More Trouble Unfolds
Deposed by the Diocese of Pennsylvania,
Traditionalist Priest Will Join Pittsburgh Diocese
The Rev. David L. Moyer, deposed September 4 by Pennsylvania bishop Charles Bennison for refusing him access to Moyer’s parish, was received September 5 by Pittsburgh bishop Robert Duncan as a priest in good standing.
“The dispute will now necessarily become a dispute between bishops, who are by definition power equals,” Duncan said in a statement. “[R]ecent actions both by Bp. Charles Bennison and by other bishops, each acting contrary to the expressed will of the House of Bishops or the Lambeth Conference, have been based on an assertion that the bishop is absolute in his own diocese, an assertion I desire hereby to put to the test.
“I assess the inhibition and deposition of the Rev. David L. Moyer by the Bishop of Pennsylvania to be utterly null and void, both legally and morally, and to have no bearing on the decision I have made,” Duncan added.
“I have been improperly and illegally removed from the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and I do not recognize the validity of this action,” Moyer said in a statement issued shortly after the deposition was announced. “The Archbishop of Canterbury believes me to be in good standing with him and is prepared to offer me Permission to Officiate in the Diocese of Canterbury and a license in the Province of Canterbury. I also have been receiving licenses for priestly ministries and authority conferred by ordination from an increasing number of bishops from throughout the Episcopal Church.”
Six month inhibition
Moyer, president of the traditionalist group Forward in Faith/North America (FiF/NA), served as the rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, for thirteen years. For the last six months Moyer has been under a sentence of inhibition imposed by Bennison on the grounds that he had “abandoned the Communion of this Church by an ‘open renunciation of the…Discipline…of this Church.’”
In August, the House of Bishops of the Province of Central Africa approved Moyer as a priest in good standing in the Diocese of the Upper Shire, in order that he might be transferred to Pittsburgh. According to a press release, Moyer celebrated the Eucharist September 6 at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh.
For almost a decade, Moyer failed to honor requests from Pennsylvania bishops Allen Bartlett, Jr. and Bennison to schedule formal visitations, required by canon law, at which the diocesan bishop would celebrate the Eucharist and preach. Bartlett arranged for visitations by another bishop through the 1997 General Convention, when the arrangement expired. Bennison did not renew it. Moyer charged that Bennison promised that if elected bishop “he would not seek to compel the clergy or the vestry to accept his visitation. In reliance upon that undertaking, the Church of the Good Shepherd voted for him, and he was elected.”
In 1999, Moyer disobeyed a “Pastoral Direction and Solemn Warning” from Bennison regarding a visitation request, but was not disciplined. He disobeyed a similar warning in February, 2002 which prompted the six-month inhibition.
In addition, Moyer failed to present confirmands from his parish to Bennison as diocesan bishop, as mandated by Canon III.14.2(d), but instead presented them to another bishop for confirmation. In the fall of 2000, Moyer violated canonical protocol by inviting then-Archbishop Maurice Sinclair of the Province of the Southern Cone (South America) to come to Good Shepherd to preside, preach and confirm without Bennison’s consent. Bennison then welcomed Sinclair after the service was already scheduled.
Moyer also permitted his name to be placed in nomination by FiF/NA for consecration by an overseas primate as a visiting bishop for traditionalist U.S. parishes in conflict with their dioceses.
“On a cumulative basis, the foregoing actions openly demonstrate a continuing, consistent refusal to act in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church and the Rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer,” stated a report by the standing committee of the diocese when Moyer was inhibited in March.
‘Apostate and heretical’
Moyer countered that Bennison is too liberal and cannot be trusted in the pulpit or at the altar of his parish. “Charles Bennison has refused to publicly affirm basic Christian teachings, and has removed himself from the Church through public pronouncements and teachings that are apostate and heretical,” Moyer said in a statement. “It is not too much to ask that a bishop be a Christian.”
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold wrote to Bennison and the diocesan standing committee, saying that he was “troubled” by the inhibition and urging further efforts at mediation. He noted that the canonical provision that the bishop celebrate the Eucharist when making formal visitations to parishes unfortunately seemed to be at “the heart of this impasse” when it should instead be the celebration of reconciliation in Christ. Griswold also met with Moyer and members of the parish vestry in May.
The Rev. Garrin Dickinson, the curate at Good Shepherd whose home diocese is Pittsburgh, informed Duncan that his license to officiate in the Diocese of Pennsylvania has been withdrawn. Duncan has instructed Garrin to “remain at his post, without a license,” anticipating that if Bennison presses presentment charges, an ecclesiastical trial would have to be held in Pittsburgh.
Moyer’s attorneys have filed a lawsuit seeking to have the deposition set aside. Moyer and Dickinson plan to remain at the Rosemont parish “for the foreseeable future,” although Moyer will also be named priest associate of Grace Church, Mount Washington, an Anglo-Catholic parish in the city of Pittsburgh.
—The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of
Episcopal News Service.
The Presiding BishopÕs Statement on the
Conflict at Church of the Good Shepherd
‘The difficulties . . . are at heart pastoral’
For more than a year I have sought to resolve the impasse between the Bishop and Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania and the rector and vestry of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont. Although I have no canonical authority in this diocesan matter, I have employed every means at my disposal to help find a way forward that honored the concerns of all, and strongly urged that they enter into a process of mediation. During this time, I have met with Bishop Bennison as well as Father Moyer and members of the Vestry of the Church of the Good Shepherd.
To my mind the difficulties between the parties are at heart pastoral, and therefore resolution could have been found without recourse to canons and rubrics. This failure to resolve the conflict has been costly for all involved. As chief pastor of the Episcopal Church in the United States it grieves me deeply that this rift has occurred in the body of Christ. It grieves me further when a bishopÕs ministry is not welcomed by a congregation, a diocese loses the services of one of its priests, and the mission of the church risks losing the commitment and energies of dedicated members of a congregation.
I am aware that some have said this conflict is an indication that those with ÒtraditionalistÓ views do not have a place in the Episcopal Church. I cannot say strongly enough that this is not the case. Unfortunately, it is the difficult and anomalous situations that draw notice, as if they were normative. Indeed, this occurrence is a sad exception to how the ecclesial life of the Episcopal Church in the United States is lived.
The Most Rev'd Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA