Who Is The Rt Rev Owen Rhys Williams? -- III

Let's revisit the other of the two points of biographical data the ACA has seen fit to release about The Rt Rev Owen Rhys Williams: Presiding Bishop Marsh's remark that "Bishop Owen Williams is known to most of the diocese from his years at Saint Mark’s in Portland, Oregon." Again, since the ACA does not provide the standard biographical information on such a key figure that we can find in more respectable Anglican denominations like The Episcopal Church or the ACNA, we must rely on whatever other public records we can find, supplemented by reasonable inference and the personal accounts of occasional correspondents here.

Public records show Williams lived in Granby, Colorado, a ski resort near Winter Park, in the mid-1990s. I don't know what he was doing there, but he does not appear to have held a clerical position at that time. Later in the 1990s, he is shown at addresses in Salem and Portland, Oregon. (This is sketchy information at best, and if Williams or anyone else is able to clarify his occupation and whereabouts during this time, I will greatly appreciate it. Once again, the standard profile one might find at a TEC or ACNA parish or diocesan site would probably make matters much clearer.)

This makes Marsh's remark that Williams was somehow associated with the then-ACA parish St Mark's Portland credible, although in what role we still don't know. But here's an account from someone who actually visited St Mark's Portland at about the same time Williams was active there -- I take this from an earlier post here:

I'd just like to add my own brief experience with the Continuum. I visited St. Marks in Portland [then an ACA parish] in the late 90s, and met Robin Connors while he was rector there. The guy positively reeked of alcohol, and this was right before a noon mass. Also, the current rector, Mark Lillegard, was training under him at the time (Lillegard doesn't have a seminary education, in the fine tradition of continuing Anglican priests who lack the basic credentials). I also remember Connors showing me around the church, and remember that the parish smelled strongly of cigarette smoke-a strange sensation for a church in the late 90s, in Oregon.

What I gather from this is, first, that many reasonable people might try out a place like St Mark's Portland, say "yucch", and never come back. Apparently this wasn't Owen Williams's reaction. It would be worthwhile to hear his own account of what the place was like from his perspective. The second thing is that at least one individual was being brought along as an aspirant, postulant, or candidate for holy orders under the disreputable Robin Connors, innocent of any other seminary training -- did this also involve Owen Williams? Is this how Williams received his priestly formation?

Then there's a gap of several years, until Owen Williams turns up completely across the country as Rector of Trinity Church in Rochester, NH, eventually to become Pro-Cathedral of the ACA Diocese of the Northeast. What brought him there? We have no information. Louis Falk, with whom Robin Connors was a close associate since their time in the Anglican Catholic Church, was Primate of the TAC until 2002 and continued as President of the ACA House of Bishops after that time. Did Falk have anything to do with Williams's ordination as a priest, apparently without the usual qualifications, and his move to Rochester, NH?

Again, a standard clergy biographical profile would resolve these questions. If Williams or anyone else connected with the ACA is willing to provide them, I'll be most happy to correct the record here, and in fact, I'll be the first to draft and publish it on this blog. On the other hand, without the standard biographical information available in other, mainstream, denominations, I believe any reasonable person is entitled to be somewhat suspicious of Williams.