Anglican Catholic Church in Vermont

[PloverWing]

I was visiting some friends in Vermont last week, and one of them mentioned a "cult" (her words) located in the nearby town of Marshfield, Vermont. I did some Googling after I got back home and discovered two disturbing facts: 1) The church did indeed have some uncomfortably controlling behaviors, as reported here: Looking in from outside Former church members concerned for those who remain . And, 2) This church is an Anglican Catholic Church.

I'm not really familiar with the Anglican Catholic Church in particular, beyond that they're one of the groups that broke away from the Episcopal Church in the US over the ordination of women. But I had assumed that they were a church very much like my own Episcopal Church, aside from our disagreements over gender and sexuality. In particular, I would have expected a bishop to take a close look at the parish in Marshfield and to step in to correct its worst behaviors.

I know we have some Continuing Anglicans here in STR. Are you familiar with the ACC? Is this Marshfield church typical of the ACC's approach to church governance? Or is this parish just an odd exception, a little church doing bizarre things in a town so small that it escapes the attention of the national church? (And, yes, all our denominations have weird pastors doing weird things here and there. It happens. So it's quite possibly an exception. But I was ... surprised.)

 

[Shane R]

I am familiar with the ACC. I don't want to get too complicated but the bishop of that diocese was originally consecrated by the Anglican Province of Christ the King, which was/is quite cultish. That body has since imploded to being mostly a West Coast concern.

Here's the thing with the ACC, and what I suspect is going on here: they are shrinking so a parish with 200 members, as that article states, will get a fair amount of leeway to conduct their business however they see fit. That is a very large Continuing parish and is probably contributing a significant portion of the diocesan budget.

The AngloCatholic dominated Continuing churches do tend to be rather hierarchical in governance, even magisterial.

 

[PloverWing]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. And thanks for filling in some of the history of the diocese. I hadn't caught how big the parish is. At 200 members, it's bigger than my own parish. And a parish of 200 members in a town of 1500 people is huge. I can see the temptation to step back and not interfere with a numerically successful parish.

 

[Sean611]

I have a small sample size when it comes to my experience, but I have never experienced or seen any of the sort of things described in the article in any Continuing Anglican church I have ever visited or been a part of.

I grew up in the Jehovah's Witness cult and some of the things described in that article reminded me of my experience in that cult. Typically, we are more likely to find these types of things in fundamentalist protestant and restorationism types of cults, so to find them in an "Anglo-Catholic" parish is shocking and quite unfortunate. My own experience with Continuing Anglo-Catholicism has been the polar opposite. Unfortunately, Shane's explanation may hit close to the mark in explaining how they get away with such behavior.

 

[Albion]

I have a small sample size when it comes to my experience, but I have never experienced or seen any of the sort of things described in the article in any Continuing Anglican church I have ever visited or been a part of...

My own experience with Continuing Anglo-Catholicism has been the polar opposite. Unfortunately, Shane's explanation may hit close to the mark in explaining how they get away with such behavior.

Almost exactly the same "take" on this matter as I had myself.

From what I can tell from online sources, the goings-on as described happened a few years ago and the priest isn't listed on the diocesan website today, nor is the parish. But it is on the ACC national website.

Still, I can't fathom the Anglican Catholic Church admitting such a group into the church in the first place. Shane's guess is about the only thing that seems to make sense.

 

[Shane R]

I was surprised they are an ACC parish mostly because New England is dominated by the ACA. They have most of the large parishes in that region. Of course, ACC and ACA both belong to the G-4 coalition.

G-4 is a unity effort amongst Continuing groups which currently includes the ACA, ACC, APA, and Diocese of the Holy Cross. I think they have held joint synods twice now and have established full communion with each other. The next goal is unification (or reunification perhaps, since ACA and APA were splits from the ACC to some extent.)

 

[The Liturgist]

I am familiar with the ACC. I don't want to get too complicated but the bishop of that diocese was originally consecrated by the Anglican Province of Christ the King, which was/is quite cultish. That body has since imploded to being mostly a West Coast concern.

Here's the thing with the ACC, and what I suspect is going on here: they are shrinking so a parish with 200 members, as that article states, will get a fair amount of leeway to conduct their business however they see fit. That is a very large Continuing parish and is probably contributing a significant portion of the diocesan budget.

The AngloCatholic dominated Continuing churches do tend to be rather hierarchical in governance, even magisterial.

I actually am a great admirer of the APCK; their St. George parish in Las Vegas I enjoy visiting greatly, as well as their parish in Chico, CA. I have had nothing but good experiences with them. In fact when I think of Continuing Anglican I think of them first.