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Arlie Coles Profile picture
Arlie Coles
@ArlieColes
Deep NLP/ASR researcher, linguist, musician, ecclesiological enthusiast, documentation zealot. MSc '20 @Mila_Quebec. 🇺🇲🇨🇦
Jun 28 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I could not more strongly encourage taking @hlgriffin's words here to heart:

"Laity within Anglicanism... have a unique responsibility, because the clergy take vows of obedience. The priests and pastors are not the next line of defense if the bishops fail. The laity are." 🧵 "But in the ACNA... the laity are not educated on their polity. So it allows bishops to manage the image and narrative of what's going on, and laity largely stay in the dark."
Jun 24 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
For those wondering whether public accessibility of Anglican councils, synods, and the like is really a narrow-horizoned American expectation, here is the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, available for livestream by all, beginning now. Image It is reasonable for members of a church to expect that its synods be public and publicly accounted for -- it is your government:
gs2025.anglican.ca/live/
Feb 5 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
.@monkofjustice nails something important for both TEC and ACNA in this great article by @kathrynmaepost. Things go wrong when handling of accusation, prosecution, judgment, and sentence on misbehaving clergy depends on one interested individual. 🧵 Image Right now, the provincial canons of ACNA require the bishop to
- Receive charges
- Decide if they're credible, to send for preliminary investigation
- Decide if the matter should go to trial
- Sentence after trial.
The only place they have no official role is on the court itself. Image
Jan 16 • 29 tweets • 6 min read
What is the process for reporting priest/deacon misconduct in ACNA? How did the ACNA framers modify the TEC process, and what are the effects? 🧵

A key theme of ACNA’s canonical philosophy is subsidiarity, but its provincial canons still stipulate these elements of the process. Image First: WHO can bring a charge of misconduct against a priest or deacon? TEC’s canons explicitly expanded in 1994 to enumerate the various groups with standing to bring a charge (including all the way down to a single person when alleging crime, immorality, or conduct unbecoming). Image
Sep 14, 2024 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
For those who would like to see this case finally tried, see this very complex, very very tough to understand diagram to see where things could go off track after a lengthy discovery period. A schedule for possible motions for summary judgment is not included in today's order.
Image (In case my tone isn't detectable: You don't have to be a lawyer to know the basic shape of a civil suit, & obfuscating documentation in a church context to suggest it's too complicated to concern others, while conspicuously leaving off basics, serves a particular interest only.)
Aug 31, 2024 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
A bit of history for those interested. The main program was called 40 Days of Discernment ™ and was put together mainly by the Falls Church & Truro Church with contributions from others. The idea was, you'd guide the congregation through 40 days of deciding whether to leave TEC.

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Image 40 Days of Discernment ™ grew into a well-resourced program in the Diocese of Virginia, including powerpoints, flyers, directions for workshop facilitators, etc. and this guidebook. Take a look at the shape of the program (and hey, there's Yates).
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Aug 30, 2024 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Moreover, this timeline about Minns' consecration "in or around June 2006" is still incorrect. This is not ancient history and the dates can be easily verified.

News of Minns' *election* as a Church of Nigeria bishop came on June 29, 2006:
web.archive.org/web/2006082907…

Image Minns' *consecration* came August 20, 2006:


web.archive.org/web/2007060920…
web.archive.org/web/2007060920…
web.archive.org/web/2007060920…Image
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Image
Aug 30, 2024 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Just looking through this, but the fact that the first report let this slide without comment is stunning - a complete failure to look at events known to anyone with even passing knowledge of the Episcopal schism in Virginia. Of course there was a bishop; that's why CANA existed.
Image The below is incredible. Minns and Yates were rectors of two of the most important Episcopal departing churches in the country (Truro & Falls Church) which worked hand in hand to develop PR programs and strategies for departing that several others in the diocese followed. Image
Aug 28, 2024 • 22 tweets • 5 min read
The claim that @PostCnsumrChris was creating a conflict of interest for those involved in hearing Bp. Ruch's case is remarkable, and is a great example of muddled views on how similar an ecclesiastical trial and a secular criminal trial are or can be. Warning: commentary. 🧵 First of all, it should go without saying that we do not live in Inquisition times and an ecclesiastical trial is not the same as a secular criminal trial. (Not least because in Inquisition times, you don't sue anyone - you get the church/govt to open an inquisition for you.)
Aug 28, 2024 • 36 tweets • 7 min read
Just tweeting this out. Mandatory listening for anyone interested in church governance & use of power. 🧵

"In early June, I first received news from my bishop, Alberto Morales, followed by a letter from him attached to an email, that people at the provincial level in the ACNA... "are calling for the podcast to be eliminated immediately. In this letter, he himself said, quote, 'by the virtue of the vow of obedience that you made the day of your ordination to your bishop,' that I am to pause the podcast.
Jun 24, 2024 • 17 tweets • 7 min read
While TEC just wrapped its second day of legislation at General Convention today, ACNA begins its Provincial Council session tomorrow, with Provincial Assembly meeting in days after. What are these groups? If you are used to following TEC politics, these will look different.🧵 Image Getting a change to the canons passed in ACNA means passing through two bodies:
1. Provincial Council, who must adopt by majority;
2. Provincial Assembly, who must then ratify (C&C do not specify by what proportion).
Failure to ratify by PA means the matter returns to PC. Image
Jun 17, 2024 • 20 tweets • 8 min read
I was hesitating on whether to try to write about TEC vs ACNA Title IV before General Convention/Provincial Council+Assembly, since both bodies are due to make changes.

