A Few Updates

Last month, the Freedom for St Mary's blog noted that a State mandated case settlement conference at the Los Angeles Superior Court took place, at which I'm independently informed that nothing was resolved. This involves the civil charges of theft against Fr Kelley. As I understand it, the exact evidence against Fr Kelley can't be forced out under discovery until just before the trial, which is scheduled for summer 2014.

However, in earlier proceedings, Mr Lancaster telegraphed his intentions when he requested a summary judgment against Fr Kelley from the court. At that time, he alleged, according to a knowledgeable party, that the most serious charge was that Fr Kelley and Deacon Yeager "stole" leftover food from parish lunches for their own use, thereby saving on their own grocery bills. (As a participant in those meals, I would say that the parish was always aware that any leftovers, usually nominal amounts, were gladly given to the Kelleys and the Yeagers. In addition, the Yeagers usually prepared these meals and donated any food costs that could not be reimbursed.)

The fact that the ACA and Mrs Bush, as plaintiffs, had moved for a summary judgment, which is normally a defense strategy, and cited the "theft" of leftover food in support of this motion, indicates the weakness and trivial nature of the case. Although Anthony Morello had asserted noisily in earlier stages that the ACA would go to the District Attorney over Fr Kelley's "thefts", criminal charges have never been filed. Fr Kelley has insisted that the case go to a jury trial, something Mr Lancaster and the ACA have resisted since Anthony Morello left the picture.

This brings us to the question that the Freedom for St Mary blog raised in the post linked above: who's in charge here? I noted last November that Presiding Bishop Marsh had designated the newly-consecrated Owen Rhys Williams as episcopal visitor to the ACA Diocese of the West. However, more recently I saw that Bishop Marsh's schedule had him making an episcopal visit to St Mary of the Angels on March 30, just this past Sunday, well after he'd designated Williams as episcopal visitor to the diocese.

This suggests that Marsh wants to keep St Mary of the Angels under his own thumb, irrespective of anything else Williams might do. (The Diocese of the West is essentially moribund in any case; I doubt if Williams is overtaxed.) But then I noticed that on April 27 of last year, Stephen Smuts, effectively the go-to PR guy for the "worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion", posted:

Well the truth be told, basically, Bishop Brian Marsh has – and let me make sure I use the correct word here – ‘asked’ (?) that I make no mention of the Anglican Church in America on the blog. Why? I’m not sure. The idiom, ‘your guess is a good as mine,’ does come to mind (my mind at least).

Some of you have already noticed the trend and asked about the ongoing omission of the ACA. So now you know.

(Isn't it interesting that Smuts tiptoes around "asked"? That makes me wonder if the "request" came via Bishop Gill, Smuts's superior, and thus took on the color of an order.) This request seems to have come at some time before April 27, and thus a fairly short time after Anthony Morello passed on to his final judgment, which suggests that Bishop Marsh had adopted the strategy of keeping a much lower profile over this case -- Morello and various St Mary's dissidents were putting over-the-top allegations on Smuts and Virtue Online.

Another item in the lower-profile department: without fanfare, St Patrick's Anglican Catholic Cathedral of Titusville, FL, now has a Dean, Fr Mark Siegel. St Patrick's, of course, is the seat of the ACA Bishop of the Eastern US, the Rt Rev John Vaughan, of whom I've spoken on this blog. On other ACA sites, Vaughan is still listed as Rector of St Patrick's, but this would suggest that at least some of Vaughan's pastoral responsibilities are being unloaded. Vaughan's record allows for the interpretation that he has, in the past, been quietly eased out of the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and then the US Episcopal Church. Is he being eased out of the ACA?

Fr Siegel, by the way, was previously Dean of the Cathedral of the Incarnation when it was with the ACA and then the Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family. While Siegel appears on various posts relating to the Cathedral (now Church) of the Incarnation's move into the US Roman Catholic Ordinariate, he presumably was not ordained a Catholic priest, and we must presume he did not become a Catholic layperson. Now he's a Dean again in the ACA. (The Pro-Diocese of the Holy Family, a creature of the now-purged-and-disgraced unperson John Hepworth, cannot have been a positive item on Fr Siegel's record -- I wonder what he had to do to get back into the ACA.)

As is simply the usual practice with the ACA, no official bio is available for Fr Siegel, despite his key position.

The ACA Diocese of the Eastern US currently lists 14 parishes. Some number of these are tiny missions; others may simply be inactive. It's hard to imagine Bishop Vaughan being so overburdened with episcopal responsibilities that a Dean is needed for his home parish. And if this is such joyous news, why are these things clearly being kept under wraps?