Mission Episcopal: Episcopalians in the Rocky Mountain West who are fed up with their church's liberal leadership have created a new denomination that seeks to return to traditional religion

Insight on the News, Nov 12, 2001 by Valerie Richardson

One would never confuse the Anglican Church of the Covenant with Westminster Abbey. The congregation meets in an elementary-school gymnasium, where 60 parishioners sit on folding chairs. Music is provided by a guitarist as two teen-agers in shorts scroll lyrics on an overhead projector.

This isn't where Alexander "Sandy" Greene is supposed to be. Just a few months ago, the Yale-educated cleric was serving his 11th year as rector (senior pastor) of Christ Episcopal Church in Denver, an impressive 50-year-old congregation that seats 1,000 and features an organ and a bell tower. Then the 54-year-old clergyman seemed to throw it all away. In June, he stunned the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado by defecting to the Anglican Mission in America (AMIA), a maverick group fed up with what they say is the Episcopal Church's increasingly liberal interpretation of Scripture.

Greene was consecrated an AMIA bishop -- a provocative act called schismatic by Episcopal leaders in New York City and the Archbishop of Canterbury. He also lost his standing with the Episcopal Church, which for all its recent struggles still is viewed as the church of presidents and the most venerable of the nation's Christian denominations. Greene lives off his retirement, receiving no salary as pastor of the Anglican Church of the Covenant, but he doesn't regret his decision for a moment.

"I've never been happier," he says. "I suppose we're like the charter-school movement, where people have said, `Let's not worry about the peripheral stuff; let's concentrate on doing reading, writing and arithmetic.' We're doing the spiritual equivalent of back to basics."

Greene is hardly alone. During the last two years, the AMIA movement has lured away about 8,000 disaffected Episcopal parishioners and priests nationwide with its vision of a more traditional, Gospel-based church.

Nowhere has the impact been felt more deeply than in Colorado, where 13 Episcopal clergy have defected, taking hundreds of parishioners with them. Since January 2000, AMIA has started 10 churches in the Rocky Mountain West -- eight in Colorado and two in Wyoming. The denomination now numbers 42 U.S. congregations, according to the Rt. Rev. Thaddeus R. Barnum, one of AMIA's six bishops.

Why Colorado? A year ago, the Episcopal Church passed a resolution at its Denver convention declaring that unmarried persons living together in committed relationships were entitled to participate in the ministry. The resolution, widely interpreted as an endorsement of homosexual clergy, was reported heavily in the media. "I think many Episcopalians may not even know this is going on, but Denver was the place that it happened," says Barnum, who also was consecrated in June. "The resolution really struck hard at the soul of evangelicals in the Episcopal Church. Many of those who had held to the authority of the Scriptures then said, `I can't follow you any longer.'"

Even before the Denver resolution, some Episcopal clergy had begun to worry about the church's liberal drift. Stories circulated about the church leadership trying to force out conservative clerics and refusing to ordain those with traditional views. Greene felt no such pressure, but concluded his reading of Scripture and dedication to spreading the Gospel ultimately would place him at odds with the national leadership.

"In other places, people were being persecuted by bishops and other congregations for doing Christianity the way Christianity has always been done," he says. "We could see what was happening out there, and we'd say, `Thank goodness it's not happening here,' but clearly the trend was in that direction. That was the dark future. Then AMIA provided a bright vision of what the church could be."

Greene denies his group is trying to supersede the national Episcopal Church. "I don't think that's necessarily what we're doing," he says. "The more likely possibility is that with two Anglican bodies, people can look and see which one is more authentically Christian and Christlike."

Among those who left to join Greene is the Rev. Elizabeth J. Sausele, who serves as his second in command. But AMIA has placed a moratorium on ordaining women for two years. Currently, Sausele is one of just two ordained women priests within the AMIA; women have been ordained in the Episcopal Church since 1976.

"If the answer is no [to women priests] then I'd have to prayerfully consider what's my next step," Sausele says. "But the reality is, it's not about me. This is about going back to objective, external truth and the Word of God. I love what I do, but if the leadership said no, that's more important than whether I proceed as a priest."

For now, AMIA is staying out of Episcopal politics and trying to attract a racially diverse congregation. Sixty people a week may not seem like much, but Greene proudly notes that 43 also attend midweek discipleship classes.

As for the church's small but dedicated band of parishioners, people such as Tim Hinz of Lakewood don't seem to mind the humble surroundings. "The Episcopal Church got really liberal and every time you told someone you belonged to them, you almost had to give a disclaimer," Hinz says. "We never really left the Anglican Church; they left us."