Thread by @JimNaught

I’m troubled by something happening in the #Episcopal Church that might interest followers of the #LambethConference hashtag. Our church is receiving clergy from ACNA and other breakaway churches back into our church as priests, and, well, it raises questions. 1/

My principal concern is that we seem to regard reception as a primarily canonical matter, and not giving sufficient consideration to the damage priests who have formerly worked against our church can do once they are received as clergy. 2/

The issue involves Canon III.10.3 on Clergy Ordained in the Historic Succession but Not in Communion with this Church. As I am not an expert in the field, I will leave the illumination of this canon to others. (page 99 if you are playing along at home.) But … 3/

Currently, we proceed as though folks who check the proper boxes, we have to receive them. As a result, Ellis and Cynthia Brust are now #Episcopal priests in the Diocese of Central Florida. This may startle folks with a memory of 2003-15 phase of the LGBT sexuality struggles. 4/

For much of that time, the Brusts were leaders in the fight to tear the Episcopal Church apart, take its property and have it removed from the Anglican Communion. We'd be replaced by organizations they led. 5/

Ellis Brust was CEO of the American Anglican Council from 2003-2006. These were the years of all kinds of anti-TEC and anti-LGBT maneuvering (the Chapman Memo, the Barfoot Memo. For details, see canticlecommunications.com/wp-content/upl…) 6/

In 2006, Ellis Brust become president and CEO of the Anglican Mission in America, the Rwandan sponsored front of the breakaway movement. Months before leaving, he had been an unsuccessful candidate for bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

Brust went from being a candidate for bishop in the Diocese of South Carolina to leading an organization locked in a bitter property dispute with the Diocese of South Carolina in a matter of months. This raises certain issues of trust, yes? 7/

Cynthia Brust, who had been the spokesperson for the American Anglican Council left the AAC with Ellis and became the spokesperson for the AMiA. You can Google her. In fact, Google her and @revsusanrussell together for a good idea of what was happening at the time. 8/

The July-August 2020 edition of the Central Florida Episcopalian includes a feature about Cynthia Brust on Page 17 and a feature about how Ellis is living his dream on page 18. Not a word in either story about their time in the AAC and AMiA. 9/ issuu.com/cfepiscopalian…

I understand that there may be ACNA and AMiA priests who have felt their way toward the #Episcopal Church and might make good priests. But to my knowledge, neither Brust has said they were wrong either about LGBT people or their efforts to devastate our church. 10/

Can it really be that we have no way to protect ourselves against people who have done us grievous damage ? A four-day General Convention was not the place to deal with an issue previously on few people’s radar, but I am in hopes we can come up with a canonical fix in 2024. 11/11

12/11, if that's allowed: Part of what I'm saying is: If you once believed that churches backing kill the gays bills represent the Anglican tradition more faithfully than churches moving toward marriage equality, perhaps you owe us an explanation on how your thinking has changed.