Thread by @hlgriffin

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @KezaUwimana that is a completely sensible question & one that any unpaid Public Relations intern with a pulse could have told them they needed to explain very clearly in @ArchbishopFoley 's statement right after leading with "we have failed & are sorry & are going to fix it."

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley First off: I seriously doubt that any bishop in the @The_ACNA other than @StewartRuch & @ArchbishopFoley knew that anything was going on regarding an allegation of sexual abuse in @MidwestAnglican until @ladyjessicahaze made sure that they knew.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze I would also be very surprised if @StewartRuch told @ArchbishopFoley much of what was going on other than what he absolutely had to. I don't know what he was REQUIRED to tell the Archbishop under the governing laws of the Province, which are clearly going to have to change.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze I haven't talked to any of them yet, but I am confident that all of the bishops, including @ArchbishopFoley , are very upset about this & want to make this right and make sure it won't happen again.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze They still have to follow up on those intentions and if they do it carefully, they have a chance to not only save @The_ACNA , but make it into a Province that is vibrant and healthy that lots of people want to join and support.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze To your question- why did it take the Archbishop fourteen days to make a statement after the first horrific survivor statement was released on Twitter?

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze 1. @The_ACNA Anglicans aren't on Twitter in huge numbers. There are good strategic reasons for putting their statements on Twitter, but getting the speediest attention from Archbishop Foley was not one of them.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze 2. Let's take a look at the Archbishop's statement:
anglicanchurch.net/a-letter-from-…

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze "Due to the ACNA's governance principle of subsidiarity, Canonical responsibility and authority in these matters rests with the local diocese. However, the bishop & the diocese have now formally requested that the Province become involved, & I want to apprise you of this matter."

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze If I understand the "principle of subsidiarity" (@AaronMHarrison knows much more about this than I do & I trust him to correct me if I lead you astray), subsidiary means that each diocese in the Province has a great deal of autonomy.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison As much as we need for him to be able to in this situation, @ArchbishopFoley can't really swoop in and clean house the instance the fire alarm rings & people tell him that women & children are stuck in the burning building.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison The local bishop of a diocese (in this case, @StewartRuch ), has to ask @ArchbishopFoley to come in and assist.

This is clearly something that someone like @StewartRuch is not going to do unless he is forced by a public uproar (thus aggressive twitter threads & ACNAtoo).

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison Whatever authority the @ArchbishopFoley has to enforce doctrines & established policies & procedures, there is a legal zone in which he cannot act.

Here's how this happened:

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @The_ACNA was founded in 2009 out of disagreements in doctrine with the @episcopalchurch (TEC).

The laws governing the Province were to keep bad things from the TEC wars from happening again.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch Subsidiarity is supposed to protect the property of churches within a Diocese from seizure by the national church like what happened w/ the Episcopal Church.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch This subsidiarity is great in lots of ways and I'm sure they will see the value in continuing the principle with some modifications due to this crisis.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch You can see too that this isn't some group of bad guys that were trying to be sloppy with their abuse prevention & response policies.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch They just didn't anticipate that something like this could happen. It wasn't the lens they were looking through when asking questions about structures.

They were trying to protect themselves from what they had experienced as abusive authoritarianism in a different form.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch Most of the structures that no longer serve us, either individually or in a polity, developed to help protect us from something else.

That something else in mind, in this case, was not abuse of power by a bishop.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch ... at least not a diocesan bishop. They wanted to keep the Province from being too powerful relative to the Dioceses so that if there were serious issues, a diocese could leave (I think?).

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch I'm not 💯 sure of the dioceses being able to just leave part, but if that's a possible move, it's another good reason why @ladyjessicahaze & @ACNAtoo had to make sure they couldn't just take their ball and go home leaving this crisis going on inside the diocese unchecked.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch @ACNAtoo So, long story short, my guess (and it's only a guess- if you've seen the way I drag the Archbishop for this on Twitter, you can infer that I'm not his favorite person & we don't have little catch-up chats), is that it took 14 days for the Archbishop to give a public statement...

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch @ACNAtoo Because he couldn't legally do anything before @StewartRuch hand was forced by the visibility around @ladyjessicahaze & CM's stories forced his hand.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch @ACNAtoo I am guessing that the Standing Committee of the diocese can also call in the Archbishop if they feel their bishop is abusing power, but in the case of @MidwestAnglican , the sequivalent committee is stacked w/ @StewartRuch 's friends & family members.

@KezaUwimana @kristenmcknight @lindseycalv @scotmcknight @kkdumez @laurambarringer @StewartRuch @FoleyBeach @ArchbishopFoley @The_ACNA @MidwestAnglican @ladyjessicahaze @AaronMHarrison @episcopalchurch @ACNAtoo @threadreaderapp unroll