Question of authority

The Rev Donald Armstrong sat behind a desk Tuesday that the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado said he had no right to occupy.

He, in turn, said the diocese had no business calling the shots for a rector that it

doesn’t oversee and a church it no longer controls.

“(Colorado Bishop) Rob O’Neill no longer has authority over me,” Armstrong said.

That discord symbolized the deep rift that continued to take hold of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish one day after church leaders voted to secede from the denomination and join a more conservative, Africa-based Anglican church.

Armstrong and the church’s governing board say the split came from an impasse over ideology — a conservative parish at odds with its state and national leaders and saw no hope for change. A few dozen other congregations have made similar decisions nationally, and the Episcopal Church, the U.S. chapter of the broader 77 million-member Anglican Communion, has grown increasingly at odds with its international counterparts.

But O’Neill, Colorado’s bishop, says that’s a smoke screen for a different issue: a priest accused of financial misconduct who is being restored to power by his vestry.

Armstrong has been suspended from his post since December while the Colorado diocese — an elected committee and an independent lawyer — investigated him. He denies wrongdoing and dismisses the investigation as the bishop’s mission to discredit him. He describes the probe as the bishop’s “terrorist tactics” run by “prosecutors for hire.”

O’Neill planned to mail letters about the findings of the investigation to parishioners Tuesday night and said it included six specific charges in what is the ecclesiastical equivalent of an indictment.

Armstrong said he is ready to rebut each one.

Parishioners are divided, leaving many to wonder what Sunday’s services will be like. Some recognize Armstrong as their rightful rector, while others will see him as an ousted priest who’s violating church law by even setting foot in the downtown cathedral.

“I don’t know who’s running the church quite frankly,” said Jack Scrivner, a former vestry member who’s been a parishioner for nearly 30 years.

Those who support the secession fault the U.S. Episcopal Church for taking a relaxed stance on moral issues such as human sexuality and Scripture. They welcome their new diocese, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a U.S.-based diocese of the Church of Nigeria that was formed to give discouraged conservative congregations a place to go.

Others are angered that church leaders made such a big decision without consulting the congregation.

They think the investigation into Armstrong has been sound and now accuse the vestry of interfering with getting to the bottom of serious allegations.

“This came as a total shock to us,” said Jan Malvern, who is part of a group of more than 100 parishioners concerned with the church’s leadership and financial picture.

The church’s average Sunday attendance is about 800.

O’Neill removed the vestry from power Monday and maintains that Armstrong is on administrative leave. That means little to them, because they no longer recognize O’Neill’s authority.

Both sides claim ownership of the $17 million property and expect a legal fight.

The Colorado diocese plans to offer an alternative place to hold Sunday service for people who aren’t willing to leave the Episcopal Church, O’Neill said.

Many members who oppose the actions of the vestry and Armstrong may show up for the service anyway, a few members predict.

“I don’t believe that anyone can keep me out of my church,” Malvern said, “so I will be there.”

The turmoil at Grace was being observed by other Colorado Springs Episcopal organizations Tuesday.

The Rev. Paul Lautenschlager, rector at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church on Tudor Road, said: “It’s a very sad time for me and for all Episcopalians in Colorado Springs. It is difficult for us because Grace is the mother church. It was through that church that St. Michael’s came into being in 1957.

“I’m very sad and continue to pray for the people of Grace and St. Stevens, the leadership of Grace, Bishop O’Neill, and the Episcopal Church.”