BishopAccountability.org
	Rector Could Be Investigated Conservatives Say Diocese Right about Church Trial By Jean Torkelson Rocky Mountain News [Colorado] April 4, 2007 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5462448,00.html Leaders of a conservative Episcopal organization co-founded by the Rev. Don Armstrong said Tuesday that they agree with the diocese that the embattled rector should face a church trial on allegations of financial wrongdoing. "We do not believe that charges have been trumped up and methods embraced to silence an outspoken critic of the diocese," said a statement released Monday by The Communion Laity and Clergy (CLC), an association founded about three years ago by Armstrong and other conservative priests and clergy in Colorado. The statement also says they are ready to acknowledge any evidence that clears "our colleague." In December, Episcopal Bishop Rob O'Neill banned Armstrong from his role as rector of 20 years at Grace Church and St. Stephen's parish in Colorado Springs while the diocese investigated charges of "misapplied funds." Armstrong insists he's being persecuted for his orthodox beliefs. Last week, a 12-member diocesan committee that includes two CLC members voted unanimously to support a "presentment" against Armstrong, the church equivalent of a civil indictment of wrongdoing. "They have witnessed the canonical process and support the presentment," said the CLC statement, referring to the two CLC committee participants. They are the Rev. David Henderson, rector at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Steamboat Springs, and the Rev. John Wengrovius, rector at Calvary Episcopal Church in Golden. The presentment opens the way for an ecclesiastical trial, said Beckett Stokes, the diocese's spokeswoman. The charges involve allegations of hundreds of thousands of dollars in misapplied funds - charges which Armstrong denies and which he plans to rebut at an April 14 meeting with parishioners. In a written response Tuesday to the CLC statement, Armstrong insisted the diocese denied him a chance to present a defense and doubted committee members knew all the facts. The diocese welcomed the CLC statement: "It supports what we have asserted all along, which is that this is not about personal politics," Stokes said. While the CLC statement says a church trial should be held, it also laments that trust has sunk so low all around "it is difficult to know whom to believe" and said Armstrong's presumption of innocence seemed to be breached. The Rev. Ephraim Radner, a CLC member and prominent Episcopal author and theologian, said the statement should not be read as "pitting one against the other" but to make clear that the diocese "in no sense engaged in a biased attack on Don." Radner, who describes Armstrong as a friend and who signed the statement, voiced frustration about unanswered questions, which make definitive support for one side or the other impossible until "all the documents are laid out and inspected." torkelsonj@rockymountainnews.com or 303-954-5055
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.