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Eastern Michigan Bishop Responds to Critics of His Deposition
The Living Church Foundation ^ | 8/10/2005 | unknown

Posted on 08/10/2005 5:28:10 PM PDT by sionnsar

The Bishop of Eastern Michigan has accused his “brother bishops” of a rush to judgment and of causing “harm” to the order and discipline of the Episcopal Church for offering to license the Rev. Gene Geromel, who was deposed Aug. 4 by the Rt. Rev. Edwin M. Leidel, Jr.

“Your public statement is filled with assumptions, conclusions and inflammatory language,” Bishop Leidel said in a statement posted on the diocesan website. “In it you have made a judgment about a brother bishop and a diocese without making any effort to learn the underlying circumstances of a painfully wrought deposition that has a five-year history.”

As a mark of support for Fr. Geromel after his deposition by Bishop Leidel, the Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman, Bishop of Quincy; the Rt. Rev. James M. Adams, Jr., Bishop of Western Kansas; the Rt. Rev. Peter Beckwith, Bishop of Springfield; the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh; the Rt. Rev. John W. Howe, Bishop of Central Florida; the Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, and the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of San Joaquin, “granted license to function in each of our dioceses as a priest in good standing” to Fr. Geromel. Seven suffragan and retired bishops joined in endorsing the letter. Bishop Howe subsequently apologized and asked that his name be removed.

Bishop Leidel states that Fr. Geromel “generously” received “five years of restraint and six months of due process” during which he was given “every opportunity to demonstrate that he had not abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church.”

When Fr. Geromel led his congregation to withdraw from the Episcopal Church, Bishop Leidel said he took no action against Fr. Geromel in the hope that “reconciliation could one day be achieved or that this priest might receive a call to another diocese of the Episcopal Church.”

In 1999, the year prior to the vote by the congregation to withdraw from the Episcopal Church, members of St. Bartholomew’s, Swartz Creek, Mich., formed a legal entity, PECUSA, Inc., without informing the diocese and “defaulted completely” on their diocesan assessment “in violation of diocesan canons,” the bishop wrote. “The Rev. Geromel also publicly refused to receive the Bread and Wine of Holy Communion from the Bishop of Eastern Michigan for more than a year up to the time of the vote.”

After the parish vote and decision by the diocese to sell the church property to the congregation, Bishop Leidel offered to allow Fr. Geromel to remain a “licensed clergyman serving an ecumenical Church,” provided he “pledged obedience to, and remain in communion with his bishop.”

In what he said was “another act of hopeful reconciliation,” Bishop Leidel said he withheld “ a deposition process” for five years after Fr. Geromel responded that as a matter of theological conscience he could not agree to the terms proposed. Bishop Leidel said he moved to inhibit Fr. Geromel last January only after the standing committee asked him to “finalize” the atypical situation.

“As you all well know, there is no satisfaction in issuing a deposition,” Bishop Leidel concluded. “Such matters ought never to be done in haste or without prayer. As you take the time to get to know us better, I trust you will come to understand that Eastern Michigan is a diverse diocese where patience and prayer are abundantly practiced.”


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant
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1 posted on 08/10/2005 5:28:11 PM PDT by sionnsar
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To: ahadams2; Fractal Trader; Zero Sum; anselmcantuar; Agrarian; coffeecup; Paridel; keilimon; ...
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (typically 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by sionnsar and newheart.

Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com

Humor: The Anglican Blue (by Huber)

Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

2 posted on 08/10/2005 5:28:44 PM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† || Trad-Ang Ping: I read the dreck so you don't have to || Iran Azadi)
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To: sionnsar

I don't get it. What's the big deal here?


3 posted on 08/10/2005 5:33:50 PM PDT by trubluolyguy (If you think that's tough, try losing a testicle in a knife fight with your mother!)
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To: trubluolyguy

This is part of an ongoing issue of which the Traditional Anglican ping list has been informed. Check the site in my tagline and look under "Recent Articles" for Michigan and Geromel in the past week or two.


4 posted on 08/10/2005 5:36:52 PM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† || Trad-Ang Ping: I read the dreck so you don't have to || Iran Azadi)
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