So What's Going On Now?

St Mary's -- or at least, its rump unelected vestry -- has redone its web page and made what appears to be a non-announcement announcement: the parish now has a clergy page, with a "Pastor". We learn:

The Right Reverend Owen Williams is the Pastor of the parish. Bishop Williams was raised in southern California where his father was rector of St. Nicholas Parish, Encino. He was consecrated a bishop in April 2013 and has been serving since that time as Suffragan Bishop of the ACA Diocese of the Northeast and Episcopal Visitor to the Diocese of the West.

This is the sort of muddled opacity that we're come to expect from the St Mary's rump and the ACA. Normally, "Pastor" is an informal synonym for Rector. I don't believe there is a formal canonical designation for a "Pastor". As far as I can see, the Canons of the ACA, while they mention a "pastoral relationship", do not designate a position of Pastor -- they mention only Rector or Minister. Other formal titles for the senior priest in a parish in Anglicanism include Priest-in-Charge, Interim Rector, or Vicar.

As far as I can see, the designation of "Pastor" here can only be deliberate. In Anglicanism, a Rector is called by a vestry with the assent of a Bishop. A Priest-in-Charge or an Interim Rector is designated by a Bishop, in consultation with the vestry. If Williams is either of these, why shouldn't this be made clear? A Vicar is appointed by a Bishop to supervise a mission, which St Mary of the Angels currently is not, although given its actual membership, it probably should be designated as such.

However, according to the same clergy page,

The Venerable Frederick Rivers is the Archdeacon and Vicar General of the ACA Diocese of the West and current rector of the parish.

As far as I can see from the parish home page, Bishop Williams's "first mass" is scheduled for August 31, 2014. This strongly implies a new and ongoing relationship -- it appears to mean that Williams will be on site and celebrating mass weekly. Let me see if I can piece together what this all means:

• Williams is not the Rector of the parish. Frederick Rivers is the Rector.
• Williams had been designated episcopal visitor to the Diocese of the West on August 8, 2013.
• However, on March 30, 2014, Presiding Bishop Brian Marsh himself made an episcopal visit to St Mary of the Angels.
• Although Williams is a Bishop and the episcopal visitor, it appears that the "first mass" scheduled for August 31 is not an episcopal visit.
• Williams will be presiding at St Mary of the Angels as neither a Bishop, nor a Rector, nor an Interim Priest, nor as a Priest-in-Charge, but as a "Pastor".

I have no idea what sort of employment agreement this implies. Nor can I understand how the lines of authority are supposed to go. Rivers presumably reports to Williams if Williams is episcopal visitor to the diocese, and Rivers is just a vicar general -- as far as I can see, if things were working the way they ought, Williams should tell Rivers what to do, or Rivers should be acting under Williams's delegated authority. However, if Rivers is Rector of the parish and Williams is just licensed to celebrate mass there, Williams reports to Rivers, and Rivers can fire Williams at any time. (If I were to speculate, I would guess that this all means that, irrespective of who is called what, Brian Marsh still has the whole thing under his thumb.)

The head spins. As we've seen, though, this is business as usual for the ACA -- muddled lines of authority, extra-canonical actions, opaque communication. I thought briefly about e-mailing Williams with my questions about this arrangement, but nobody in the ACA has ever replied to my e-mails.