I'm Skeptical, But We'll See

My understanding is that the ACA is now investigating both the hiring of a priest with an arrest record for child pornography and the potentially explosive allegations against a diocesan bishop. It's worth pointing out that Presiding Bishop Marsh was, as far as I'm aware, notified of both these problems months ago and had taken no apparent action. I am assuming that any ACA investigation will also note the circumstances under which Marsh was notified, the actions he took or didn't take, and why he allowed ACA parishioners to be exposed to these risks for months, if he took no action.

I would expect changes in the ACA House of Bishops within a fairly short period of time, or a credible explanation of why no change is contemplated.

But I'm scratching my head. These scandals alone are enough to threaten the existence of the ACA. If parents have no assurance that ACA priests get any type of background check, they have every reason to pull out of the denomination and worship with their families elsewhere in a safe environment. Even adults without children are entitled to have a queasy feeling about any ACA priest or parish. I find it significant that even the Safe Environment Coordinator for the ACA Diocese of the Northeast feels able to speak only for his own diocese and disavow knowledge of policies in the other dioceses. Responsible parties in the ACA need to wake up and recognize that this problem is a major threat to the ACA's continuing existence.

But there's another threat, which is the real possibility that the Rector, Wardens, and Vestry v ACA case will be retried based on the facts, and the ACA will lose, returning control of St Mary of the Angels to its elected vestry. In that case, there will need to be an exhaustive examination of what property may have been looted from the parish, and individuals like Stephen Strawn, Frederick Rivers, Brian Marsh, Mrs Bush, and others could face criminal charges for any theft that may have occurred on their watch.

There's also potential civil liability -- for example, for defamation of Fr Christopher Kelley. The ACA has repeatedly asserted that Fr Kelley would be criminally prosecuted for undisclosed actions, which has not happened. Fr Kelley's alleged thefts, forgeries, and misappropriations have been reviewed by several courts, and the courts have repeatedly found that no such actions occurred. The ACA in authorized public statements destroyed Fr Kelley's career, after all. Any legal action stemming from this would bring catastrophically bad publicity for the denomination. Any criminal charges involving individuals acting on behalf of Bishops Strawn and Marsh would probably destroy the denomination.

So any responsible individuals within the ACA need to conduct a careful review of where the ACA stands regarding two major scandals and its deteriorating legal situation against the St Mary's elected vestry and Fr Kelley. It seems to me that there's still time to make things right, but frankly, not much.

Just sayin'.

The Numbers Don't Add Up

Something's been at the back of my mind since I began wondering how William Lancaster is being paid for his legal work on behalf of Mrs Bush and the ACA. Let's start with an estimate of what the case has cost each side to date. My wife, a retired corporate attorney with experience supervising lawsuits, estimates a cost anywhere between $250,000 and 750,000 for legal work on behalf of the ACA and Mrs Bush to date since mid-2012. This incudes the various legal actions consolidated into the single case that the California appeals court decided in July, as well as the civil action for "theft" against Fr Kelley. For now, we need only say that none of these is resolved, and a good deal of additional work is left to do, which the ACA will need to pay for.

Now let's look at the money available to the St Mary of the Angels parish. I have the numbers as of late 2011, since I was "probationary interim treasurer" at the time. Property rentals from the bank on the corner and after-hours rental of the parking lot amount to about $22,000 per month. Prior to seizure of the parish, the combination of cash offering, pledges, and hall rental for AA groups was about $6,500 per month. Since the ACA-Bush parish closed the premises to AA groups and attendance is presumably much lower, I am assuming that current income from these sources is negligible. So let's put annual income at $264,000.

In addition, as of late 2011, the parish had CDs worth about $225,000. It had a Dodge van, on which it still owed payments. I believe, although this wasn't included in treasurer's reports, that there was a safety deposit box that contained jewelry that had been bequeathed to the parish. I don't know its value. There were also numerous altarpieces, candlesticks, etc, of high value.

Now let's look at expenses exclusive of legal costs. I simply don't know what they're paying anyone now -- for instance, whether Frederick Rivers as "Rector" is being paid. I assume there is no longer a paid music director or choir. However, about $1200 per month was paid for gardening and cleaning, so I'll leave that as an expense, with the understanding that as of August 2014, there may be additional unknown payments to clergy (a supply priest goes for about $200 per Sunday, for instance).

