Dixon to Send 'Swat Team' to Accokeek
Robert Stowe England |
6 December 2001
ACCOKEEK, Maryland -- Acting Bishop Jane Dixon announced to the vestry of St. John's Christ Church here last night that she had put together "a task force to visit and listen" to the parish and report back to the Standing Committee and the Diocesan Council.
Quickly dubbed the 'swat team' by parish members, the task force was sharply opposed by the vestry as yet another intrusion into their parish. Dixon plans to send the five-member team of diocesan lay leaders once every four to six weeks.
The task force is composed mostly of members of the Standing Committee and Diocesan Council.
Dixon cited the fact that the parish had made no pledge for 2002 to the diocese as the reason it was necessary to send the task force. "It is standard practice to appoint teams where there are financial issues," she said.
When one vestry member asked if any of the members of the task force are conservative, Dixon changed the subject.
The task force members are: Delois Ward, a parishioner at Atonement in D.C. and a member of the Standing Committee; Barbara Miles, a parishioner at St. Nicholas mission in Darnestown and a member of the Standing Committee; Ernest Garner, a parishioner at St. Paul's, Rock Creek, D.C., and a member of the Executive Council; Robert Winters, a parishioner at St. John's Broad Creek, Md., and a member of the Diocesan Council, and John Simons, a member of St. John's Norwood, Chevy Chase.
Dixon sought to portray the visits of the team as something designed to help the parish. "The Diocesan Council at its meeting in November said that any way they can be supportive in the days ahead they will be privileged to do that," Dixon said.
Vestry member Maura Claggett asked Dixon why, if she were sending down a clergy representative once a month, did she also need to send down a lay task force, too. "Why are you using two forces instead of one person?" Claggett asked. She said Dixon should send one or the other, but not both.
Dixon has stated that she will send a clergy representative once a month to preach, while the interim rector Fr. Stephen Arpee could preach all other Sundays.
Senior Warden Barbara Sturman asked Dixon why was there any need for either the monthly clergy representative or the team? "Why can't you form that relationship [of reconciliation] with Fr. Arpee?" she asked.
"Fr. Arpee and I are trying to work together," Dixon said, but she wanted a "broad-based leadership to deal with the division" in the parish. "We need to hear from a lot of people," she said. Dixon did not explain how sending in a task force would accomplish that goal.
Wes Courtney, a vestry member, told Dixon, "You are again polarizing the vestry by doing something against our wishes." He cited her appointment of worship advisor George Hanssen, a strident vestry critic who has threatened to mount an effort to oust the vestry, as another example of Dixon's divisiveness.
"If you really wanted to reconcile with us, you'd drop the lawsuit," Courtney said, referring the Dixon's lawsuit against the parish, which led to the ouster of its rector, Fr. Samuel Edwards in late October and a court order that requires the vestry to allow Dixon to come as often as she wishes to the parish to hold services and to service as ex officio rector and run vestry meetings.
Courtney indicated that there was a disconnect between the lawsuit, on the one hand, and an offer of reconciliation, on the other.
Fr. Edwards and the vestry are appealing the lawsuit to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the fourth district in Richmond, Va.
When Dixon said that the diocese and its governing bodies care about the parish, vestry member Frank McDonough, Jr. retorted, "I have a hard time thinking the diocese cares about me."
When Mrs. Sturman asked Dixon if she approved Fr. Arpee's contract with the vestry, she said she did, but wanted one further small change. She wanted to include her name along with that of the vestry and Fr. Arpee as being responsible for ministry and governance in the parish. Several vestry members challenged this addition, and Mrs. Sturman indicated she would not agree to that addition.
When pressed, Dixon conceded that Fr. Arpee is "priest-in-charge."
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