May 29, 2007
By Mary Frances Schjonberg

The congregation calling itself Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish in Colorado Springs announced May 26 that a majority of its members voting in a week-long election agreed to affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).

The election formalized a decision made in March by what was then the vestry of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. The group's announcement said that of the 370 votes cast (from a possible 822 voters), 342, or 93%, agreed with the decision.

In making its March 26 decision, the then-members of the vestry consulted its rector, the Rev. Donald Armstrong, whom O'Neill inhibited in January as part of an investigation into allegations of misappropriated church money. A presentment has since been filed against Armstrong, and the Diocese of Colorado has filed suit to regain possession of the parish's property.

CANA calls itself a "missionary effort" of the Anglican Church in Nigeria.

"The ‘vote' being taken this week by the secessionist group that now illegally occupies Grace and Saint Stephen's Church in Colorado Springs has no legal validity or bearing on the current efforts by The Diocese of Colorado to regain rightful control of its property," the diocese said in a statement released prior to the congregation's announcement by Beckett Stokes, its communications director. "Because The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical church, parishes are not established by the vote of a congregation but only by actions taken by a diocesan convention and ecclesiastical authority. Conversely, no vote taken by a congregation or by its vestry can dissolve a parish or change its affiliation to another religious body."

The statement went on to say that "the seizing of property rightfully belonging to the Episcopal Church is nothing more than a sadly misguided effort to restore to a position of public trust a priest who is currently under ecclesiastical indictment for the misappropriation of church funds."

Armstrong is still acting as rector of the breakaway congregation.

The Rocky Mountain News reported that the election was conducted complete with voting booths, an official ballot, and overseen by El Paso County Clerk and recorder Bob Balink, who is also a parishioner.

Meanwhile, some of the estimated 200-400 congregants who want to remain in the Episcopal Church celebrated Pentecost at First Christian Church near the Grace Church campus.

Those parishioners told a Rocky Mountain News reporter that they are in exile. Some parishioners are attending the services of congregations until they can better sort out their allegiances, the Denver newspaper reported.

At a coffee hour following the service at First Christian Church, parish leaders passed out financial statements to demonstrate the church's viability and accountability.

"There is a whole new spirit here," Clelia deMoraes told a reporter. "A spirit of love and compassion. It's not so wrapped up in politics."

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.