Phone and utilities let's figure at $1600. Insurance let's figure at $2300. I don't know what the parish is paying the diocese and the ACA, but I assume it's something, or they wouldn't have seized the place. Let's figure $1500. Property and unemployment taxes, let's figure $500. Plumbing and electrical repair (it's an old building), $500, excluding emergencies, which, trust me, happen. Church supplies, termite inspection, copier lease, bottled water, organ maintenance, let's call it $700. The Dodge van has been missing for many moons, so leave out the payment, insurance, gas and expenses.

That brings us to $8300 to keep the empty building going. I don't know who's on the payroll as of August 2014, but as of September 1, they're bringing on a Pastor. So we've got a big uncertainty now, and a bigger one next month.

Subtract $8300 monthly expenses from $22,000 monthly income and you get $13,700 potentially available each month to pay legal bills for the period August 2012 to August 2014, assuming no plumbing emergencies, and assuming you aren't paying anyone else, including clergy. Multiply $13,700 by 24 months and you get $328,800. Match this against a middle-of-the-road estimate for legal work over the same period of $500,000. This leaves maybe $150,000 you've got to raise some other way, possibly by cashing CDs, selling the parish van (probably done), selling the jewelry, or selling the odd solid-gold monstrance.

But as of September 1, they're bringing in The Rt Rev Owen Rhys Williams, MFA to be their Pastor. He's moving from New Hampshire, so you've got his relo expenses to pay. I assume he isn't donating his services -- let's assume you're paying him $6000 per month -- but that leaves out his housing and car allowance. Non-trivial, but we can only guess at the amount. Plus, he's a bishop, so he's going to cost something for frequent travel, quite possibly borne by the parish, since half the diocese's parishes are missions.

It does seem though, that as of August 2014 the parish has probably run through any reserves it could have devoted to legal work to date -- but the legal work isn't done. In the short term, the parish either has to appeal the decision of the California appeals court sending the case back to trial, or it has to undertake the significant new expense of retrying the case. And it still has to go to court to recover the cost of the parish potluck leftovers that Fr Kelley and unnamed other John Does stole.

Where is this money going to come from? Let's say there's another year of legal work at least, or $250,000 -- but now there's only $5000 per month (if that) available to pay for it. We may assume that Mr Lancaster has his own monthly nut to make, so he's going to expect regular payments on his account -- or past a certain point, he won't be able to continue the work. Will Mrs Bush make up the difference? She's good for $30 a week, sorry.

Looking at the numbers, it's hard to avoid thinking the ACA and Mrs Bush were working a Plan B once they couldn't grab the parish in two weeks via the temporary restraining order in May 2012. So OK, they go to trial, they go to appeal, they'll win their appeal, of course, it'll all be wrapped up by August 2014, slam dunk, huh? So we can move Williams out there in September. But then also, the Kelley trial for the stolen potluck leftovers keeps getting moved back, so they've got to keep paying Lancaster on that one, too. I have a feeling they need a Plan C now, but I suspect they're in denial.

Should the ACA and Mrs Bush lose their cases, which is around a 50-50 probability, and if the Bush group sold valuable parish assets like jewelry or altar furnishings, Mrs Bush, an octogenarian, could wind up in a substantial legal tangle for theft, though she would not be the only party. Is the ACA seriously contemplating this outcome?

I have the impression that responsible parties at the ACA look in on this blog. Maybe they should take this post to heart. Someone -- Mr Lancaster or his legal factor -- may be coming after the ACA itself for serious money before long. And if the ACA loses its cases, that could be even more. A number of clerical observers have warned other ACA parishes that if the ACA could try to seize St Mary of the Angels, it could try to seize your parish, too -- and Fathers, wardens, vestrymen, if they need money, this means your parish.

So Did Anthony Morello Ever Get A Background Check?

The problem of Robert William Bowman's apparent lack of a background check leads me to the question of his predecessor at All Saints Fountain Valley. This is what we know about the late Anthony Morello:

• His ordination was recognized by The Episcopal Church because he had attended seminary in the Philippines and was ordained in the Philippine Independent Church, which is in communion with other churches in the Anglican Communion, including The Episcopal Church. However, Morello and an associate, James Barlow, were by Barlow's account the only non-Filipinos ever ordained in the PIC.
• He served for three or four years as Vicar of St Luke's Episcopal mission in Fontana, CA, but was removed for unknown reasons by Episcopal Bishop Borsch. He then went to the then-Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. I'm told that there were unusual restrictions in his letters dimissory.
• Morello became Vicar of St Dunstan's mission in Modesto, CA. While there, he divorced his wife and married another woman whose children he had been counseling, an ethical violation. He later divorced that wife and remarried his first wife. The scandal of his ethical violation caused dissent in the parish that, by his account, resulted in the closure of the mission.
• Morello was then, either informally or by revocation of his license to preach, told by then Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin John-David Schofield to leave the diocese. I've been told that the only reason Morello wasn't deposed as a priest was that his health was poor, and when he left San Joaquin, it was felt that he was near death. (Morello was morbidly obese and had to carry an oxygen tank with him in a cart. He was so fat, I'm told, that he could not fit in the St Mary of the Angels pulpit.)
• Morello claimed an apparently non-existent PhD.
• In spite of this record, Morello apparently ingratiated himself with Daren Williams, Rector at the time of All Saints Fountain Valley as well as Bishop of the ACA Diocese of the West, and was hired as an assistant about 2010, at a time when Williams's behavior had reportedly become erratic. On Williams's involuntary retirement, Morello become Rector of the parish.

