Philadelphia, Pa: Bishop Moyer Suspended by the Anglican Church in America Hob
By David W. Virtue
According to a highly placed source, David L. Moyer, a bishop in the Anglican Church in America, has been suspended from the denomination by unanimous vote of the ACA House of Bishops. He is no longer a member in good standing of the House of Bishops. This has been verified by Presiding Bishop Brian Marsh. The Anglican Church in America (ACA) is a Continuing Anglican church body in the United States, a branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) whose former Archbishop John Hepworth resigned from the TAC following a failed attempt to lead the TAC into the Roman Catholic Church. He was rejected as unsuitable by Rome for the Pope's Ordinariate for his status as a former Catholic Priest, who joined another denomination, and subsequently married twice. He was offered laicization instead. He rejected Rome's offer. Moyer had tied his fortunes to Hepworth following his being deposed by the Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles E. Bennison, and evicted from the church. His first flight was to the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, then under Bishop Robert Duncan, and then the Anglican Province of Central Africa under its archbishop Bernard Malango. On Feb. 2005, Moyer was consecrated a bishop in the TAC at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, PA by Hepworth and an Australian bishop who was later thrown out of the Anglican Church of Australia. An Australian priest, David Chislett, who was consecrated with Moyer later left the TAC and returned to the Anglican Church of Australia. After being tossed out of the Episcopal parish of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, PA following nearly two decades of ministry, Moyer formed the Fellowship of Blessed John Henry Newman in memory of England's leading Anglo-Catholic who, after a life time in the Church of England, fled to Rome. Moyer had hoped that by forming this church he would receive the imprimatur and blessing from Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, the ordinary to the Ordinariate, and thus bring his small flock into Rome's embrace through the Ordinariate established by the Pope. Newly installed Philadelphia-based Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput said no to Moyer. In a statement to VirtueOnline, Msgr. Steenson said that he hoped to bring about "reconciliation" and "contrition", which might allow Moyer to enter the Roman Catholic ordination process. It was not to be. Steenson later publicly rejected Moyer following allegations that there were unresolved financial issues at his former parish and along with a lawsuit he faced from his former friend and attorney John H. Lewis Jr., for fraud. Steenson did accept the Anglo-Catholic parish of St. Michael the Archangel led by the Rev. Dr. David Ousley. Monsignor Steenson celebrated at that event, which was accompanied by The Mass. St. Michael's is the first Anglican parish in Greater Philadelphia to be received into the U.S. Ordinariate and one of the first nationwide. Turning bitter at the rejection, Moyer went on the legal warpath issuing a round of subpoenas on Steenson and some eight members of his former parish, (including this reporter) in an ongoing lawsuit filed against him by his former attorney and friend John H. Lewis Jr., This week a second round of subpoenas was filed by another former attorney Michael Ruggio. In an e-mail to VOL, Steenson mused, "I suppose that it should not surprise...so the madness continues." He said the Good Shepherd folks are much in his prayers." HEPWORTH...AGAIN
Then came news from a confidential report from Australia this week, that former Archbishop John Hepworth who resigned from the TAC is regrouping his few remaining TAC parishes under a new order of St. Benedict in Australia, which he hopes will give him entrance into Rome through a new ecclesiastical side door but not through the establishment of the Catholic Church's Ordinariate for former Anglicans which opens June 15. Steenson described it as a desperate act by Hepworth for legitimization. One of the first moves will be the ordination of Traditional Anglican Communion Bishop Harry Entwistle, 72, to the Catholic priesthood in St Mary's Cathedral, a person claimed by Hepworth as one of his. It was also revealed in the document that Hepworth had sent Moyer and others an announcement of his new start up http://tinyurl.com/8yex4mt Order of St. Benedict. However Hepworth's trials and travails are far from over. VOL has received a report that the new interim Primate of the TAC, Archbishop Prakash has received a number of complaints involving financial mismanagement and/or irregularities in Australia. A tribunal is being set up to investigate the allegations. The amount runs into hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars, VOL was told. "We have been led to believe that substantial amounts have been paid by himself to himself and Canon Woodman from church funds he controlled, for pain and suffering after being vilified on the blogs," said the source. Hepworth, a former Roman Catholic priest who departed the priesthood, married, divorced and remarried, has spent most of his lifetime engineering his return to Rome by offering the TAC to the Roman Catholic Church. However, he miscalculated his Continuing group's interest in going to Rome. The vast majority of his Anglican group had no interest in going to Rome and have remained steadfastly Anglo-Catholic even though they are not part of the recognized worldwide Anglican Communion of 70 million souls.
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