Here goes MY revised summary which was orginally posted in this forum months ago:
1. The initial consecration of +Adler was not investigated very well, because Timothy Barker was a heretic and he was consecrated by a a married couple (note--woman consecrator) named Spruitt. This problem was corrected, as least as fleeing ECUSANS were concerned, by the consecration of +Howard and +Adler by Bp Milsaps of the APA, but those who are really picky about Apostolic Succession claim it wasn't really valid until the Brazilian Consecrations 5 years or so later. In any event this problem--occult CEC roots-- was a hush hush secret and never revealed to most clergy until recently.
2. In 14 years the CEC has not yet developed a common liturgy, or even doctrine, as to Eucharist and many theological subjects. In September 2006 the Patriarch's Council weakly reaffirmed the Episcopal Church's Catechism from the 1979 BCP.
3. Many are upset with the shift in recent years from a balance in the three streams worship to an unbalance toward the charismatic stream and a greatly weakened evangel and sacramental stream. Many are upset with the resurgence of mandatory "shepherding", which was denounced by many church leaders in the 1970's. This amounts for some as forced confessionals, with clergy and church leaders disciplined who don't comply. Some CEC clergy admit this is wrong, but nothing is done about those who practice shepherding.
4. Sometime in the last ten years the Primate became a Patriarch which has now been discovered means absolute authority and the HOB merely an affirming body of prayer.
5. +Howard was deposed in fall of 2005 due to failure to submit to spiritual discipline. He took several families from Church of the Messiah in Jacksonville and started The Chapel. In the meantime the IDA and SE Province funds were left in a disaster with many hundreds of thousands of misspent money. Part of the mess is attributable to the failed purchase of an entire shopping center next to Church of the Messiah. Others are missing due to use by Howard for personal trips, money allegedly stolen by a prostitute in Italy. The former cathedral on Arlington Expressway in Jacksonville was sold, and the lost investments from the shopping center, failed Arlington church property purchase, and misspent money is in the millions. The Church of the Messiah sold its building and now meets at the rented Sam Marks Chapel at Jacksonville Univ on Sunday, with bible study at a local law office on Wednesday night.
6. The Patriarch's Council failed to insist on financial accountability of Adler, Howard and the IDA for many years, even though questions and concerns had been raised by other bishops.
7. There have been charges against the Patriarch almost too numerous to list: carrying around pictures of another married woman that he believes he'll marry after Betty dies; felonious use and obtaining of controlled substance Ambien obtained through sources in the Philippines, addiction to this narcotic and alcohol, drunkenness, making a sexual pass at a bishop's wife, failure to take a sabbatical and submit to discipline requested by numerous bishops, failure to account for monies received, failure to lead, failure to communicate, simply regurgitating +Abp Jones's sermons, failure to follow the lectionary and liturgy, having a mid life crisis accounting for long hair and blue shades, using tithes received for sumptuous living quarters and artwork. Recently he has confessed his wife’s addiction to alcohol and his additional indiscretion with another unnamed woman while under the influence. The Patriarch’s archdeacon, Dan Sharp, recently was deposed for having a 2 year affair with another woman—his wife is/was Adler’s secretary. Sharp was also the principal of St. Michael’s elementary school. Other odd charges are that the Patriarch encourages newlyweds to sleep in his bed for a blessing, that there are extreme control issues relative to marrying within the congregation at St. Michaels.
8. As a result of many of these issues and more, +Zampino and the Life of Jesus community and two parishes left; at least 2 clergy in Maine have resigned; the CEC church in Chattanooga has resigned; +Bp Sly resigned and numerous clergy under him; +Painter resigned and two churches there left; +Fick and +Miles and all churches in the Great Lakes province have left but Fr. Ken Tanner's church (stepson of +Adler), Bp Myers and all of the SC Diocese have left, which includes churches in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Numerous other clergy have left in other dioceses. The first CEC bishop of Uganda, Obokech, has been recently deposed for failure to title his cathedral built with CEC funds in the name of the CEC. +Apb Hines at one point forbid +Adler to set foot in the cathedral in Manila. Paulo Garcia was named Archbishop and made part of the PC. Fr. David Simpson was consecrated bishop of Florida. Bp Sly, Liptak and Weeks have left. Bp Holloway has had a severe stroke, and Epps has been elected but not yet consecrated as successor Bishop of Georgia, Bp Costantino has died, and +Bates is in charge of St. Dismas. Eight out of the first twelve US Bishops of the CEC have either resigned or were deposed. (And with +Holloway incapacitated, this means only THREE of the first TWELVE CEC US Bishops are still active.) Laudate, the youth movement has folded based upon most of the leaders--lay and clergy--leaving. Fr. Joe Butler of St. Andrews in St. Augustine has left and Bp Woodall is serving as interim priest of this small church.