The ethical violation, the disciplinary or personnel issues in two Episcopal dioceses, and claiming an academic degree that he did not earn would normally disqualify a candidate for nearly any job, and certainly a priest. A source in the ACA Diocese of the Northeast told me, "Within this Diocese of the Northeast, we have a comprehensive policy that mirrors that of the Roman Catholic Dioceses around the nation. Other ACA Dioceses, choose their own policy[.]"

As we've seen, the policy of many Catholic dioceses is to do a criminal background check and check all references. Apparently that is not the policy of the ACA Diocese of the West. What is the policy on references in the ACA Diocese of the West? Does anyone know how to contact Bishop Owen Williams to learn this policy?

Here's Another Potentially Explosive Issue In The ACA

I received an inquiry yesterday that reminded me of another potentially explosive case that the ACA, to my knowledge, has not responded to. I think it's time to raise this one in public. Last October I received an e-mail from someone in another part of the country who apparently found my contact on this blog by searching for any information she could find about the ACA and its bishops. I have redacted it and am not including any other references to place:

Dear Mr. Bruce

My assistant here in [redacted] is concerned, because her father, [redacted], was renting from [redacted, an ACA diocesan bishop], and said that He had been made to Sexually abuse [the bishop] at [the bishop's] specific request. Violent pornography against him, [the bishop], was filmed,

[details relating to the bishop's identify redacted]

The Rev. Begged [redacted] to "Chastise Me" if he drank or gambled. He bought paddles for that punishment himself, and asked [redacted] to chastise him.

Please contact me: [redacted]

I contacted the individual and provided the mailing address of The Rt Rev Brian Marsh, with the recommendation that she make the complaint in writing, certified mail, return receipt requested. I also recommended that she contact an attorney, and depending on the specific circumstances, law enforcement. I received a reply giving some additional details of the abuse, including filming certain actions, with a promise to contact Marsh. I've received no further updates. There has been no change in status among the ACA diocesan bishops since that time.

At the time, I felt it was the complainant's responsibility to contact Marsh, and I did not pursue this myself, because it involved an area outside my direct concern. However, given the ACA's lack of response to repeated notification that an ACA priest has had an arrest for child pornography, I decided it may be necessary to take my own action to be sure this report is appropriately investigated.

I have recently had an opportunity to forward this information to responsible parties in the ACA that can bypass Presiding Bishop Marsh.

The ACA Diocese of the West Used to do Background Checks

Here's what I think happened, based largely on comments by informed observers over a 3-year period. If anyone has corrections or clarifications to this record, I will greatly appreciate them.

Fr William Bower, the Rector of the ACA parish St Columba's Anglican Church, Lancaster, CA, operates several businesses, including W Bower & Associates and CIC, that specialize in tenant screening and background checks. I've been told that when Fr Kelley was hired as Rector of St Mary of the Angels in 2007, he had to provide his personal information to Fr Bower, who did a thorough check. Isn't this interesting? The ACA-DOW had a serious adult on the inside who ran real businesses and could do background checks -- just pick up the phone. But by 2013, it hired a priest with a child pornography arrest on his record, apparently with no check. Fr Bower was presumably still available.

What happened? It looks like this is tied up with the whole unhappy story of the ACA-TAC following Anglicanorum coetibus. By 2010, then-ACA Bishop of the West Daren Williams was expressing intractable opposition to the ACA's entry to the US Ordinariate, which the TAC bishops originally petitioned for in 2007 -- recall that the Portsmouth Letter requested union with Rome without reservation, on Rome's terms. But Williams and most other ACA bishops had changed their minds soon enough and were actively discouraging pro-Ordinariate sentiments among the ACA rank and file, to the point that Williams inhibited at least one deacon who had been ordained into the ACA with the specific intent of joining the Ordinariate when it was erected.

