Traditionalist Episcopal priest

Christian Century, July 17, 2002

The traditionalist priest who fought to remain in his Maryland pulpit after being rejected by the bishop of Washington has taken himself out the Episcopal Church and renounced his status as a priest. Samuel Edwards issued a scathing indictment of the denomination's leadership, saying it is incapable of reform and is run by "a cartel of ecclesiastical despots."

"Its constitution and canons are of no more significance to its real life than was the constitution of the former Soviet Union, which served only to cloak in the appearance of justice and order the lust for power and dominion," Edwards told the press on June 27. Edwards clashed with interim Washington Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon for nearly 18 months after he was called as rector of Christ Church in Accokeek, Maryland. An impasse was followed by court cases won by Dixon, and ecclesial charges by Edwards's supporters were dropped.

"I must now seek to remove myself and as many as are willing from fellowship with an institution that, as a whole, now stands revealed as an enemy of evangelical faith, catholic truth, apostolic order, and godly life," Edwards said in his statement.

Neither Dixon nor her successor, Bishop John Chane, had any comment. But Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Texas, where Edwards last served, said it is a "tragedy that yet another traditionalist priest has been so marginalized and persecuted by the liberal establishment" of the church.

Edwards has applied to be accepted into the Anglican Province of Christ the King, a breakaway group founded in 1977 to oppose the ordination of women. He said he would remain in Maryland to start a new parish.--RNS