Los Angeles Diocese Will Fight Parish Departure
02/15/2006

In a letter to the clergy and laity in the Diocese of Los Angeles, Bishop J. Jon Bruno said the claim to church property by the departing congregation of St. Luke’s in the Mountains in La Crescenta, Calif., was “clearly illegal” and it was his “pastoral and fiduciary duty” to pursue the matter.

St. Luke’s announced Feb. 14 that it had left the Episcopal Church and the diocese and that the congregation was now part of the Anglican Province of Uganda. St. Luke’s, which was incorporated in 1940 and claims some 260 members of voting age, is the fourth parish to leave the Diocese of Los Angeles since the conclusion of the 74th General Convention. The rector is the Rev. Ron Jackson, who was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1974. He has served as rector of St. Luke’s since 1992.

In a press release, Fr. Jackson is quoted as saying that the congregation had worked very hard for many years to reconcile its differences with the Episcopal Church and the diocese. “That effort cannot bridge the theological chasm between us or bring the Episcopal Church back into communion with most of the Anglican world that has severed ties with the U.S. church,” he said.

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