Episcopal Church Ousts Breakaway Group from Church Property

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Members of a parish in Bristol, Conn., that left The Episcopal Church will find themselves ousted from their church property this coming Sunday.

The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut has defrocked the Rev. Donald Lee Helmandollar of Trinity Church and will take over the Bristol property on July 8, according to The Associated Press.

Trinity's congregation voted in May to break away from the diocese and The Episcopal Church and join CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) – a mission initiative of the Church of Nigeria – over differences of opinion about Scripture. Trinity was the first church in Connecticut to split from The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – but one of several congregations nationwide that made the same move, placing themselves under the leadership of the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns of CANA and Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of the Church of Nigeria.

"It's a painful thought that we'd have to leave," said Fred Clark, a senior warden at Trinity, according to The Hartford Courant. "But the other side of that coin is that we've made a decision about what it is we've chosen to stand up for."

In recent years, a small but growing number of congregations have left The Episcopal Church citing the American church body's departure from Christian orthodoxy and Anglican tradition, particularly when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003.

The Bristol parish hired an attorney to fight the diocese's eviction order and Helmandollar continued to lead worship services in the church since the vote.

"We firmly believe that our church was built by and given to the Anglican communion there, known as the Trinity Church Society," Helmandollar told The Hartford Courant. "Our constitution says we will remain."

Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith announced the revocation of Helmandollar's clerical status on Friday with Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who was visiting to preside at a service on Saturday for the ordination of Connecticut's first female Episcopal bishop, the Rev. Laura J. Ahrens.

Smith has been at odds with six churches in the Connecticut Diocese for several years. The "Connecticut Six," one of them being Trinity, opposed Smith's support of the 2003 election of V. Gene Robinson.