Date set for Grace parishioners to vote on vestry’s severed ties
By PAUL ASAY
THE GAZETTE
April 9, 2007

On May 20, parishioners at Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish will vote whether to support their vestry’s decision to leave the Episcopal Church.

But congregants loyal to the Episcopal Church say that the vote isn’t legal under canon law and that they’re not going to participate.

The Rev. Donald Armstrong, longtime rector for Grace, the church formerly tied to the Episcopal Church, announced the May 20 date in a letter to parishioners sent Friday. The vote will conclude a 40-day period of discernment, beginning Wednesday, in which Armstrong and the church’s vestry will meet with congregants to explain allegations leveled against Armstrong and tell them about the Convocation of Anglicans in North America — an organization affiliated with the Anglican province of Nigeria. The vestry voted March 26 to align the parish with the Nigerian adjunct.

Armstrong has dedicated an April 14 meeting to discuss allegations by the diocese that he misused church money. He was suspended by the diocese in December. the rest