I received an e-mail from Jared Holloway directing me to a post on his personal blog and he graciously gave me permission to re-post it here.  Since this blog began, Jared has been an active commenter and a voice of reason from the CEC.  His thoughtful comments and respectful tone have always been a pleasure to encounter whenever he cared to contribute his two cents.  Read his post below or go to his blog here.  It’s definitely worth a read.

My own prayers continue for the Holloway family.

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I guess…
Posted by jzholloway on October 17, 2009

I never wanted to go here… well… yeah I did, but I hoped, even due to my nature, that I would never have too, but I do, and I do it humbly, and sadly…

First, I want to say that I love the Charismatic Episcopal Church… ICCEC, etc… however, I am discouraged by a few things, mainly, how my father, Bishop John Holloway, has been treated since his stroke in June of 2007.

In June of 2007, after the last night of the Mid-South Diocese convocation, my father suffered a terrible stroke. Since then, in absolute disbelief of doctors, and the clergy of the diocese and the CEC, he has recovered dramatically. However, praise be to God, this is not my concern.

My concern, is the taking care of my father, his wife, and his two youngest children. First, the Canons of the ICCEC state that the Communion will take care of clerical families in need after a death or in a case where the clerical member can no longer serve… if you want the reference, please let me know, I have both a hard copy and a soft copy of the canons. At first, this happened, however, after many excuses… the best being that my mother was receiving more income than anyone else in the diocese… a lie… it has decreased at timed intervals… coming soon to zero support. On the lie, it is easy to look at those employed by the state… and their income, and to make it even easier… certain clergy spouses made more than given to my mother for my father’s care and my families care. Second, we have been assured that the mortgage would be taken care of… no matter what… yet my mother has until Dec. 1.. this year… to be out of the house, unless God provides a miracle… in other words… no help on the mortgage… I was also promised my dad would have visitors of CEC origin… beyond those who have been faithful… very few… I can count them on one hand… well, maybe two… this has also not happened. Lastly… for some reason… as retired clergy, my father cannot be mentioned on the Mid-South Diocese web site… even though retired clergy, etc are almost always mentioned… keep in mind… with out Bishop Holloway… the Mid South Diocese would not exist, the Committee on Missions would have stalled, the Committee on Canons would have stalled, and St. Michael’s Seminary in the Southeast would not exist. He and Abp Chuck Jones would not be Bishop’s Tigger and Pooh… and the Philippines would not be the same. St. Paul commands us to honor our fathers and our mothers… well my father is more than my father… more than a father for the Mid South Diocese… he is a Father for the CEC… the ICCEC… and the Church… If I am wrong, please correct me… but remember… I know his faults… like I know mine… I was also his prime assistant for his committees, putting everything together… and I was also one of two sons who would sit, with a beer and a cigar who would sit and BS with him… I know him better than most… which is sad, because as our current Patriarch will remark.. we are a Communion based upon the Pro-life movement… I would say he needed to be there in 1992… we are a communion based on relationships…

In closing.. please pray for my father, mother, Josiah and Hannah… God called them to Thomaston, Upson County, Georgia… I hope is is more than just to have a stroke and get foreclosed on with nowhere to go…

Pax Christi… JZH

The CEC House of Bishops meeting has just concluded in New Paltz, NY.  The usual blah-blah-blah write up on cechome except for this little gem:

The HOB was joined today by the Most Reverend Ramzi Musallam, Archbishop Metropolitan of the Arabic Catholic Church. Archbishop Musallam was invited to be an observer to meetings, and he gave a presentation about the Arabic Catholic Church, which included their history and beliefs.

Sounds really lofty, doesn’t it?

Click here to go to the Arabic Catholic Church’s website.  From what I can tell from their website, this is one church in Pennsylvania run by an archbishop who is 30 years old (Click here for the biography of the guest archbishop).  Archbishop Musallam “gave a presentation about the Arabic Catholic Church, which included their history and beliefs” which probably took all of a few minutes as their communion is just one year old as of August with no real churches to speak of.  You can click on the Chancery Office page to see the same telephone number for each department run by the same 4 or 5 people.  The ACC website basically shows this group to be an offshoot by one priest formerly with the Polish National Catholic Church.  The words “archbishop” and “church” seem a bit extravagant considering that there are no other bishops and churches under Archbishop Musallam. 

The CEC turned a corner with +++Bates at the helm.  To Archbishop Bates’s credit, I’m sure that the CEC organization could not have survived under a different leader following Archbishop Adler.  Why this direction backwards instead of opening dialogues with actual churches and archbishops?

