American Priest ousted by his Bishop announces he’s
leaving the Episcopal Church of the USA


Web posted Saturday, 29 June 2002


Press statement of the Rev’d Samuel L. Edwards, 27 June 2002


I wish to begin with a word of profound gratitude to those multitudes across the country, and indeed around the world, who have been praying for me and for my family during the past year. Their prayers and support have borne much fruit, and without them we could not have continued to bear the witness and the mission to which we have been called. As we set off on the next stage of our Godward journey I earnestly ask each and all of them to continue their intercessions on our behalf.

1. Today I am announcing that, following the procedures given in its regulations, I have notified the Bishop of Fort Worth that I am renouncing the ministry of The Episcopal Church. I have asked to be received as a priest in the Anglican Province of Christ the King, a jurisdiction distinguished both for its theological soundness and its institutional stability. For the time being, I plan to remain in Southern Maryland for the purpose of assisting in the establishment there of a new congregation of that Province. Initial steps toward this goal already are underway and we hope to have this enterprise moving forward vigorously in the very near future.

I have given much prayerful consideration to my future as a priest since May 22, when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its unanimous adverse ruling in the case of Dixon v. Edwards et al. In light of the current state of affairs in both the civil and the ecclesiastical arenas, I believe that I have done all that I can do in the effort to recall The Episcopal Church to its godly heritage of evangelical faith and catholic order. That effort, and my part in it, appears to have been unsuccessful. Even if the Supreme Court agrees to take up the case and decides in favor of Christ Church, Accokeek, it will still be true that The Episcopal Church has moved beyond the likes of us.

I now believe that, beyond a reasonable doubt, The Episcopal Church is neither desirous of reform from within nor capable of reform without. Indeed, the evidence indicates that, while some people of good will remain within it, the institution taken as a whole is unremittingly hostile to any calls to halt and reverse its decline from authentic Christianity. It already has been engaged for some time in the subversion and reduction of the remaining pockets of resistance to the agenda of its leadership. Additionally, I believe that the official Anglican Communion does not yet have the capacity -- even if it has the will -- to effect The Episcopal Church’s reform by persuasion or by intervention. Therefore, in obedience to God and in consideration of my obligations to the Lord’s flock, my family and my own conscience, I must now seek to remove myself and as many as are willing from fellowship with an institution that, as a whole, now stands revealed as an enemy of Evangelical Faith, Catholic Truth, Apostolic Order, and Godly Life.

2. At the beginning of this ordeal, I said that we would win even if we lost in the courts, for at the end of the process we all would know the truth about The Episcopal Church and be able to order our lives accordingly. The legal process is not quite ended, but the truth about The Episcopal Church could not be clearer than it is. In the year since Jane Dixon began her litigious attack on the faithful people of Christ Church and upon me, she, her allies, and her financial backers have spared neither effort nor expense in the pursuit of two principal aims.

Their first objective was legal victory. So far, that has been achieved, and the likelihood of its being finally secured appears to be high. It should not go unnoticed by Episcopalians throughout this country and by Anglicans throughout the world that the vast majority of the bishops of The Episcopal Church are complicit in this result either by their active support of Jane Dixon’s aggression or by their craven acquiescence in it.

Their second objective was, and remains, the total subjugation of those who dare to resist their doctrinal errors and their tyrannical government of The Episcopal Church. They have not been as successful in achieving that objective. They may be further from it now than they were before this debacle began, because they have been forced to reveal their smooth talk of universal acceptance and inclusiveness for the vacuous cant that it is and always has been. They have shown the world that the love of which they speak extends only so far as the number of those who will agree with their agenda or who at least will remain silent before it and keep paying the bills while they prate of sharing a gospel in which they no longer believe and while they speak of reconciliation in terms that make it evident that the meaning they assign to that word involves making peace with falsehood and oppression.

When the process of this lawsuit began, it was still possible for reasonable and hopeful people to imagine that The Episcopal Church at bottom was a constitutional church in which all its members - even bishops - were answerable to the rule of law in the Church under the Word of God. Such an imagination is no longer tenable. Thanks to Jane Dixon and her allies and sponsors, The Episcopal Church stands revealed as an institution that still wears the vesture of constitutionality, but which in reality has become a cartel of ecclesiastical despots who, because only they are allowed authoritatively and individually to interpret the law of the Church, are themselves above that law. The Episcopal Church thus has no constitutional order worthy of the name. Its constitution and canons are of no more significance to its real life than was the constitution of the former Soviet Union, which served only to cloak in the appearance of justice and order the lust for power and dominion.

3. No Christian can with fidelity, integrity, and dignity consent to live under such a system. It is now abundantly evident that The Episcopal Church cannot and will not be reformed; it therefore must be eschewed.

It is my duty as a Christian priest, charged to take part in the councils of the Church, to offer, as my last advice to my orthodox Anglican brethren who for now remain in The Episcopal Church, the counsel (1) that they depart from its communion - corporately if possible, individually if necessary - as quickly and on the best terms and conditions they can secure, and (2) that they seek without delay a spiritual home in an Anglican jurisdiction more committed to maintaining the faith of the apostles of the only-begotten Son of God.

The die is cast: Traditional Anglican Christians still within The Episcopal Church should not persist in the false hope that they have now or at some future date can make a place for themselves within that institution: There is no genuine future for us within it, as indeed the spearheads of the revisionist movement have been telling us for some time. It is time for us to come to terms with that fact. It is time for me and for those who believe as Anglicans traditionally have believed to come out of The Episcopal Church with what we can carry even if such be only our souls.

Those who leave The Episcopal Church will not be leaving the Anglican Way of being Christian. It is time us to seek affiliation with a jurisdiction of Anglican Christians whose integrity in the faith is secure, and whose regard for the dignity of all the faithful is genuine - whose affirmation of the faith once delivered to the saints is a matter of deeds as well as words. Indeed, we now rededicate ourselves, not just to the preservation of that Way, but to its extension to those who are not now members of any Christian communion.


Statement from Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth

Sam Edwards had placed himself under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Fort Worth in an attempt to gain protection from the legal pursuit by his own bishop, Jane Dixon.

The Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, has issued the following statement:

"It is with deep regret that I have received the notification from Fr. Sam Edwards of his decision to leave the ministry of the Episcopal Church and to affiliate with the Anglican Province of Christ the King.

It is a tragedy that yet another traditionalist priest has been so marginalized and persecuted by the liberal establishment of ECUSA that he has found it impossible to remain within this branch of Christ's Church. I wish him well in his new ministry. He is a valued servant of Jesus Christ, and his witness in this Church will be deeply missed.

"Now that Fr. Edwards is no longer under the discipline of the Episcopal Church, his ecclesiastical trial has been cancelled. With the consent of the Standing Committee at their next meeting, I will accept Fr. Edwards' renunciation of the ministry of this Church and impose a Sentence of Deposition.

"Fr. Edwards and his family have my continued affection and prayers in the days ahead."


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