Anglican/Episcopal Diocese Claims Property Of Parish That Defected
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Anglican/Episcopal Diocese Claims Property Of Parish That Defected*
Pastor, Flock Face Ouster
By ELIZABETH HAMILTON | Courant Staff Writer
June 30, 2007
The pastor of a Bristol parish that voted itself out of the Episcopal
Church in May has been removed from ministry by the Connecticut Diocese,
and church members have been given until July 8 to vacate their building.
Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith said the Rev. Donald Lee Helmandollar
"renounced his orders" and was deposed - the equivalent of being
defrocked - on June 13 by the clerical members of the diocesan standing
committee. Smith said he has since written to leaders at Trinity
Episcopal Church informing them that the diocese intends to take over
the property July 8.
The diocese's decision to claim the property was not unexpected: The
same scenario is playing itself out in other parts of the nation as the
Episcopal Church grapples with the fallout from the 2003 election of the
openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.
That decision has united conservative congregations in the U.S., such as
Trinity, with like-minded African churches that believe the Episcopal
Church's liberal position on homosexuality goes against the Anglican
beliefs inherited from the Church of England.
Trinity was the first parish in Connecticut to split with the wider
Episcopal Church. The congregation voted in January to join the
Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a self-described mission of
the conservative Anglican Church of Nigeria, but a formal announcement
of the split didn't come until May 27.
Trinity has since hired a lawyer and intends to fight the diocese's
order to vacate the property, Helmandollar said Friday. He also said he
has continued to lead worship services in the church, despite being
notified by Smith that he is no longer a priest in the Episcopal Church.
"We firmly believe that our church was built by and given to the
Anglican communion there, known as the Trinity Church Society,"
Helmandollar said, adding that the church's construction in 1746
preceded the formation of the Episcopal Diocese. "Our own constitution
says we will remain."
Smith broke the news about stripping Helmandollar of his clerical status
during an afternoon press conference Friday with Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori, in town for the ordination today of
Connecticut's first female Episcopal bishop, the Rev. Laura J. Ahrens.
Smith said Helmandollar voluntarily renounced his orders with the
Episcopal Church, but Helmandollar said that isn't what actually
happened. After he wrote to Smith informing him of the church's decision
to join the North American Anglican group, Helmandollar said, "he
suggested that I renounce my orders, and I said I can't do that."
A few weeks later, he said, Smith wrote him a letter, dated June 20,
that he had taken Helmandollar's letter to the standing committee.
"Since you have joined another church and have renounced your ministry
in the Episcopal Church," Smith wrote, "I have laid the matter before
the clerical members of the standing committee of the Diocese of
Connecticut ... A majority of the clerical members of the standing
committee meeting on June 13, 2007, have agreed that you have renounced
your ministry."
Helmandollar was not surprised.
"I was expecting it," he said, "but the slant of me having renounced is
not sitting well with me."
Helmandollar, who has led the Bristol church for seven and a half years,
said he has since been appointed to the ministry by the Rev. Martyn
Minns, the newly installed bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans.
At least 45 parishes from around the United States have left the
Episcopal Church over recent disputes about ordaining openly gay pastors
and the blessing of same-sex unions, according to the denomination.
In many of these cases, attempts by the parishes to continue worshiping
on their property have led to legal battles like the one shaping up in
Connecticut.
The Diocese of Virginia sued 11 churches, including the one led by
Minns, over property rights after they defected to join the Convocation
of Anglicans for reasons similar to Trinity's. The Episcopal Church of
the United States joined that lawsuit against the churches in February.
And in California, the Court of Appeals ruled in favor this week of the
Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles in cases in which
members of three congregations voted to join the Anglican Province of
Uganda but wanted to keep their property. The judges, overturning a
lower court ruling, determined that California courts must respect and
enforce the decision of a hierarchical church - such as the Episcopal
Church - when it has decided that parish properties belong to the larger
church.
The Episcopal Church comprises 2.4 million members in 62 countries and
is part of the 38-member provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Jefferts Schori was elected presiding bishop and primate of the church
last June.
At a meeting in Tanzania five months ago, regional Anglican leaders
wrote a letter to the Episcopal Church demanding that it cease its
practice of ordaining gay bishops and offering same-sex blessings by
Sept. 30 or face removal from the Anglican Communion.
On Friday, Jefferts Schori said a decision about how to respond to the
letter won't be made until the House of Bishops meets in September. She
also said that Episcopalians everywhere need to keep this issue in
perspective.
"Yes, this is a significant issue for a small portion of this church and
it grieves us that people are so unhappy," Jefferts Schori said. "But
the numbers are smaller than people have been led to believe. Forty-five
congregations have had significant numbers of members vote to leave the
Episcopal Church. That's 45 out of 7,600."
Ahrens' ordination begins at 10 a.m. at Woolsey Hall, Yale University,
in New Haven. For more information, go to
www.ctdiocese.org/news/special.shtml