Let's Rethink the Continuum -- III

As I've mentioned here before, while Anglicanism has leaned toward Roman Catholic liturgical form at various times in its history, it is a Protestant denomination. It does not acknowledge the authority of the Pope, and in addition, Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles, which are included in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, says in part:

Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. . . . The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.

Protestant denominations had ordained woman priests for decades prior to The Episcopal Church's decision, some from their founding. The St Louis Affirmation can be looked upon as an attempt by a particularly conservative Anglo-Catholic faction in The Episcopal Church to impose its highly selective quasi-Catholic views on a main line Protestant denomination. Those who broke away were perfectly comfortable, it would appear, with married priests and bishops, divorce-and-remarriage, artificial birth control, and no-Popery, but apparently they wanted to pick a fight over the ordination of women, not normally a Protestant preoccupation.

I think Douglas Bess is spot on when he begins Divided We Stand remarking on the difference between the wildly overestimated numbers that the Continuum either predicted or now claims, versus the tiny actual memberships in its denominations. The vast majority of Episcopalians have been satisfied to be main line Protestants. When they fall away, it is not in the direction of liturgical conservatism.

In addition, one of the key figures in the Continuum, Louis Wahl Falk III, really didn't have a dog in this fight. He'd been deposed by the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac in 1966. A member of a prominent Wisconsin family, he'd left that state in the wake of the scandal to run what was apparently one of the family businesses in Iowa. I made a number of career wrong turns when I was young; in fairly short order I realized I wasn't cut out to be either an Army officer or a college professor, and I moved on. Somehow, Louis Falk doesn't seem to have gotten the same sort of message: a dozen years after he was removed as an Episcopal priest, he seems to have determined he still had a vocation, and he got right back into a fight that, frankly, shouldn't have concerned him.

Let's Rethink the Continuum -- II

Douglas Bess traces the dissatisfaction with The Episcopal Church that eventually led to the Affirmation of St Louis to the tendency toward secular leftist progressivism that took over in main line denominations beginning in the 1950s. The Civil Rights movement, which was not leftist-progressive in the same sense but concerned with natural law, also disturbed some Southern clerics, especially after The Episcopal Church integrated its parishes officially in 1964. Wikipedia lists the main tenets of the 1977 Affirmation of St Louis:

• Dissolution of Anglican Church structures: That the churches to which the delegates had previously belonged had ceased to have a valid ministry through the act of ordaining women to the priesthood.
• Continuation of Anglicanism: That Anglicanism could only continue through a complete separation from the structures of the Episcopal Church in the USA and the Anglican Church of Canada.
• Invalidity of Schismatic Authority: That the churches to which the delegates had previously belonged had made themselves schismatic by their break with traditional order and, therefore, had ceased to have any authority over them or other members.
• Continued Communion with Canterbury: That communion with Canterbury would continue because the Church of England had not, at that time, ordained women to the priesthood. This article of the Affirmation became inoperable with the ordination of women by the Church of England in 1990s.

The Affirmation clearly concerned itself exclusively with the ordination of women by The Episcopal Church. The other bone of contention in the Continuing movement was the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. It's worth pointing out that well before 1977, The Episcopal Church had adopted a course that resulted in loss of social prestige that simply isn't mentioned in the Affirmation, and Bess doesn't mention it either: in the 1930s, The Episcopal Church's position on marriage and the family was very close to that of the Roman Catholic Church. TEC had gradually dropped its opposition to artificial birth control, divorce, and remarriage, although as The Anglo-Catholic blog points out, "right down to the 1940s/50s divorce was strongly disapproved of in that church, especially for clergy, for whom, with rare exceptions like the notorious Bishop Pike, divorce alone, with or without remarriage, generally ended all hope of a 'successful clerical career.'"

