Grace Church breakaway becomes St. George's

The Anglican parish worshiping at Grace Church downtown for the past two years has a new name, new corporate identity, a future home and a hopeful attitude.

On Palm Sunday and Easter, the 1,200-member parish will worship at 2760 Fieldstone Road, a vacant building in the Mountain Shadows area that formerly housed the Renaissance Academy, a private school.

On Wednesday, the vestry chose a new name, St. George's Anglican Church, after a judge on Tuesday ordered that the parish must not only vacate the Gothic church at 631 N. Tejon St. but also no longer call itself Grace Church & St. Stephen's.

The vestry filed articles of incorporation for the new parish on Thursday.

"This is liberating for us," said Alan R. Crippen II, spokesman and a priest at St. George's. "At our vestry meeting (Wednesday), there was some sadness and tears, but mostly there was optimism," he said. "It was a very positive meeting."

Two years ago the two parishes - Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal and Grace Church & St. Stephen's, which is now St. George's - split when the vestry of Grace Church, led by the Rev. Donald Armstrong, elected to leave the Episcopal Church and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA.

The CANA parish says the split was over theological differences and the consecration in 2003 of a gay bishop by the national body.

The Episcopal parish claims that it was due to the diocese accusing Armstrong of financial misconduct and that the split was the only way the parish could retain him as rector. While many church members joined Armstrong's group, about 500 elected to remain with the Episcopal Church.

The CANA parish continued to worship at the Tejon Street church, while the Episcopal parish moved to First Christian Church downtown.

Eventually the CANA parish filed a lawsuit to determine ownership of the church, and a 41/2 week trial in Fourth Judicial Court began Feb. 10, pitting the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado against the CANA group.

This week, a judge found in favor of the diocese and national church, ordering the CANA parish to leave the Tejon Street property by April 3.

On Thursday, the CANA parish was negotiating a lease on the Fieldstone building. "There are still a lot of moving pieces," Crippen said.

Meanwhile, attorneys on both sides are negotiating the appointment of a receiver, which Judge Larry Schwartz ordered to oversee and manage the transition of the parishes in and out of Grace Church.
The attorneys on Thursday narrowed the choice to two people, but it was unknown if either would be available on such short notice, said Lynn L. Olney, senior warden of the Episcopal parish.

"This will be an intense position," Olney said. "We're talking 10- to 12-hour days, including the weekend."

Schwartz ordered the appointment when, hours after his decisions were made public Tuesday, the Episcopal parish worried that some Anglican staff members might loot the building.

The parish hired a security crew which, upon arriving at the Tejon Street property, was escorted off the premises by police called by Armstrong.