Monday, March 16, 2015

Who Is Brian Marsh? -- II

Brian Marsh, Presiding Bishop of the ACA since 2011, has been the most secretive and elusive of the major figures in this story. I'm told, by the way, that Marsh was the first to style himself "Presiding Bishop", an Episcopal Church term, rather than "President of the House of Bishops", which Falk used. Two visitors have recently forwarded a couple of new data points that add to the information I was able to develop in 2012. One wrote,
Sometime when you have a slow day, request a list of graduates from the Alumni Association at General Theological Seminary for 1996. All the graduates, including others outside TEC, have titles now before their names such a bishop, reverend, etc. with the exception of one that is listed only as MR. in front of his name because they do not recognize his ACA ordination and he was prohibited from TEC ordination. I am sure you know of whom I am talking about.
The other is the disturbing reference in the account from Prof Andrew Jordan regarding the Fellowship of St Alban, Rochester, NY:
The former pastor of the ACA parish we attended before joining the Catholic Church via the Ordinariate was a Catholic priest who left the church to marry; various other events in his life excluded him from leading us on multiple counts. Needless to say, he was quite hostile to the whole idea (he is since deceased). As it turned out, bishop Marsh was also hostile to the whole idea also, the TAC oaths not withstanding, but it took a little time for us to learn that.
This is the first reference I've heard to Marsh interfering with the transition of an ACA parish or group, other than St Mary of the Angels, into the Ordinariate. Prof Jordan has clarified the remarks in his e-mail to reflect the circumstances of the ACA parish majority's decision not to join the Ordinariate. Marsh's involvement was apparently prior to any parish vote on this issue, and the group that formed St Alban's left the ACA parish without interference from Marsh. However, Prof Jordan's remarks above do indicate that he felt there was some bad faith on Marsh's part regarding any assurances made by the TAC bishops at the Portsmouth Conference.

(Prof Jordan has updated his remarks to make it clear that bad faith is not a matter of his own opinion, but of the public record. I certainly agree.)