Inclusivity and Reconciliation in the Diocese of Virginia

From The Living Church:
Bishop Lee Inhibits 21 Priests
1/23/2007

In a letter sent Jan. 22 to 21 priests under license in the Diocese of Virginia, the bishop and standing committee informed the group they had been inhibited for the next six months.

“Your association with a group of people that has abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church and rejected its authority and the authority of the Diocese of Virginia constitute your abandonment of the Communion of the Episcopal Church,” states a letter signed by Virginia Bishop Peter James Lee. “If, in the next six months, you retract your actions of abandonment, this inhibition may be lifted. But at the end of six months, if you have not retracted your actions, you may be released from the obligations of priesthood in this church and removed from the ordained ministry.”

Bishop Lee concluded the brief letter by noting how deeply saddened he was by this development. He said he believed “the actions that the Standing Committee and I are taking are necessary for the discipline and unity of the church.”

All of the clergy associated with the 11 Virginia congregations which recently voted to leave the diocese and affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) have been inhibited with the exception of Bishop Martyn Minns, who serves as rector of Truro Church in Fairfax. Bishop Lee previously said that Bishop Minns was a validly consecrated Bishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, but he has refused to recognize either CANA or the Anglican District of Virginia, which the 11 congregations have formed.

The list includes the Rev. John A.M. Guernsey, rector of All Saints’ Church in Woodbridge. In November, the diocese and All Saints’ reached an amicable settlement on the church property, but since then Fr. Guernsey and the other leadership at the parish have voted to affiliate with CANA, something that both Bishop Lee and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori have said is antithetical to ancient church precedent.

The priests listed in the release:

• The Rev. Robin T. Adams
• The Rev. Marshall Brown
• The Rev. E. Kathleen Christopher
• The Rev. Jack W. Grubbs
• The Rev. David N. Jones
• The Rev. Herbert J. McMullan
• The Rev. Valarie A. Whitcomb
• The Rev. George R. Beaven
• The Rev. Neal H. Brown
• The Rev. Richard C. Crocker
• The Rev. John A.M. Guernsey
• The Rev. Nicholas P.N. Lebelfeld
• The Rev. Elijah B. White
• The Rev. John W. Yates II
• The Rev. Mark W. Brown
• The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar
• The Rev. Ramsey D. Gilchrist
• The Rev. David R. Harper
• The Rev. Marion D. Lucas, III
• The Rev. Robin Rauh
• The Rev. Frederick M. Wright