9. The CEC has never followed its own canons and has wrongfully deposed or disciplined many clergy without reasons, hearing, chance of appeal. Letter in protest or for an appeal are routinely ignored. Most all who retire or leave are "deposed", then shunned. Promised "relationships" end upon leaving the CEC. Most importantly the promised consensus government has not been followed at all by many bishops and +Woodall's resignation letter to then bishop Howard states that. Many bishops basically have run their own fiefdoms in the CEC. As it now stands, the CEC is structured so that only a Bishop in residence at St. Michael's can be patriarch and the Patriarch's Counsel is a small "yes group" to Bp Adler, whose oversight is final.
10. The CEC leadership broke a promise to the Brazilian Consecrators when a 5000 member church in Recife Brazil wanted to join. Rumors are that Garcia was promised consecration as bishop which he had been repeatedly denied by the Anglican church if he came into the CEC, smacking of simony. It was said that the reason Garcia had to leave the Anglican Communion was that Garcia's Anglican bishop was impossibly heterodox when in fact he is held by most worldwide conservative Anglicans as very orthodox.
11. +Painter in his resignation letter accused the CEC of becoming a "cult of personality" and in danger of becoming a full blown cult. He writes, "From my years of experience I am convinced that we are dealing with a "cultic" spirit." Bp Weeks says in his letter of resignation that he had not heard from Adler in two years, despite his personal family crisis, which violated the promise of "relationships".
12. Too many ordinations in comparison to no growth so that in some churches a huge percentage of the adult male population is ordained, some without proper training: issues abound over nepotism in ordinations, over extremely diverse practices of training (St. Michael's seminary) throughout the country. Some people have fast track ordinations under some bishops some have slow track ordinations if in another province. There are now estimated only 90 CEC churches in the US, with only a few of these parishes having an average Sunday attendance in excess of 100.
Samwise
PS Comments would be appreciated.
Some thoughts . . .
| QUOTE |
| 1. The initial consecration of +Adler was not investigated very well, because Timothy Barker was a heretic and he was consecrated by a a married couple (note--woman consecrator) named Spruitt. This problem was corrected, as least as fleeing ECUSANS were concerned, by the consecration of +Howard and +Adler by Bp Milsaps of the APA, but those who are really picky about Apostolic Succession claim it wasn't really valid until the Brazilian Consecrations 5 years or so later. In any event this problem--occult CEC roots-- was a hush hush secret and never revealed to most clergy until recently. |
This is still a major issue, and one which the remaining bishops seem to absolutely refuse to address. (Actually, it has also been a major bone of contention on the CEC Wikipedia entry -- for quite some time. It has been interesting to observe good-hearted and well-meaning individuals -- who obviously have no idea what they are talking about -- come up with all kinds of unique theories on the theology of Holy Orders.)
The facts are these:
Timothy Barker is listed in the Dictionary of Independent Bishops as a leading astrologer. This is not a disputable fact. He received his "Apostolic Succession" (using the term extremely loosely) from Adrian Spruitt -- and Spruitt's wife. The Spruitt's "Church of Antioch" has nothing whatsoever to do with the Orthodox body by the same name -- and is not considered to even be a Christian church -- even in the loosest possible sense of the word. Check out Melton's encyclopedia on Religion if you don't want to take my word for it.
The leadership of the CEC knew about this as early as the spring of 1994, as it was discussed at the National Convocation in Kansas City at the time. (I was present and participated in that Convocation.)
The Millsaps consecration was problematic on a number of levels, not the least being that Millsaps acted without the permission of his own denomination. Then, of course, Canterbury has (at best) difficulty recognizing Continuing Anglicans. And, of course, neither Rome nor Orthodoxy recognizes Canterbury.
When the Brazilian Consecrations happened, the intent was for the five bishops consecrated to re-consecrate the rest, and then to re-ordain all the clergy. This intent was never communicated to many of the clergy, much less to the laity. In my diocese, the whole matter was called a "strengthening" of Holy Orders -- which makes no sense. One cannot strengthen what was never there in the first place. And my bishop at the time knew this, as he was one of the five consecrated by Brazil.
With regard to Barker, it is clear that no sacramental grace for Holy Orders was present. None at all. The question remains -- were there spiritual matters of another sort passed along? As in evil? I believe that the possibility cannot be dismissed out of hand -- and I am all too familiar with at least two current CEC bishops who have cursed/allowed to be cursed clergy who have left the CEC.
This remains a very problematic subject. Regardless of whether the CEC ever deals with other issues -- this issue is a sword of Damoclese for the denomination.