Hepworth Designated David Moyer

as the bishop for the Patrimony of the Primate. Moyer, along with Hepworth, was another major figure in conservative Anglican circles due to a long-running legal battle he'd begun as an Episcopal priest under that denomination's controversial Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles Bennison, whose own career was checkered with scandal and financial extravagance. Moyer had been rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, a prestigious Anglo-Catholic parish, since 1989; the current US Catholic Anglican ordinary, Jeffrey Steenson, was Moyer's immediate predecessor there as well. In 2002, Bennison deposed Moyer as a priest, but Moyer stubbornly remained as rector of the nominally Episcopal parish until 2011. After a series of ecclesiastical maneuvers, in 2005, the ACA consecrated him its Bishop of the Armed Forces and episcopal visitor to the few TAC parishes in the UK. His continued legal battles, culminating in a lawsuit against his own attorney for losing a case, had begun to give him a reputation as a loose cannon.

Becoming bishop for the Patrimony of the Primate added to Moyer's duties with the ACA, but again, as with other TAC bishops, there was something not quite right about him. Although he was one of the by-then minority in the TAC that was in favor of Anglicanorum coetibus and wanted to take a group from Good Shepherd Rosemont into the Ordinariate, in early 2012, the Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia denied him his votum to become a Catholic priest in that diocese, and Steenson refused him and his group admission to the Ordinariate as well.

St Mary of the Angels Hollywood, which had always been an Anglo-Catholic parish and which had previously tried to become Anglican Use within the Catholic Church, began the ecclesiastical procedures to transfer from the ACA Diocese of the West to the Patrimony of the Primate in December 2010 and went in by vote at its parish annual meeting in January 2011. Moyer, in his new capacity as ordinary to the parish, promptly ordained the pro-Ordinariate deacon whom Bishop Williams had previously inhibited and refused to ordain a priest. This caused controversy in the ACA, where the majority felt Moyer had exceeded his authority.

Separately, Louis Campese, also a former Episcopal priest who had since become ACA Bishop of the Eastern United States, created a "Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family" in February 2011. At the same time, he resigned as an ACA bishop. He did this for the same reason that Hepworth created the Patrimony, to escape the hostility of the ACA majority that had either changed its mind about the Portsmouth Declaration or never accepted it in the first place. (Campese's home parish in Orlando, Florida continued the process of entering the Ordinariate and was successfully received in the summer of 2012, although Campese, at age 78, did not become a Catholic priest.)

By February 2011, Strawn and Marsh, the remaining diocesan bishops in the ACA proper, along with the now-retired Williams, had had enough. They issued a pastoral letter questioning the authority of both the Patrimony and the Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family:

Recently, because of questionable and possibly irregular episcopal actions that have taken place in both Florida and California, we asked the chancellors of the Anglican Church in America to render an opinion regarding temporal and corporate issues related to the ACA, particularly as concerns the Patrimony of the Primate. The chancellors' decision, released in a letter dated February 5, 2011, has been widely disseminated. It appears on the ACA web pages.

. . .

The chancellors' letter emphasizes the state of broken communion in which we presently find ourselves. The Patrimony of the Primate was initially established as a temporary entity to allow for the smooth transition to the Roman Catholic Ordinariate for those so inclined.

It was the expectation that the Patrimony would exercise no diocesan functions, but would respect the established diocesan structures within the ACA. Indeed, the Patrimony of the Primate was envisioned as an entity for those who wished to leave their existing diocese while waiting for the Ordinariate to be formed. Although it was our hope that we all might remain together under the umbrella of the ACA, that now seems impossible.

Moyer made an episcopal visit to St Mary of the Angels during this period. I can't recall the text on which he preached, but I do remember the thrust of his sermon: "The Church is a battleground", he said, and in fact, he thought this was a good thing. On reflection, I couldn't disagree, either; his position wasn't all that far from the Annie Dillard epigraph for this blog. At the time, though, I thought he was referring only to his ten-year battle with Episcopal Bishop Bennison; I was completely unaware of the behind-the-scenes maneuvers within the ACA. On the whole, I suspect he was well-chosen for the role he had to play, and as I learn more about what happened at St Mary of the Angels and within the ACA, I think he probably did about as well as anyone could. He's certainly an ambiguous figure, but he's by no means all bad.