You've got a *lovely* little parish...

Midwest Conservative Journal ^ | 4/22/2006 | Christopher Johnson

[sionnsar]

ECUSA would hate to see anything happen to it:

Bishops on both coasts have taken steps in advance of the 75th General Convention to clarify their ownership claim to parish property in the event of a split. Last month Executive Council authorized an expenditure of $100,000 from short-term reserves for the House of Bishops’ ad hoc task force on property disputes.

The Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes, Bishop of San Diego, issued a pastoral directive April 19 that requires all rectors in his jurisdiction to submit by May 20 copies of parish articles of incorporation, parish by-laws, employment contracts, title to a real property, balance sheets for the past two years and evidence of appropriate surety bond as required by canons.

“If you and your congregation pursue an effort at secession, you will at that moment be in violation of your ordination vows,” Bishop Mathes wrote. “By this pastoral direction, you will be, by that very act or by your participation, an inhibited priest and deprived of standing or canonical or legal authority to do the very action you purport to effect. In issuing this pastoral direction, it is my hope that the issue of attempted congregational secession can be conclusively addressed and that we can concentrate on what is our common work together.”

Earlier in the month the Diocese of North Carolina informed its clergy that it would be preparing “for signature and subsequent filing in all of the counties of the diocese in which there are diocesan parishes and/or missions, a ‘Declaration of Interest’.” The intent, according to the letter, is to create a public statement of the ownership interest of the diocese and the General Convention in real and tangible property owned by or on behalf of diocesan parishes and missions.

“We believe that the interests of PECUSA and the Diocese of North Carolina in such real estate are not adequately reflected in all counties in which Episcopal property is located,” said the Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry in a letter dated April 4. “We believe that providing a public record notice of interest of PECUSA and the diocese in such real estate will be consistent with the applicable constitution and canons of PECUSA and our diocese and simplify future real estate transactions.”

And if you're thinking about complaining, you might want to keep your mouth shut.

Significant changes in the way that the Episcopal Church enforces discipline with its leaders have been proposed by the Task Force on Disciplinary Policy and Procedures and will be considered by the General Convention in June.

The present adversarial system, under which presentment charges are filed, would be replaced by a system that utilizes mediation and fact finding and seeks "restorative justice - reconciliation," said Stephen Hutchinson. He is chancellor for the Diocese of Utah and was active in writing the task force’s proposal.

The church’s canons which deal with disciplinary matters, Title IV, would also be amended to include lay persons for the first time.

"The canons would apply to anyone, to everyone in leadership," said Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis, chair of the task force.

Well, there's certainly no potential for abuse there.

[sionnsar]

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[sionnsar]

SAN DIEGO: Bishop Incites Fear and Loathing in Clergy
Mathes issues Pastoral Directive demanding loyalty or else...

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
4/21/2006

SAN DIEGO, CA--The Bishop of San Diego, the Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes has written a pastoral directive to all his diocesan rectors demanding oaths of conformity and loyalty, saying that failure to do so will lead to "charges and penalties" ending in deposition.

VirtueOnline has obtained a copy of this three page "directive" with six demands that his clergy must deliver to his office by May 20, 2006. The bishop has demanded copies of:

A. Articles of Incorporation
B. Parish By-laws
C. Any operable letters of agreement of employment agreements between clergy and the wardens and vestry of the parish or any other representative body however named.
D. Title (including Deeds and other documents which affect title) to all real property.
E. Balance sheet for fiscal year 2004, 2005, and a balance sheet as of March 31, 2006.
F. Evidence of appropriate Surety Bond as required by canons.

In none of the directives is there a call to conform to the doctrine and discipline of the faith once delivered to the saints.

In recent months the majorities of two congregations in the diocese have left the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Keith Acker SSC rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Alpine, California, departed from the Episcopal Church. The traditionalist Anglo-Catholic congregation joined the Anglican Province of America. They quit over the on-going crisis of faith and order within the Episcopal Church.

What pushed Acker over the edge was the bishop's refusal to license one of his assistants. His act of secession was compounded when the bishop did an in-your-face act by bringing a female deacon with him to celebrate at the parish. They have started a new congregation, Blessed Trinity. A second evangelical parish St. Anne's, Oceanside, led by the Rev. Tony Baron also fled the diocese and ECUSA with 97 percent of the congregation voting to come under Bolivian Bishop Frank Lyons. They plan to stay on their property as the deed belongs to the rector, the wardens and vestry of St. Anne's. The church is over 100 years old.

But VOL reported several months that as many as 8-9 parishes are ready to quit the diocese and the Episcopal Church following General Convention, hence the current directive by the revisionist Bishop James Mathes.

In his missile to the diocese, the toughest and most strident ever seen by this reporter of an Episcopal bishop to his diocese, Mathes says, "You are my representatives in the sacramental and teaching life of the church. The act of participating in or benignly tolerating a vestry denying my ecclesiastical and apostolic authority by changing any of these aforementioned documents represents a failure of your vow of obedience."

"Consistent with this, I now direct specifically that you shall not participate in changing these documents in any way to disaffiliate your parish from the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, the Episcopal Church, and/or my ecclesiastical authority as your bishop. You are further directed to take no actions which would have the effect of removing or purporting to remove yourself from my ecclesiastical authority."

"If you and your congregation pursue an effort at secession, you will at that moment be in violation of your ordination vows," Bishop Mathes wrote. "By this pastoral direction, you will be, by that very act or by your participation, an inhibited priest and deprived of standing or canonical or legal authority to do the very action you purport to effect. In issuing this pastoral direction, it is my hope that the issue of attempted congregational secession can be conclusively addressed and that we can concentrate on what is our common work together."

But Bishop Mathes is on shaky ground. To date California courts have used neutral principles of law to adjudicate church property disputes and three parishes in the Diocese of Los Angeles have won lower court rulings to keep their properties. Three efforts by Bishop J. Jon Bruno to take back the properties have failed. By their action the civil courts have nullified the notorious Dennis Canon.

Recently the Episcopal Church's highest administrative body, the Executive Council authorized an expenditure of $100,000 from short-term reserves for the House of Bishops' ad hoc task force on property disputes. This is being done because it is believed that some dioceses don't have the financial resources to fight civil actions over property disputes. Sources tell VOL that this is a drop in the bucket as to what will be needed following General Convention when all hell is expected to break loose with fleeing parishes across the country.

END

[gogeo]

The Bishop of San Diego, the Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes has written a pastoral directive to all his diocesan rectors demanding oaths of conformity and loyalty, saying that failure to do so will lead to "charges and penalties" ending in deposition...

Somehow, this was never an issue with the schism-causing ordination of Vicky Gene. Repent or resign.

[AnalogReigns]

“If you and your congregation pursue an effort at secession, you will at that moment be in violation of your ordination vows,” Bishop Mathes wrote. “By this pastoral direction, you will be, by that very act or by your participation, an inhibited priest and deprived of standing or canonical or legal authority to do the very action you purport to effect."

This sounds a lot like the personal loyalty vows to Hitler demanded of German officers before and during WWII. Many hated the man...but because they had vowed to defend him, fought on.

More big reasons why lay leadership is needed to put the apostate bishops out of business. See Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion : http://www.layepiscopal.org/

[AnAmericanMother]

But they are putting laypersons under church discipline in an attempt to short-circuit just that.

The bishes are indeed running ECUSA like a mob enterprise.

Now is the time for all believing Christians to get the Hell (and I use that advisedly) out of ECUSA. What are you waiting around for?

[PAR35]

Any congregation that sticks around until the General Convention is likely to have to pay for their inaction with their property.

[r9etb]

More big reasons why lay leadership is needed to put the apostate bishops out of business.

Bp. Mathes is entirely within his authority as bishop to ask for these things -- that's what "Episcopal" is all about, after all.

Then again, no bishop should ever need to resort to exercising that authority within a normally-functioning diocese. To have to resort to widespread threats and force is to admit failure -- which is even worse when the threat is made against long-established orthodoxy.

Even if we quite reasonably assume that some of these parishes and rectors are hard to work with, it's quite clear that Mathes has failed.