Faced with this opposition and the active retaliation against those in the ACA who had in good faith followed the original guidance of their bishops, John Hepworth set up the Patrimony of the Primate as a way to protect pro-Ordinariate parishes from the retaliation of the now anti-Ordinariate bishops. Among the parishes that joined the Patrimony in early 2011 were St Mary of the Angels and St Columba's Lancaster. Fr Bower of St Columba's participated in several meetings at St Mary of the Angels in 2010 to assist that parish in determining its direction, and many in the parish still have very good feelings toward him.

Rome and Msgr Steenson are partly to blame for what happened next. While Rome had made it plain that it had every intention of erecting a US Ordinariate, this was not done until January 1, 2012, and the specifics of how this would be implemented were largely unknown. Thus, the ACA parishes in the Patrimony had a year to hang in limbo, under a vague assumption that when the Ordinary was designated, things would work out all right -- but in the meantime, those on the inside were making things up as they went along. Up through Decemnber 2011, Fr Bower and many other Patrimony clergy were proceeding on the assumption that they would become Catholic priests in due course, based on the vague announcements that had been made to date.

Meanwhile, the ACA outside the Patrimony had essentially determined that those who went into the Patrimony had abandoned communion. The parishes had left their dioceses and gone into the Patrimony. Presumably this was when the ACA Diocese of the West decided not to use any longer Fr Bower's services in checking backgrounds, but Bishop Daren Williams had already retired under pressure a few months before the Patrimony was set up. Thus a policy vacuum arose, which was less important, since far fewer priests were coming into the diocese. Still, one wonders if a background check was ever done on Anthony Morello -- he had been removed from parish work by two Episcopal Church bishops, and he had an ethical-marital scandal in the public record from his time in Modesto.

By early 2012, the Ordinariate had begun to clarify its position on who would be ordained to the Catholic priesthood. Those who would not qualify now included anyone who had unresolved disciplinary issues in another denomination. The version I heard about Fr Bower was that he was originally ordained in an Anglican-rite Orthodox denomination, which, as Orthodox denominations apparently do, held him apostate for one or another reason. It refused to lift the disciplinary sanction, and thus Fr Bower and his parish were no longer deemed qualified for admission to the Ordinariate. Frankly, I have the impression that Fr Bower is a solid guy, which is also to say a devout and conscientious priest, and this was simply a great loss to the Ordinariate, although by no means the only one.

Fr Bower then applied, with his parish, for readmission to the ACA Diocese of the West. I think in hindsight it would have been wiser for them to pause and stay independent for some period of discernment, but this wasn't done for whatever reason. I'm told that Stephen Strawn, who had become episcopal visitor to the ACA-DOW following Daren Williams's sudden retirement, did not make readmission easy -- understandable, given the hostility of the ACA bishops to the Patrimony and anyone wishing to go into the Ordinariate. And let's face it, Strawn is made from different stuff than Bower, and Strawn knew it.

By this point, Anthony Morello had become Strawn's Canon to the Ordinary. I'm told that Bower responded to this by simply not returning Morello's calls. (Had Bower done his own background check?) It appears that the relationship between Bower and the new DOW hierarchy has been strained, to say the least. One result may be that Frederick Rivers, Vicar General since the passing of Morello, did not wish to deal with Bower either, although it would certainly have been in his interest, and that of the DOW rank and file, to do so. Thus Robert William Bowman, who likes kiddie porn, becomes an ACA priest with trusted access to children.

This is something I saw in corporate environments: the usual jerks take control in the division. Down in the cubes are a few people who still know what they're doing. The jerks think this way: if we let them in on the project, they'll take control, because they know what they're doing. We have to keep them out of the loop. Then we'll get the credit when our project comes in successfully! Result: nobody checks with the few competent people who could help, and everything goes crashing down.

Anyone else seen this before?

E-Mail to Fountain Valley Police

I sent the following e-mail to Chief Dan Llorens of the Fountain Valley Police:

Robert William Bowman is interim priest at All Saints Anglican Church at 18082 Bushard St, Fountain Valley, CA 92708 (714) 963-3801

Bowman was arrested by Los Angeles police in 2009 on child pornography charges. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bowman-168221-home-church.html He was fired by another church in Santa Ana, as well as by a school where he was headmaster, at the time of the arrest. However, it appears that he is trying to get back into a position of trust and has been hired by another church.

I have repeatedly notified the church authorities ever since learning of the arrest in April 2014, without success. Bowman is still at the church. Any assistance you can provide will be most helpful.

