It's said that time heals all wounds. But a year after a nasty divorce between two factions of Grace Church in Colorado Springs, the wounds remain tender.
And questions that cropped up around the split remain unanswered:

- Who has legal rights to the towering Gothic building at 601 N. Tejon St.? Is it the parish that stayed with the U.S. Episcopal Church and is now meeting at another worship center downtown?

Or is it the breakaway group that joined the Anglican Church of Nigeria and remains in the building?

- Did the Rev. Donald Armstrong, leader of the breakaway group, misapply church money, as the state Episcopal Diocese alleges? Or is he - as he says - a victim of a "witch hunt" launched by the diocese because of his outspoken opposition to the national church's decisions?
Answers seem to lie in pending lawsuits and a police investigation, which means they could be months, if not years, away.

Yet one thing is clear: With both parishes saying they're thriving, a reconciliation is unlikely.

Dispute with deep roots

As with most divorces, trouble was brewing long before the parishes went their separate ways.

Armstrong and his followers were critical of the direction the U.S. Episcopal Church - an arm of the worldwide Anglican Communion - was going.

They and other conservative Episcopalians criticized the national church for consecrating a gay bishop in 2003 and the first female presiding U.S. bishop in 2006, saying the actions ran counter to biblical teachings on the role of gays and women in the church.

Although Armstrong openly denounced the national church many parishioners say he never spoke from the pulpit about secession until after the March 26 release of the diocese's Presentment, the canonical equivalent of an indictment of his financial misdeeds. The diocese alleged Armstrong stole nearly $400,000 of church funds and committed tax fraud.
The church's board of directors voted to secede that day.

Because of the national body's theological slide and vengefulness toward conservatives, Armstrong said, his group aligned with CANA - the Convocation of Anglicans in North America - the conservative North American missionary of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

He said the allegations against him, and his subsequent defrocking by the U.S. church, came about because of his opposition to the church's liberalism.

"It was clearly a witch hunt," Armstrong said. "We are an enemy of the agenda of the national church and have been effective against them in the books we've written and the papers we've published. So to take us out sends a message to the rest of the clergy: ‘Do what you are told and keep your mouth shut.'"

A criminal investigation of Armstrong began in July and is ongoing, Colorado Springs police detective Michael Flynn said.

Both budgets increase

Although the group voted to break from the national body, Grace Church & St. Stephen's, or Grace CANA, as it's often called, has continued to meet in the historic worship center on North Tejon Street, generating an ongoing legal battle between Grace CANA and the diocese for the $17 million property. No trial date has been set.

The 300 or so congregants who elected to stay with the U.S. church, and who call themselves Grace & St. Stephen's Episcopal, held their first service April 1 at Colorado College's Shove Chapel. Later that month, they began meeting at First Christian Church downtown, but hope to return to the Gothic church after legal proceedings.

Grace Episcopal is led by the Rev. Michael O'Donnell, an associate pastor under Armstrong. At first, O'Donnell was skeptical of the diocese's motives for the investigation, but he changed his mind.

"My conclusion was that (the bishop) could do no other than his job, which would be to investigate a priest accused of financial impropriety," O'Donnell said.

Both parishes have moved on since their split. Their spokesmen say the churches have expanded their ministries and budgets, and have grown spiritually through adversity.

Grace CANA's Sunday attendance has dropped from 800 to 500 since the break, but the church budget increased from $1.8 million in 2007 to $2.1 million this year, said Grace CANA senior warden Jon Wroblewski. That's because of the $750,000 budget for the legal defense fund.

Kicked off by a passionate homily delivered by Armstrong on Feb. 17 a fundraising drive has brought in $400,000, Wroblewski said.
"We told everyone they would have to dig deep," he said. "People are responding."

The parish is also growing. Seventy-six members have been added this year, sources say, and ministry programs are being founded.

Armstrong said the turmoil has made him a better spiritual counselor to others, and his parishioners support the decision to leave the national body.

"It was sad to have to leave the Episcopal Church, but theologically we had to make that move," said Shirley Waddill, 72, who has attended the North Tejon Street church for 18 years.

Phil Kilgore, 46, said even if Grace CANA loses the church property, the parish will continue. "Our clarity of purpose and sense of mission will translate to growth," he said.

Meanwhile, Grace Episcopal has a weekly attendance of 250 and membership of more than 500, sources say. The 2008 budget is $400,000.

The congregation is a mix of liberal, moderate and conservative Episcopalians. O'Donnell, who is conservative, finds that a blessing.
"The reason we are so happy is that we are getting along in a way we never thought possible," O'Donnell said.

"We decided to agree to disagree and celebrate diversity and unity. Older parishioners tell us that's the Episcopal church they remember as a child."

Bobbie Bradford, 62, said the sermons at the North Tejon Street church got narrower and nastier during the years, which she felt cast a pall over the congregation.
Things are different in O'Donnell's parish, she said.

"My church will grow because it's founded on what a church should be founded on: love and respect for people and love for God," Bradford said.

Devil-possessed ‘pigs'

Divorces, however, are often bitter, and so it is with the Grace split.

Armstrong said the few hundred Episcopalians who chose to leave his downtown parish a year ago have not affected Grace's budget and ministry growth.
"We didn't lose significant members," Armstrong said. "We lost people who were troublemakers.

In his Feb. 17 fundraiser homily for Grace CANA's legal defense fund, Armstrong compared Episcopal leaders to devil-possessed "pigs" whom he plans to run "over the cliff," an allusion to a biblical parable in which Christ sends exorcised demons into a herd of swine.
"We are naming the evil, not wishing ill will on anyone," Armstrong said later.
But after hearing of the homily, some in the Episcopal parish felt a line was crossed and notified police.

"We are going to take whatever measures we think are appropriate to protect our parishioners," Clelia deMoraes, senior warden of the Episcopal congregation, wrote in an e-mail.
O'Donnell said of Armstrong's sermon, "He has lost all perspective."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or mark.barna@gazette.com

PROPERTY RIGHTS

Grace Church & St. Stephen's of Colorado Springs is one of 55 parishes nationwide in which "a significant number" of the congregation has voted to leave the Episcopal Church, said Neva Rae Fox, spokeswoman for the U.S. church.

The 2.2 million-member body has lost many conservative members since its consecration of a gay bishop in 2003 and the first female presiding U.S. bishop a few years later.

In the past year, the church has lost 200,000 members, the steepest drop among Christian denominations, the National Council of Churches said.
The U.S. church denies it's coming apart.
"Less than 10 percent of parishioners are actively disturbed about what's going on," national spokeswoman Jan Nunley said.

When a breakaway happens, leaders of the U.S. church claim canonical and legal right of the church property occupied by dissidents. The church is also cracking down on priests and bishops threatening secession. Just Wednesday, Bishop John-David Schofield of the San Joaquin Diocese in California was deposed by the church after being handed with a suspension in January for his secessionist activities.
MARK BARNA, THE GAZETTE