A Wall Street Journal editorial from nearly 40 years ago has stuck with me: rightly or wrongly, it proposes that the Roman Catholic doctrine of Papal infallibility, promulgated in the First Vatican Council, emerged in response to the Church's final loss of all secular authority with the incorporation of the Papal States into the Kingdom of Italy. That editorial drew a parallel with the main line Protestant denominations, which abdicated their moral authority by abandoning the field during the "sexual revolution" of the 1940s and 50s, but compensated for the loss of that prestige by taking vocal leftist positions (either officially or via individual clergy) in the 1960s. The loss of main line Protestant prestige is underlined by the brilliantly satirical performance of Donald Sutherland in the 1971 film Little Murders. That performance is available on line here and is well worth watching. Sutherland in the film is not vested, as an Episcopal clergyman would almost certainly be for even a rich-hippie wedding, so he might be a Presbyterian or United Church of Christ cleric, but the implicit critique applies across the board to all the main line denominations.

The Affirmation of St Louis has nothing to say about the real cause of The Episcopal Church's loss of prestige: the ordination of women, for the general public, was an inside-baseball issue and indeed, the Affirmation was a belated and feckless rear-guard action in any case. Main line Protestantism had lost the war by the time Hollywood had portrayed its disgraceful surrender in 1971.

Let's Rethink the Continuum -- I

Here and there on the web, I see favorable references to Douglas Bess's Divided We Stand, his history -- really, the only one we have -- of the schismatic Anglican movement surrounding the Affirmation of St Louis. I keep wishing I could get in touch with Mr Bess, but so far haven't found a contact. The book unavoidably leaves a great deal out. While Louis Wahl Falk III is a major figure in the movement, Mr Bess doesn't mention at all that Falk was "defrocked" by The Episcopal Church under circumstances that almost certainly included confidentiality agreements on the part of aggrieved individuals. Although Falk-apologists have said that he's been open about the situation, he's clearly gone to some lengths to conceal it: I added a reference to the Diocese of Fond du Lac's 1966 deposition of Falk to Falk's Wikipedia entry, but this was subsequently removed -- either by a Falk adherent or at Falk's request. Falk has definitely not been open about the circumstances. This is something that would add greatly to the quality and context of Bess's history.

Second, Bess's book stops about 1999, before the Portsmouth letter, Anglicanorum coetibus, the Patrimony of the Primate, the controversies surrounding John Hepworth, and the impact (large or small) of the Ordinariate. It also leaves out the 1993 meeting between Bishop Clarence Pope, Jeffrey Steenson, and Cardinal Ratzinger, which it probably suited Steenson in particular to keep under wraps. In other words, Bess's book suffers from not knowing details the principals were interested in concealing -- but the fact that they were downplayed or concealed is itself significant. The story of St Mary of the Angels seems to me something that cuts across the nature of the Continuum much like a highway cut slices across local geology and shows something about it. This is one big reason I'm pursuing this blog: the Continuum is an interesting story, and St Mary of the Angels is an important part of it. Douglas Bess's account stops just before things get really, really interesting!

If anyone knows how I might be able to contact Mr Bess, I'd be most interested to find out. In the meantime, I'm going to offer in subsequent posts an assessment of the Continuum, what it's meant for my own spiritual growth, and what I think it ought to mean for intelligent observers.

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.

Doesn't Owen Rhys Williams Prove My Point?

Last March, Anthony Chadwick took an indirect swipe at my views on "Continuing Anglicanism" and its tendency to elevate unqualified bishops, which had been echoed by another blogger, who apparently became too timid to stand by that opinion and took his post down. Chadwick defends the Continuum by saying,

If the person running this blog [meaning me?]took the trouble to look at the reality as it presents itself today, most of the “mainstream” continuing churches have got their act together. Yes, we did have the “bishops’ brawl” in the 1990′s and old Hamlett in England. Those problems have been sorted out through a greater degree of professionalism and accountability in the Episcopate. Can no credit be given for learning lessons and making institutional reforms where they were needed?

Hey, all I'm doing here is looking at the reality as it presents itself today and, like a good Aristotelian/Aquinas-influenced Christian, applying my God-given reason to understand it. In April 2013, the ACA consecrated a Bishop for whom I can find no evidence that he graduated from a four-year college, or received an MDiv from an accredited seminary. These are presumed to be the minimal qualifications for an ordained minister in a respectable US denomination. It is a principle of reason and justice that if the ACA will not provide this evidence, when it is normally provided as a matter of course, it may be assumed not to exist.

I will be delighted to correct this record if the ACA, "Bishop" Williams, Anthony Chadwick, or anyone else, will tell me what Williams's qualifications actually are.

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

I raised this question late last year when I first noted that he'd been made episcopal visitor to the ACA's moribund Diocese of the West. At the time, I was puzzled that there's no official biography, when this is simply normal practice for a rector or bishop in any denomination. It continues to raise questions for me.

Priests leave digital trails. They should; they preside over weddings and funerals, which make the local news. They get into the news for other reasons: the parish announces when they arrive, or when they're promoted. Sometimes something newsworthy but bad happens, as we've seen with Robert Bowman and Anthony Morello. They deliver invocations at community events; they join committees. All this comes up with Google. The puzzling thing about Owen Williams is how little comes up: other than the entries on this blog, there are just the stenographically unquestioning blurbs about his consecration in April 2013 on the usual vapid Anglo-Catholic blogs. Nothing else. Nothing. Try it!

One additional snippet of biographical data now on the St Mary of the Angels new clergy page raises another question: there's a dog here that didn't bark. "Bishop Williams was raised in southern California where his father was rector of St. Nicholas Parish, Encino." Indeed: the Rev. Evan Rowland Williams was Rector of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church in Encino from 1965 until his premature death at age 59 in 1987. And he proves my point: more than 25 years later, unlike his son, this priest has a digital trail. He served, for example, on a committee to "work for the preservation of unity within the Episcopal Church" during the decision-making process that led to the ordination of women. (Lot of good that did, of course.) He had an extensive obituary in the Los Angeles Times.

But, other than that he made Bishop in the ACA last year, what his dad did is all the St Mary's vestry is willing to reveal about him. And the dog that didn't bark is this: nepotism is common in Anglican denominations. From time immemorial, a good path to career advancement for priests has been to marry a bishop's daughter. More recently, another path has been simply to be a bishop's daughter. Fathers in the clergy are also in a good position to promote their sons' careers: a word to the bishop can smooth the path to postulancy for holy orders, obtain a bishop's letter of endorsement to a good seminary, put the boy in the way of a vicar or priest-in-charge position, or move a rector in a prestigious parish to hire the boy for a vacant curacy.

As far as I can see, none of this happened to Evan's boy Owen, when Evan was apparently in a very good position to make such things happen. Owen, born in 1954, was 33 the year his father died. In 1975, when he was 21, his father was 48 and robust, with plenty of contacts among his elite colleagues. But there's simply no record of any start to a clerical career for Evan's boy Owen at the usual age.

As I mentioned last year, the only other -- the only other -- public biographical detail the ACA has seen fit to provide about Evan's boy Owen is Brian Marsh's remark, "Bishop Owen Williams is known to most of the diocese from his years at Saint Mark’s in Portland, Oregon." Public records show addresses for Owen Rhys Williams in the Portland, Oregon area in the late 1990s, when St Mark's Portland was still an ACA parish, during the time of its contentious relationship with Louis Falk's abrasive, heavy-drinker protégé Robin Connors. However, Evan's boy Owen appears to have been only a lay member of that parish. Any priestly formation that would have led to his ordination in the ACA appears, from anything I can find, to have taken place after that time, when Owen would have been nearly 50 years old.

What prevented Owen Williams from considering holy orders in his twenties, when his father would have been able to help his career? A lack of a four-year degree? I can find no such reference, in any case. Under what circumstances did Owen Williams attend seminary, if in fact he ever did? (The Ven Frederick Rivers never put much stock in seminaries himself, of course.) Again, I can pull name after name of Episcopal and Anglican clergy I've known and respected over the years, and I typically find an official bio and photo at their parish web sites, including the name of their undergraduate institution, their seminary, and details of their clerical careers.

There is nothing like that for The Rt Rev Owen Rhys Williams. Can anyone -- including Bishop Williams himself -- fill in any of these gaps?

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.