Episcopal Press and News
Judge Extends Deadline for Edwards to Leave Accokeek parish
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 2001 [2001-325]
Jan Nunley
(ENS) At the request of Washington bishop pro tempore Jane Holmes Dixon, a federal judge has given the Rev. Samuel L. Edwards a 22-day extension of an order to vacate the rectory of Christ Church and St. John's Parish in Accokeek, Maryland. Edwards and his family now have until November 30 to comply with the order.
On November 7, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte amended his order of October 29, which directed Edwards to leave the rectory within 10 days, so that Edwards and the parish's vestry will have time for an appeal to be heard in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
"All along, Bishop Dixon has been concerned about the family, " said Canon Carter Echols, spokesperson for the Diocese of Washington. "She in fact told him not to come to Accokeek in the first place, because she wasn't going to approve his appointment."
"We could have packed our suitcases and got out, but this is a much more reasonable amount of time," Edwards told the Associated Press.
The change in the ruling does not include the portion in which the court ordered Edwards and the vestry to "take no actions, directly or indirectly" to hinder Dixon "or her delegate" in officiating at services and presiding at meetings of the vestry and parish, and prohibited Edwards from officiating "on or near" the grounds of the church and from taking any action in the capacity of rector of the parish.
Bishop's rights upheld
Messitte's ruling upheld Dixon's right not to confirm Edwards' hiring as rector by the parish's vestry in December 2000. Edwards and the vestry claim that Dixon had 30 days to accept or reject Edwards' call to the parish and missed the deadline. Dixon maintains that the 30-day provision refers only to the time period within which a bishop is required to communicate with the vestry concerning a priest's call prior to election as rector, as the canons state, but that there is no such time limit on a bishop's approving the results of an election.
When Edwards and the vestry refused to recognize Dixon's canonical authority, even blocking her entry to the parish and threatening her in May with arrest on trespassing charges, Dixon filed suit seeking the court's help in enforcing her decision.
In the suit, Dixon contended that Edwards' hiring violated the 1798 Maryland Vestry Act, requiring that the appointment of rectors be subject to the canon law of the Episcopal Church. The suit also asserted that "all parish property is held in trust for the Episcopal Church and the diocese," while the vestry claimed it holds the deed in direct ownership with an unrestricted right to the property.
Dixon's initial concerns about Edwards stemmed from his writings as executive director of the anti-women's ordination group Forward in Faith/North America (FiF/NA), in which he refers to Episcopal Church as ''hell-bound'' and the "UnChurch." She said she feared that if Edwards were allowed to function as a rector in the Washington diocese, he would attempt to lead a portion of the parish into schism and attempt to take its property out of the Episcopal Church.