Grace Episcopal pastor faces a big slice of criticism

The Grace Episcopal Church controversy took a bizarre turn Sunday when a man barged into the 9 a.m. service, hurled a cream pie at the Rev. Don Armstrong and dashed out without saying a word.

The pie thrower didn’t get far. Several parishioners chased him for several blocks, apprehended him near Palmer High School, then hauled him back to the church for Colorado Springs police.

Marcus Hyde, 18, faces misdemeanor charges of harassment, trespassing, criminal mischief and disrupting a lawful assembly, police Sgt. Vince Niski said. Hyde was cited and released at the scene.

Armstrong was delivering a sermon titled “Of Christian Love and Charity” when Hyde burst through the side door closest to the pulpit, said church member Tim Chambers, who wrote about the incident on his blog at tbc.livejournal.com.

Armstrong responded to a request for an interview by writing an e-mail to The Gazette. In it, he said he avoided a face full of dessert by ducking behind the pulpit. He said the missile smelled like banana cream.

“He aimed right at me and would have hit me squarely, but I ducked into the pulpit and it went right over me and onto the floor,” Armstrong wrote. “This poor guy needs to find a more e f f e c t i v e (way) to express himself without all the messy resulting complications.”

R e a c h e d by phone S u n d a y night, Hyde declined to c o m m e n t , saying he had to speak with an attorney first. Police said he told them he was passing judgment on A r m s t r o n g on behalf of church parishioners.

At the same time he has been accused of financial misdeeds by the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, Armstrong is leading an effort to break his congregation away from the Episcopal Church.

Garrett Dawson, Hyde’s friend and former roommate, said the incident didn’t surprise him. Hyde, a Christian, has been following the Grace saga even though he doesn’t attend the church, Dawson said.

“It’s a protest move,” Dawson said. “And it’s hilarious.”

Tim Chambers didn’t find the incident very funny.

“I have never seen such a rude display in church. This act was hateful,” Chambers wrote in his blog. “It was an invasion of sacred space.”

Church member Alan Crippen typically goes to the 9 a.m. service. This Sunday, he pulled into the parking lot for a later service in time to see Hyde in the back of a police car.

Crippen said he doesn’t regret missing all of the hullabaloo.

“We have a 3-year-old, and I just think that was something she shouldn’t have seen,” Crippen said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0274 or jennifer.wilson@gazette.com

RECENT HISTORY

The Rev. Donald Armstrong was suspended late last year by the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado while it investigates allegations that he has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from the church.

Armstrong has denied the allegations.

He returned to power in March when church leaders voted to leave the Episcopal Church and align with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Grace Vestry members said they were upset over the national church’s liberal theological direction, including its stance on gay relationships.