ACNA's proposed changes are now available, so I'll hold off on a blog post & hit some of them quickly here: 🧵 Image First, recall that canonical changes originate neither in the Provincial Council nor the Provincial Assembly but in the Governance Task Force. A change must be adopted by 1/2 of PC, then ratified by 1/2 of PA, to become effective. For a refresher, see:
detestableenormities.substack.com/p/church-civic…
Image
May 29, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
In response to current events: changing ACNA's diocese-by-diocese stance on WO requires a constitutional amendment, not a mere canonical change or anyone's fiat decision. 🧵 Image How can ACNA's constitution be amended? You need 2/3 of the Provincial Assembly to vote for it. Image
May 2, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I again recommend this podcast to all. A key point made in the below discussion is that even clergy with integrity are in a precarious position when they have to speak out against their authorities. This is why a culture of lay participation is critical to safety in the church. I have said it before & will say it again: lay people are special in episcopal churches because they are explicitly *not* beholden to vowed obedience to a bishop. And in simple practical terms, their livelihoods aren't at stake. They're sometimes the only people who can cry foul.
Apr 7, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
It seems to me that explicit musical formation is neglected in the wider discussion of how to welcome people from other musical backgrounds to church. I rarely see this and understand that music staff are always in short supply, but would argue that it needs to be prioritized. 🧵 Hymns are odd as communal singing is now rare in modern life. People may need an explicit Sunday school lesson on getting around a hymnal and its sections, how to thread through the verses, and how to locate the top line, as well as the fun info about tune and author.
Feb 24, 2024 • 17 tweets • 9 min read
After months of inaction re: the ecclesiastical trial of ACNA bishop Stewart Ruch, the authors of one of his two presentments have published their charges. It's tough reading but worth your time to go over, even if not in ACNA, as Christian duty to your neighbor. 🧵
Image The core argument is that Ruch has serially promoted individuals with physically and sexually abusive histories into positions of power, which directly opened the door to further predation in his diocese.

First, they say, that's a violation of ordination vows:
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Sep 13, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
One other thing about the Eucharistic validity discussion lately: it cuts both ways, not only regarding whose celebration outside your group is invalid, but to whose IS valid. That's why when abuse of the Eucharist occurs, it's the whole church's business.
acnatoo.org/diocese-of-the… The form, matter, and intention are all there at this IL church where Mark Rivera, a subdeacon, used the consecrated elements to intoxicate women. It is a true and valid eucharist used for a deeply vile and heinous purpose. It should grieve the conscience of every communicant. Image
Sep 8, 2023 • 22 tweets • 7 min read
ACNA Legal Kerfuffle, a 9th 🧵.

This thread will look at Ruch's original appeal, first to Foley and then to the Tribunal, just after he became aware of a presentment against him in Jan 2023, days after its submission in Dec 2022.

Previous thread here:
This document contains two documents:
1) A Jan 31 letter from Ruch (via Philbrick) to the Tribunal, and
2) A Jan 7 letter from Ruch (via Philbrick) to Foley.
We'll look at them in chronological order.

The document is available here:
anglicanchurch.net/wp-content/upl…
Sep 8, 2023 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
ACNA Legal Kerfuffle, an 8th 🧵.

Yesterday, Abp Foley Beach announced that the Provincial Tribunal has ruled that Bp Ruch's question of the validity of a presentment against him is moot.

He also dropped some 14 new documents. What on earth do they mean?

anglicanchurch.net/tribunal-lifts… My previous threads have characterized this conflict as a Constitutional Crisis, but I'm no longer sure this is the best term at the present date. It's more like a sustained war, which could rear up into a specific battle, an acute crisis, at pretty much any time.
Sep 5, 2023 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
Lessons in Anglican Polity #3: there is NO such thing as an active cleric who is not under the authority of a bishop somewhere. Let's explain & show what it looks like when that basic essential principle is obfuscated. 1/🧵
Anglican polity is episcopal ("with a bishop"). Bishops oversee ALL ministry in a given area called a diocese. For a priest or deacon to minister in the territory of the diocese, the bishop must not only know them, but license them - give them explicit permission to function.
Jun 22, 2023 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
ACNA Constitutional Crisis, a 7th 🧵.

At today's Afternoon Session, the Provincial Council approved a proposed canonical amendment concerning whether the Provincial Tribunal can involve itself at the beginning rather than the end of a disciplinary process.

Some highlights: Here's the full text of the amendment (pic stolen from @condorhanson). It decides that in disciplinary trials, the Tribunal only has appellate jurisdiction (a convicted cleric can appeal to it), not original jurisdiction (accused clerics cannot get it to challenge presentments).