Anglican Group Severs Ties with Breakway Megachurch, Embattled Leader
An Anglican think tank severed ties with a breakaway Colorado megachurch and its rector, according to a statement on Saturday.
"In consequence of the legal and ecclesiastical struggles Grace Church and Fr. Armstrong are now engaged with, we judge it proper to dissolve our relationship with the Web site and all activities of Grace Church ... so that the charges of the Presentment and other matters of public trust and ecclesiastical jurisdiction might be resolved without interference," stated the Anglican Communion Institute (ACI), an international theological think tank, according to Colorado Springs' The Gazette.
The institute had largely been funded by Grace Church & St. Stephen's - a parish of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary diocese of the Church of Nigeria. The leaders of Grace Church & St. Stephen's Parish had voted in March to leave the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and the national body and join CANA in dissension over the liberal theological direction of the Episcopal Church.
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"They just walked away from 85 percent of their funding," Alan Crippen, spokesman for Grace, told The Gazette. "I don't know what ACI is without that."
Crippen thinks the main issue is the institute has not been pleased with Grace Church's departure to CANA.
The breakaway church is currently battling with the diocese in court for the multimillion dollar church property.
ACI also severed ties with the Rev. Donald Armstrong, the parish's rector who served as overseer of the institute's day-to-day operations. Armstrong was accused by Colorado Bishop Robert O'Neil of theft and mishandling hundreds of thousands of dollars over about 10 years. Armstrong resigned from the ACI board in December after he allegedly told Grace's vestry the ACI had "borrowed" $170,000 from Grace, according to The Gazette.
In a letter last month, Armstrong told parishioners he is confident he will be cleared of accusations of financial misconduct and wrote that an audit by the bishop found no money missing.
As the ACI announced its decision to cut ties with Armstrong and the parish, the rector spoke at a three-hour meeting on Saturday unveiling his annual salary, including a big raise in 2006, and denying any wrongdoing. Accused of stealing more than $392,000 from the church, Armstrong said most of that money was earmarked as scholarships for his children, according to the local newspaper. The scholarships were authorized by the church's wardens, he added.
While the majority of the meeting's attendants showed support for Armstrong, John Hermes, a former vestry member, said the vestry never knew about those funds. The issue, Armstrong's critics say, is whether the approval for the funds should have gone through the vestry.
After the meeting, the diocese released a statement saying Armstrong's presentation didn't "constitute a legitimate response to the serious charges of financial misconduct pending against him," according to The Gazette.
Meanwhile, the congregation is set to vote on May 20 on the vestry's decision to leave the Episcopal Church.
