No Sabbath Peace for Divided Church

Bishop, Embattled Md. Priest Conduct Competing Services

By Carol D. Leonnig and Hamil R. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 28, 2001; Page B01

Two police officers flanked the bishop as she approached the church steps. A nervous pastor waited to be thrown out of his pulpit. Men cursed each other and women burst into tears from the tension.

That was the spiritually painful scene yesterday at a divided Episcopal church in Prince George's County, which wound up hosting dueling services. Supporters of the Rev. Samuel L. Edwards, the conservative priest at Christ Church in Accokeek, barred Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon from entering the church and leading the service.

Dixon, acting bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, had come to remove Edwards from his job. But after her path was blocked, the bishop, despite her police escort, did not try to go inside. Edwards led the 9 a.m. service indoors, and many parishioners followed Dixon to worship on an outdoor church basketball court.

"This is not a pleasant experience," Edwards said. When more than half the pews emptied as parishioners joined the bishop outside, the pastor told the remaining congregants: "The history of the church in its finest hour is that those who oppose the truth of God march to their defeat."

Edwards was appointed rector by the church's governing board in December. But Dixon has rejected that choice, citing Edwards's criticisms of mainline church teachings and his refusal to guarantee that he will not try to take the parish out of the denomination. The period during which he could serve as rector without her approval expired Friday.

Dixon said yesterday she was heartbroken for church members who have lost friendships over whether to follow the diocese or Edwards, but still firm in her plan to eject a rebel rector.

"This rift is a tragedy, and it makes me sad beyond the telling," Dixon said. "I had hoped Edwards would realize that it's time for him to go."

Both sides in the dispute said they expect to ask a judge to decide whether Dixon has the authority to remove Edwards, as well as the question of who owns the parish property. Dixon named an interim rector for the church yesterday, retired Bishop Ronald H. Haines, and will meet with diocese leaders this week to discuss her next move. Members of the church board, meanwhile, said they plan to file trespassing charges against Dixon.

Yesterday's spectacle put the disagreements within the 303-year-old church -- and within the denomination as a whole -- on dramatic display. Edwards's supporters are part of a larger movement that has grown increasingly upset by the denomination's ordination of women and its tolerance of same-sex marriages. The pastor formerly led a Texas-based "traditionalist" group called Forward in Faith and had called the denomination the "Unchurch" for not reading the Bible literally.

As many as 20 families have left the Accokeek church in the last two years because of ideological tensions, and many current members have refused to take communion from Edwards since he arrived. They said they don't know where they will go next Sunday.

"I was baptized in this 'Unchurch,' I was married in this 'Unchurch,' my children were baptized in this 'Unchurch' and they were married in this 'Unchurch,' " said a fuming Harry Ritter, 77. "That really stuck in my craw. All I know is if he's at the altar, I'm not going in."

Longtime church member Ann Thorson said her friends have been driven out of the church by board members screaming at them in their pews over their beliefs. "I call them the lunatic fringe," Thorson said.

But board members said the bishop's unreasonableness and ego caused the problems.

"We have a nice, loving congregation and a traditional priest, and the bishop is rejecting him," said Frank McDonough. "It is sad that we are not allowed to have our preacher."

Edwards's supporters sang with an extra dose of energy the hymn "Faith of Our Fathers" to close out yesterday's service. Written more than a century ago, the hymn fit the sentiment of the group: "Faith of Our Fathers, living still in spite of dungeon, fire and sword."

Some of them went outside to try to disrupt Dixon's service. As she began, a man bellowed and urged her not to "make a spectacle." He was shouted down by parishioners who complained that he wasn't from their church.

Bishop Jack Leo Iker, of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, sent a letter -- read in the middle of Dixon's service -- saying that Edwards should stay as rector and that Dixon was the one violating Episcopal law.

Ralph Kettell, a Beltsville resident who does not belong to Christ Church but who supports Forward in Faith, held a video camera trained on Dixon, then began loudly singing a hymn to drown out her voice. A snarling match erupted as a male parishioner cursed at Kettell to leave.

On Forward in Faith's Web site, news about the church dispute carried the headline "Me Jane, you chopped liver," a reference to how critics view Dixon's approach.

As the bishop was leaving with her entourage, someone held a banner aloft with a message addressed to her: "Tis obvious you have our church outgrown. Perhaps it's time you go start your own."

Dixon was pressed to recall a more unusual location where she had led a service.

"I have done weddings in gardens," she said, then added, "The other 93 churches in the diocese receive me in their church."

Nearby, lifetime member Rick Smith, 62, stared forlornly at the gravestones of his relatives in the church graveyard.

"I was born and raised in this church, and I have never seen anything like this," Smith said. "All I wanted to do is go to church today, not go to the circus."

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

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