So, as other bodies grow from strength to strength (Anglican Church in North America for example attracting people like Dr. Rick Warren, Metropolitan Jonah and Bishop Todd Hunter in common ministry), the CEC seems content with cementing itself with a place of obscurity in the Body of Christ.  Could it be because of the company the CEC wishes to keep? 

Gone are the heady days way back when … back when the CEC was “in talks” with Rome via Phil Zampino and Randy Sly.

The article ends this matter with this statement:

The House of Bishops agreed to be in prayer about developing a further relationship with the Arabic Catholic Church.

I’m wondering what the CEC will gain other than another mitre and pallium by inviting the Arabic Catholic Church and its archbishop to common ministry.  The Arabic Catholic Church might gain some legitimacy outside of its one church, one archbishop and one deacon operation in Pennsylvania.

King of Peace in Spartanburg, SC is in foreclosure.  They have set up a website to help get the mortgage retired before a December 2009 deadline and the project is aptly called The Goliath Project with the site here:  http://goliathproject2009.webs.com/

Let me state plainly that this is posted more as a news item – not to mock what I’m sure is a very serious challenge facing this church.  I will say that this is a sad commentary on how the financial crisis has forced lending institutions to foreclose on homes, farms and now churches for an influx of capital. 

If you are interested in helping, the following is from the “HOW YOU CAN HELP” page:

BOYCOTT First National Bank of Spartanburg!
Call First National bank of Spartanburg and First National Bank of the South voicing dissatisfaction with them.

Corporate headquarters: 864-948-9001
Toll Free: 877-948-9001
Email: info@fnbwecandothat.com

Enlist your friends to do the same!

This was news to me but David Kyle Foster left CEC for Calvary Chapel.  He was interviewed by David Virtue and was asked about his transfer of ordination from CEC to Calvary Chapel.  Question and answer is below.  The entire interview is here.

VOL: You were ordained a priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church in 1995 and appointed a “Canon” in 1997, serving at the Cathedral in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2005, you returned to the Nashville, TN area and in 2008 transferred your ordination to Grace Chapel (Calvary Chapel) near your home. What made you leave the CEC for a non-denominational church?

FOSTER: I have tried to follow the voice of the Holy Spirit in every major decision of my life as a believer. Some years ago, I wrote an article (A Tour of Christendom) about my journey through the body of Christ that will provide a much more detailed picture of my ecclesiastical movements in life and the reasons behind them. http://www.masteringlife.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:a-tour-of-christendom&catid=36:comparative-religion&Itemid=29

This latest change was a big surprise. I am at the age now where settling into one place for the duration is the most comfortable choice to make. But when the Lord brought me back to Nashville (where there is no CEC church) in 2005 to produce our TV program, I was left to pick a church or plant one and having no time to plant one, I started attending Grace Chapel (www.gracechapel.net) and absolutely fell in love with it. After a couple of years, it just seemed like the obvious thing to do.

According to the article, Fr. James Hamrick (I believe his new name is James after he was ordained.  I don’t know his name when he was CEC) was formerly a CEC priest and is pastor of St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Frederick, MD.  Score another convert to Western Rite Orthodoxy from the CEC fallout.

Click here or read below for the story.

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Episcopalian Minister and Congregation Convert

August 30, 9:14 PMRoanoke Orthodox Christian ExaminerAndrew Salvia

I will give credit where credit is due …  ++Doug Woodall can take a joke!  He sent me an e-mail a week or so back to clarify the Punch cigar photo that had been forwarded to me and which I posted here on the blog.  It was his Facebook profile pic.  He goes on to explain the photo shoot and that he has quit smoking entirely.   

++Woodall granted me permission to post part of his e-mail which I of course appreciate.

Please note: all correspondence to cechealingblog@gmail.com is treated as confidential unless otherwise directed.
—- 

(via e-mail) From +Douglas Woodall to me
You’re right to a point.  It was an opportunity at a local pipe/cigar shop to have your picture made against a blue screen and they would print it on the Punch paper.  This was done in Spartanburg, SC back in the late 90’s.  I did not wear my cassock and zuchetti to the shop, I carried it with me.  I had it done as a joke due to the once common practice among us of cigar smoking.  While I did try a few cigars over the years, I favored the pipe.  But alas, I gave up all smoking over four years ago (five in January 2010.)

… I appreciate your attempt to clarify things a bit but felt like I needed to present exactly what this was all about. 

…I pray all is well with you and yours.

