurisdiction of Anglican Bishop James Ochiel of Nyanza, Kenya.

In her speech to members of St. Andrew and St. Philip, Bishop Wolf remarked that if the congregation decides, as she fully expects, to carry out the break, she hopes she would be invited back for an occasional visit. Participants applauded.

But Bishop Wolf said she wanted to remind her listeners that, despite all the talk of the Episcopal Church being thrown out of the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church has never been told that. "So if you want to remain a part of the Anglican Communion you already are, and don't have to do anything."

Nonetheless, the consensus in the parish is there is little reason now for turning back.

Father Galloway said that given the way the Episcopal Church's General Convention is constituted he doubts very much that the national church will agree to "repent" for its ordaining of gay bishops and clergy when it meets next month, making a split inevitable.

Father Galloway said he could not overemphasize how unusual it is to have a situation, such as the one here, where the parish and the bishop appear to have resolved all the questions amicably -- without even a lawyer looking after the congregation's interests.

HE ACKNOWLEDGED THAT one reason why talks here have gone so well is that St. Andrew and St. Philip does not have a huge endowment, so there is very little to fight over, unlike one very wealthy parish in California with an endowment reaching tens of millions of dollars and an annual budget of $3 million.

Then too, he said, he and Bishop Wolf have had, despite their differences on many subjects, a warm and cordial relationship going back 10 years.

Bishop Wolf said she wanted the priest to know he would be welcomed into the fold if he were to change his mind and decides to come back. The bishop and rector agreed that, in accordance with the church's canons, he would renounce his ordination in the Episcopal Church -- rather than leave it to the bishop to "depose" him -- since it would easier to come back if he hasn't been deposed.

Bishop Wolf observed that probably not everyone who now goes to St. Andrew and St. Philip Church will want to quit the Episcopal Church. She said those members could write her a letter saying they want to remain in the Diocese, and that would be sufficient to keep their names on the rolls.

And what if the parish on Sunday votes to turn down the pact?

Then, the bishop said, everything would remain the same. Except for one thing. "Myself and the other members of the vestry have already made our stand," said the rector, "we're leaving on June 30, regardless."

rdujardi@projo.com / (401) 277-7384