Defrocked Pastor Reinstated by Ugandan Bishop Sam Pascoe Was Ousted Last Year for Having a Relationship with a Church Member, by Mary Maraghy, My Clay Sun, May 23, 2008

Defrocked Pastor Reinstated by Ugandan Bishop
Sam Pascoe Was Ousted Last Year for Having a Relationship with a Church Member

By Mary Maraghy
My Clay Sun
May 23, 2008

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/052308/nec_281438367.shtml

Grace Anglican Church's former pastor, the Rev. Sam Pascoe, has been reinstated as an Anglican priest under an Ugandan bishop effective June 1.

"Sam has modeled true repentance for a real failure, and we, as believers, need to model and demonstrate true forgiveness," said the Rev. Neil Lehbar of Church of the Redeemer on Baymeadows Road in Jacksonville, who has been friends with Pasco for 30 years. "I'm grateful for Sam and Beth's [Pascoe's wife] determination to grow personally and stay faithful to Christ. His return to ministry will be a work in progress."

Lehbar invited Pascoe to share his story at the 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. services June 1 at his church. Pascoe, former pastor of Grace Anglican Church, will also celebrate communion for the first time since his defrocking in February 2007 for having an inappropriate relationship with a church member.

On June 8, Pascoe will be a guest preacher. He hopes to land a full-time pastor position at a church somewhere.

"That was the church that embraced me. They said, 'We have room for one more sinner.' We can minister out of this, it can't hurt me anymore, it can only heal," he said.

After the scandal broke, Pascoe and his family moved to Virginia for a year. He's been in counseling for 15 months now and has been working with some accountability groups. He said his reinstatement was mainly paperwork.

"I never had a chance to say goodbye to my old parish and its been a source of enormous sadness to me," said Pascoe, who moved back to Orange Park with his family recently. "This is the only home my kids have ever known. I lost not only my career, I lost my church, my house, everything. My family got booted, too. Nobody knows what to do with a pastor's family when the pastor messes up. We were left very alone. This is where all our kids' friends are and we've made our lives."

Pascoe said his faith has grown, along with his compassion and empathy for others in pain.

"Once everything is taken away, you really find out who God is, and what it really means to have a relationship with God. You find out who your friends are, too," said Pascoe, who is working as an exceptional education teacher at A. Philip Randolph Academy in Jacksonville.