God bless,
+Doug Woodall
CEC Archdiocese of the Armed Forces and Federal Chaplaincy

Bishop Phil Zampino formerly of Life in Jesus Commuity is now heading up Jesus our Shepherd Anglican Church.  The Life in Jesus website is no more and is now linking to the new site.  +Zampino is not listed as a bishop on his parish’s new website which means his episcopal orders may not have been received by the Anglican Church in North America.

Click here for the story or read below.

Unionville church joins breakaway Anglican group Originally published August 08, 2009 By Ron Cassie

Photo by Travis Pratt The Rev. Philip Zampino is pastor of Jesus Our Shepherd Church, formerly Life in Jesus Church.       After 25-plus years in Unionville, the Life in Jesus Church officially changed its name to Jesus Our Shepherd last Sunday. The name change is not superficial, but highlights a switch in affiliation to the new Anglican province in North America where the Rev. Philip Zampino believes the church has found a home.Zampino, 67, a graduate of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, founded the Life in Jesus Church, which today has just a handful of congregants. He initially formed it under the Episcopal House of Bishops as a religious community, but Zampino left the Episcopal Church U.S.A. — and took his community with him — in the early 1990s. Upset over evolving Episcopal U.S.A. positions on issues such as abortion, women’s ordination, homosexuality and biblical interpretation, Zampino later associated his church with the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. That relationship was not a good fit in the end, Zampino said recently. So, when the Anglican Church in North America formed, he became interested in joining the new movement, which has come about largely as a result of schisms in several U.S. dioceses over decisions by the national church leadership, including the ordination of gay and female clergy. “In the Episcopal church, for 25-30 years, small groups have been breaking off forming splinter associations and going on independently,” Zampino said. “And what has finally taken place over the last several years, is that several U.S. dioceses have broken with the Episcopal Church U.S.A.” The Anglican Church in North America unites 700 Anglican parishes in 12 Anglican jurisdictions in North America into a single church, according to an ACNA press release sent out last spring after recognition by the Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). The jurisdictions coming together include the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the dioceses of Fort Worth, Texas, Pittsburgh, Quincy and San Joaquin, Calif., the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, the Reformed Episcopal Church and several missionary initiatives. By forming the new Anglican Church in North America and seeking recognition from African provinces, the province of the Southern Cone of South America and other Anglican provinces, the ACNA hopes to join the worldwide Anglican Communion, but separately from the Episcopal Church U.S.A. The Most Rev. Robert William Duncan Jr., former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Episcopal Church U.S.A.), now serves as the first archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America. In mid-June, at a conference in Texas attended by about 900 church leaders, the ACNA formally adopted a constitution and canons. Zampino attended and when he returned, he said, his small congregation unanimously voted to join the movement, joining an estimated 100,000 church members in the U.S. and Canada. “My personal reasons for leaving (the Episcopal Church U.S.A.) are basically the same reasons the new province has been formed,” Zampino said, listing a tolerance of abortion, acceptance of homosexuality as a normative lifestyle, a failure to take the Bible seriously, and women’s ordination as issues with Episcopal Church U.S.A. “I think you can draw a parallel to Catholic canon law,” Zampino said. One of his sons, a former priest in the Charismatic Episcopal Church in Wisconsin, is now a Roman Catholic and in the process of becoming a Roman Catholic priest. Along with leading Sunday morning services, Zampino leads monthly healing services — the next is Tuesday — including anointing with oil and the laying on of hands. The church is on 131 acres and peaked with about 150 members in the 1980s, Zampino said. In the past, the congregation held retreats on their large property. “By God’s grace, we may be able to do that again,” Zampino said. The church’s affiliation with the new province may attract some local Episcopalians dissatisfied with the direction of the Episcopal Church U.S.A., Zampino said. However, parishioners are typically hesitant to leave their local parish, he said, even if they are unhappy with the national church. Fifteen churches in Maryland, according to the ACNA’s website, are part of the Anglican Church in North America, including two Catonsville churches and St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church in Eldersburg. “I think it’s a moral, spiritual, biblical decision,” Zampino said of joining the ACNA. “It’s a place where I can do the ministry that I felt I was called to do. I don’t believe it’s time to retire, I believe it’s a place God has called me to be.”

++Woodall isn’t a spokesman for Punch Cigars. From what I can gather, this was a national campaign in conjunction with local cigar stores to have customers come in, pose for a photo and they made it look like the Punch Cigar ads featuring actual celebrities. It appears that ++Woodall showed up for his free photo shoot in his cassock, zucchetto and pectoral cross.

Found this gem online…
++Doug Woodall enjoys his cigar and “smoking cassock” because a smoking jacket would be just so cliche’.