Bowman’s supervisor is Rev Frederick Rivers, 8433 N 12th Steet Phoenix, AZ 85020 602-870-3638

I have repeatedly tried to contact Rivers over this matter without success.

Who Controls the ACA's Assets?

I mentioned a post yesterday on the Freedom for St Mary's site, where the Armchair Detective ruminates:

[T]he Los Angeles Superior Court was informed at the State Mandated Case Settlement Conference by Marilyn Bush (and Fred Rivers and Lancaster & Anastasia) that Marilyn Bush (and Fred Rivers) appear to now enjoy full decision making authority over ALL the assets and liabilities of both the Oregon Diocese of the West Corporation and the Florida Anglican Church in America Corporation. (This is as well as authority over all the liabilities claimed from the actions taken against the Saint Mary of the Angels California Corporation, as the projected deep pockets for the rump TAC.)

As always (except when I’m consulting in Paris) the ArmChair Detective often finds out the most by examining a money trail. Clearly, here is control of assets and money.

I checked with another party who was at the conference, and his assumption, apparently shared by others who were there (including, apparently, the judge) was simply that Mrs Bush and Frederick Rivers were swearing falsely -- they did not actually have any authority over ACA assets, because they had been instructed not to negotiate. Mrs Bush is a useful idiot here, while Frederick Rivers is a dangerous incompetent. Brian Marsh would have put a chimpanzee in that conference if it had been able to raise its right hand -- no settlement was intended, and neither had the authority to do anything but tell a few lies on Marsh's behalf.

But the Armchair Detective raises a worthwhile point: who controls the assets of the ACA and DOW, such as they are? The first question is what are the assets, and they aren't much. The Florida Anglican Church in America Corporation, insofar as I can see, owns no property, because, as the ACA is constituted, parishes own their individual properties through local corporations as the rector, wardens, and vestry of such-and-such. This was set up deliberately at the formation of the ACA to avoid the potential for situations like The Episcopal Church seizing the properties of breakaway parishes.

The ACA's predecessor Anglican Catholic Church, and the ACA itself, like The Episcopal Church before them, have nevertheless tried to seize St Mary's property. TEC and the ACC have already lost that one, and it isn't looking good for the ACA, which has learned that this is a long and expensive fight. The ACA would have just as hard a time trying to seize the assets of any other parish -- but as far as I can tell, St Mary of the Angels is by far the most valuable asset the ACA has ever had, even though legally it's never quite had it, as it doesn't quite have any other property. So basically, the assets that Bush and Rivers would control, even if they were not lying under oath, would be the corporate seals and some bank accounts for payroll and expenses. And that's about it.

Why does this matter? Remember that a very rough handicap puts the ACA's chances of keeping control of the St Mary's property at no better than 50-50. Throughout this fight, Mr Lancaster's strategy, in both the seizure of the parish and the civil action against Fr Kelley, has been to keep the facts of the case out of court. If a judge or jury rules on the facts, it's very bad for the ACA.

If the dice come up in the ACA's favor, well and good, the ACA plunders the parish, Marsh and the bishops go off on more "ecclesiastical" cruises to the Mediterranean, and life is good. If the dice go the other way and the St Mary's elected vestry prevails, you have a different situation. Either the elected vestry sues the ACA for assets that were plundered while the court cases were under way, including any legal fees paid to Lancaster, or Lancaster's legal factor goes after the ACA for the million dollars or more the ACA would now owe for the losing battle.

The ACA does not have a million dollars if it loses St Mary of the Angels as an ATM. As a last ditch effort, it may try to seize other parishes -- remember that the guy who originated this strategy is Stephen Strawn, and he tried it in Texas before he tried it at St Mary's. There is no reason to think he and the ACA would not try this again. Take a parish, foster dissent, gain control of a vestry, have the vestry declare itself a mission, and the parish's assets are controlled by the bishop. Bishop decides to close the mission and takes the remaining assets for the public good and the survival of the ACA. Real simple, but you'd have to do it a bunch of times to pay what you owe.

The ACA's parishes are set up, though, to allow them to leave the denomination. If you leave don't go to the APA, since that merger is under way.

Another question: how Lancaster is paid here is purely speculative. He may or may not have sold his ability to collect on legal fees to a legal factor, and we don't know the terms of any such agreement, if it exists. But let's wonder if Lancaster collateralized his future payments via an assurance that the ACA, if it lost, would have the deep pockets to pay the factor back. If that were the case, it would be fraud.

There is major, major downside for Lancaster, Marsh, and the rest of the ACA here.