Schism comes to Diocese of Rio Grande

According to the web, the vestry of the Episcopal Church of St. Francis on the Hill, voted to remove themselves (as opposed to removing the entire parish and property) from the Episcopal Church. Well, that’s not how they are spinning it, but that’s all they did.

The vestry apparently believes that by vote they can remove their parish from the diocese and the National Church. They “immediately filed a motion for summary judgment in the District Court of El Paso seeking a decision on the title to the property." The vestry feels they own the property located in Northwest El Paso.

Isn't it interesting that they "immediately" filed legal papers. That is so Christian, you know. It certainly is part of the Chapman plot which is not Christian.

Now, guess who one of their their priests is and where he is from? The Rev’d Dr. Felix Orji, a Nigerian native. He has a history of schism. He was a priest at St. John’s in the diocese of New Westminster where the rector, David Short was deposed for his schismatic activities. Orji was his right-hand man.

According to the Diocese of Rio Grande web site, the rector is the Rev'd Jeffrey Humpf with Orji associate priest. The church web page lists Orji as rector. It's also interesting that the church web site makes no mention of the recent vestry actions.

We should note that Orji was present at the "Pittsburgh Meeting" in August 2006 where Bob Duncan, David Anderson, David Short, Kendall Harmon, Keith Ackerman, and David Schofield Schofield plotted further machinations.

At that meeting, David Short said

“We may achieve every goal of a thoroughly [fundamentalist], conservative, theologically correct church with all the right oversight in place but if our lives do not demonstrate the humility of Christ, it will be a wasted effort and it will not please him. A theologically correct church by itself will never shake the world with transforming power. What will threaten our culture is not just right doctrine but lives with heavenly Christ-like humility in the service of right doctrine.”

While that above statement is true, they have failed miserably. I don't recall any martyrs telling the world how persecuted they were. Conversely, this bunch loves to remind the world of their respective a collective humility suffering the flings and arrows of outrageous actions at the hands of TEC.

According to Orji, the vestry’s vote came after two years during which they waited for TEC to repent and for the Diocese of the Rio Grande to flee the evil Episcopal Church. He said that it was clear to them that the Diocese of the Rio Grande is not going to leave. So, the they left the diocese – or so they think.

Orji said something that gobsmacked me: he said that "the ongoing persecution of [fundamentalist] Christians by TEC is reprehensible."

This statement is from a man who respects and extols the virtues of bishops who advocate jailing, physically abusing, and killing homosexuals. Orji is is an embarrassment to the name of God.