Saturday, September 09, 2006

CNY Diocese: Church Warden's Response to Syracuse Newspaper editorial

On the day of the September 1st court appearance in the lawsuit against St. Andrews, Syracuse, NY by the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, the local newspaper ran a
story about how the diocese spent $25,000 to bring a young girl from El Salvador to central New York for surgery. Less than a week after the court appearance, the newspaper’s lead editorial was about the Episcopal diocese and the girl’s surgery, but also mentioned the lawsuit by the diocese against the parish. In response, the senior warden of St. Andrews wrote a commentary. To date the commentary has not been published by the newspaper. That commentary is reprinted here in its entirety:

Your editorial in the Syracuse Post-Standard on September 6, 2006 about the actions of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York and its bishop, the Rt. Rev. Gladstone “Skip” Adams, illustrates one of the odder things about the Episcopal Church these days. With one hand it spends lots of money to bring a 10-year old girl from El Salvador to Syracuse for a highly publicized operation to cure her case of rickets. With its other hand it spends lots of money to sue me and other members of my church and its priest to seize our property.

I am on the board of St. Andrews in the Valley in Syracuse which for years has proclaimed the Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ rather than the diocesan message of inclusion which accepts sin without the need for repentance and change. In doing so it has departed from the historic faith of Christianity. When we recently split from the Episcopal Church and this diocese because of this, they sued us. They hired the largest and most expensive law firm in Syracuse and sued not only our church, but also us personally, as well as our priest, and sought a temporary injunction to close us down. Fortunately the judge on the case threw out the lawsuit of the diocese against me and the others and denied them an injunction. But our church and our priest are still dealing with this lawsuit just to keep our property and to keep holding our Sunday worship services.

The irony of the diocese loudly proclaiming its good deed for this little girl while it persecutes us for our adherence to the faith is astonishing. It reminds me of that saying of Jesus to

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

I’m glad the little girl can now walk without pain. I wish the diocese would let us pray and worship without the pain of their lawsuit against us.

Peter Iannotta is the senior warden of St. Andrews in the Valley at 5013 South Salina Street in Syracuse, New York.

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