Thanks to anon4cec for this newstip. St. David’s CEC in San Rafael, CA is for sale. So says this photo gallery:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/07/25/RE2J18U0JU.DTL&o=5&type=newsbayarea

Photo caption: St. David’s Charismatic Episcopal Church in San Rafael is one of the many churches that have gone on the market. The church’s asking price is $1.2 million.

Full article here and below.

—-

Home buyers – how about an empty church?
Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Built in a melange of Craftsman and Mission styles, the building for sale features 20-foot vaulted and beamed ceilings, hardwood floors, numerous chandeliers and huge, light-flooded spaces. Located within a block of San Rafael’s Fourth Street “Miracle Mile” shopping district, its $400-per-square-foot price tag is quite reasonable for Marin.

And it’s got some unusual features: Parking for 30 vehicles. A “crying room” for upset babies. Pews to seat 100 people.

It’s St. David’s Charismatic Episcopal Church, one of about 40 houses of worship now on the market throughout the Bay Area.

As congregations shrink, many are trying to sell their real estate holdings. But selling a church presents special challenges.

“It’s an art as well as a science,” said Barry Willbanks, a Coldwell Banker agent in Menlo Park, who has catered to the church real estate market since 1972.

“Since I was the son of a pastor and had been a pastor myself and a college religion professor, it seemed like a natural groove to get into,” he said. His Web site, Churches4sale.com, shows about 78 California churches for sale; he says about 170 are on the market throughout the state.

Churches generally can be converted to residential space without much hassle. Since they usually come with kitchens and bathrooms, most don’t need much rehab.

“All you’d need (to get city permission) to live there would be a covered garage,” said Glen Quintos of Olson Realty, the agent selling St. David’s. At $1.2 million for almost 3,000 square feet, it’s well within residential price ranges for its area.

Most churches do get sold as churches, but sometimes they get repurposed as schools, day care centers, retreat centers, nonprofit offices, art galleries or private residences.

Joske Thompson, an agent with Pacific Union, is preparing to put San Francisco’s First Church of God on the market for the second time. “It would be a very cool, creative building to turn into a loft or single-family home, or a great art gallery with all the wall space and high ceilings,” he said.

Located on Cesar Chavez Street, the $2.395 million two-lot property includes a two-unit residence as well as the 1860s church with a 120-seat nave. The congregation, which has switched its focus to doing outreach programs in the Tenderloin, tried selling the church two years ago.

“We were in contract three times,” said Thompson, who handled the prior sales attempt. “Every time it fell through because of financing.”

Like the rest of the properties on the market, church buildings are proving difficult to sell. Several churches in the Bay Area have been on the market for more than two years, in part because of the financing crunch that hit in summer 2007, agents said. Congregations are reluctant to take on loans and obligations in the current climate; many parishioners may be struggling with their own finances.

Determining price is a challenge. Most churches have their own distinct style and rarely change hands, so there aren’t nearby comparable sales.

“You’ve got hundreds of three-bedroom houses in any given city, many of them the same vintage, but churches are all unique,” Willbanks said. “Some are on 5,000-square-foot lots, some on 5 acres. Some have a multitude of parking, some none. Some have stained class, some clear glass.”

He uses other church sales as well as replacement cost and the land’s value to arrive at a price, adjusting for the variables.

Quintos said he looks at price per square foot, seeking out comps for both residences and other churches. “It’s hard to pin down because some churches are in residential neighborhoods and some are in commercial/industrial or retail areas,” he said.

Agents said they market churches by reaching out to other churches, as well as standard techniques such as listing on the MLS and a national Web site for commercial property called Loopnet.com.

Congregations looking to buy a church often reflect California’s shifting demographics.

“A lot of the church purchasers are ethnically distinct communities looking for their own space to maintain their language, culture and religion,” Willbanks said. The most active are Latino, Indian, Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Samoan and Tongan immigrants, he said.

“They tend to be starting newer churches so don’t have long-standing properties from the past. They are willing to travel further, say 50 miles or from one side of the bay to the other, to be with their own communities, even if it’s not an ideal location. They tend to be the more theologically conservative groups who offer something distinct from the broader culture.”

Thompson said the San Francisco parish is the first church he’s put on the market, but he’s sold properties with much more challenging profiles.

“I sold a funeral home in the Western Addition that was converted to residential housing,” he said. “When we were marketing it, there were certain rooms we couldn’t go into, such as the embalming room, because it was an active funeral home. It was a lively experience, no pun intended.”

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/26/RE2J18U0JU.DTL

This article appeared on page H – 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle