VERO BEACH, FL: Trinity Church leaders in Vero say they won't vacate soon

[david at virtueonline.org]

VERO BEACH, FL: Trinity Church leaders in Vero say they won't vacate soon

By Elliott Jones 
TCpalm.com 
April 18, 2008

Leaders of Trinity Episcopal Church aren't planning to obey their bishop's request for them to vacate their church by May 1, a spokesman said Thursday.

"The call for us to vacate is spurious, at best," said Ron Joaquim, spokesman for the leadership that wants to break with the national Episcopal Church, citing theological differences.

On Wednesday, Bishop John Howe, with the church's Central Florida Diocese, announced those who want to break off should depart and leave behind the parishes' multimillion-dollar church complex in Vero Beach.

It is Howe's answer to a stalemate between church members who want to stay and those who want to leave the Episcopal Church. The controversy has been going on for six months.

Joaquim said his group hasn't officially started the disaffiliation process and they continue to pay dues to the Episcopal Church and fly the church's flag. So far, church leaders have been saying they oppose the stances of the national church and a vote was taken in February to find how many people want to leave.

The bishop says the church has about 800 families. In response to the church survey mailed to 741 members, 383 favored leaving the Episcopal Church of the United States and 128 opposed the move. Seventeen members expressed no choice. Another 196 surveys weren't returned.

"We will just have to see where this lands," said Joaquim, in saying his group hasn't decided what the next step will be in response to the bishop.

Months ago the church hired a special legal counsel, Brian Bolton, of Orlando, to advise the church leaders on breaking off. Bolton has set up a meeting for Tuesday with diocese officials to discuss the bishop's statements.

"It is premature for the bishop to call on people to leave," Bolton said.

"I am surprised they would say that," said Warren Winchester, who heads up church member want to remain Episcopalian. "I thought the bishop's letter (to members of the church) was pretty clear on what they needed to do to be Christians."

Howe's letter called on the church's head minister, the Rev. Lorne Coyle, to recommit to the Episcopal Church.

"For the sake of everyone involved, I am asking that those who wish to leave the Episcopal Church to do so as promptly and amicably as possible," the letter also read.

END