c. 1997 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ A traditionalist Episcopal Church bishop has apparently gained legal control over the denomination’s name and ecclesiastical flag, both of which lacked copyright protection.
Some church leaders see the move as an effort to hold the church hostage to traditionalist demands, which are in opposition to the views of generally liberal church leaders.
The instigator of the move, Bishop William C. Wantland of the church’s Diocese of Eau Claire, Wisc., incorporated the name “The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Inc.” in his home state more than a year ago, according to Wisconsin state records.
A church source said that move allowed it to be subsequently incorporated in every state. With the incorporation, an initial group of officers were selected for a corporate board.
“I have been advised that these actions violate the church’s right and need to protect its name from misleading and unfair use, creating confusion within our church community and for the public more generally,” said Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning in a letter Thursday (Dec. 18) to the bishops of the 2.5 million-member denomination.
The Episcopal Church, an unincorporated body since its founding in the United States in 1789, has cried foul and demanded that Wantland undo the whole move. The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America was the denomination’s original name adopted when it separated from the Church of England following the American Revolution.
But Wantland said he wants to maintain control of the church’s name and flag for traditionalist members who think the generally liberal denomination has strayed from historical Anglican standards. The Episcopal Church, headquartered in New York, is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Browning said he found out about the move in early December. Church sources said the incorporation was discovered by a church staffer who happened upon Internet chat rooms of traditionalist Episcopalians.
Browning called Wantland and asked that he dissolve the corporation.
In response, according to Browning, Wantland said he would alter some of the stated purposes of the corporation, but would continue to hold title.
Quoting Wantland, Browning said in his letter that the traditionalist bishop told him the new corporate board would continue to hold onto the denomination’s name to “ensure there will always exist in the United States a church which remains in (the) Anglican Communion upholding and propagating the historic faith and order of the Book of Common Prayer.”
Browning called Wantland’s comments “unfortunate.”
The presiding bishop said he will confer with the presiding-bishop elect of the church, Bishop Frank Griswold of the Diocese of Chicago, and Pamela Childress, president of the church’s clergy-lay House of Deputies, as to what action to take against Wantland.
Sources said Browning threatened to sue Wantland over the issue.
Meanwhile, the new corporation’s vice president, Bishop John M. Howe of the Diocese of Central Florida, has quit. Howe, based in Orlando, did not respond to telephone requests for an interview.
Neither did Bishop Stephen Hays Jecko of the Jacksonville-based Diocese of Florida, who this week hosted a session of the Society of Irenaeus _ a group of traditionalist bishops _ that discussed the issue.
What has Browning and church officials most upset is Wantland’s use of the denomination’s name to raise money for the new corporation.
In a fund-raising letter, Wantland urged people to “join with the trustees of the Protestant Episcopal Church.” He cited the group’s adherence to traditionalist beliefs and noted that the current church leadership’s liberal stands on sexuality issues have divided the church.
“We believe and affirm that marriage is to be a lifelong commitment and mutual belonging of husband and wife: one man and one woman; and we recognize that divorce is always tragic and rarely appropriate,” Wantland said in his appeal.
Episcopalians are evenly divided over whether to allow same-sex unions.
A supporter of Wantland’s initiative, Bill Cheney, the 68-year-old retired executive from Atlanta who heads Concerned Clergy and Laity of the Episcopal Church, said gaining control of the church’s name and flag is designed to force the denomination to recognize the traditionalists as a separate jurisdiction within in the Anglican Communion.
Jurisdictions, known as provinces, in the 78 million-member Anglican Communion are normally drawn along geographical and political lines. However, the Church of England _ the heart of the Anglican Communion _ has agreed to form a third, independent province in England for traditionalist Anglicans.
That decision _ which has yet to be approved by Queen Elizabeth II, the titular head of the Church of England, and Parliament _ would set a precedent for the rest of the communion, including the Episcopal Church in the United States.
MJP END RNS
AP-NY-12-19-97 1808EST
