1996—1999

1996

In 1996 Jon Shuler was invited to Little Rock, where a group of laity wanted to start a new church. They called Bishop Ed Salmon who referred them to Shuler, but it turned out that Bishop Larry Maze didn’t want them to start a new church. After a couple trips there pleading with Bishop Maze, Shuler returned for a third visit in October 96 where Bishop Maze also had an Archdeacon with him. Shuler says the Archdeacon was an enemy of God who threw him out of the diocese and was screaming at him, spittle flying from his lips. (Shuler)

January 1996

T.J. Johnston starts as Assistant Rector at All Saints, Pawleys Island.

When I was hired to be an assistant at All Saints Church, my first conversation with Chuck Murphy –and John Shuler was sitting in the room–they asked me, “Well, what do you want to do while you’re here? What are your goals?”

I said, “I want to serve here two years, then I want to go start a church.” I don’t even know why I said it. I served at All Saints two years to the day and left for Little Rock to start a church. Didn’t know what I was doing, had never started a church. And that church became the very first church with a connection to Rwanda. This was before there was an Anglican Mission, two – three years before the Anglican Mission was formed. (Johnston, T. J. “Bishop T. J. Johnston — Communications Update.” Interview by All Saints Communications Team. All Saints Church, 2012, Pawleys Island, SC. Transcript.)

1996

Jon Shuler moved the headquarters of NAMS onto the campus of All Saints Church in South Carolina and brings Thaddeus Barnum with him. (Ross Lindsay)

1996

Bishop Alden Hathaway of Pittsburgh founds the American Anglican Council (AAC). 

10-15 February 1997

Kuala Lumpur—Second Anglican Encounter in the South: “Second Trumpet from the South.” Also “Kuala Lumpur Statement.” (Hansen 57-58).

Spring 1997

Thad Barnum and Chuck Murphy meet with John Rucyahana and Emmanuel Kolini in Kigali, Rwanda to discuss “the crisis…in the Episcopal Church.” (Barnum 77-91) Murphy presses for action and the Rwandans agree.

July 1997

Rev. Thad Barnum moves to South Carolina to work with a missions organization. He attends All Saints Church, Waccamaw, South Carolina, pastored by Chuck Murphy. TJ Johnston is on staff with Murphy. Jon Shuler is also on Pawley’s Island at that time, as is retired Bishop Alex Dickson.

16-25 July 1997 

At the ECUSA convention in 1997, Frank Griswold was elected presiding bishop. Shuler says it was well known that he was bisexual and having relationships with a man and a woman outside his marriage. Shuler expected some other bishop to stand up and say something, and even though they all knew what was going on, no one did. He particularly mentions Bishop John Howe, who he says disappeared. (Shuler)
ECUSA passes a resolution “extending health coverage to the unmarried lovers of church employees.” (Barnum 96).
Resolution from conservatives to endorse the Kuala Lumpur Statement fails.

July/August 1997

In a meeting with TJ & Chuck Murphy…I said: “Chuck if we wait any longer for the bishops to lead us out of this mess we will be ashamed on the day of judgment.” He asked, “What can we do?” I suggested we gather fifty of the strongest rectors in TEC, to come to Pawleys to fast and pray. I suggested that they be men known to be bold for the gospel, and who were in parishes strong enough to support them if we took a bold stand. The three of us there and then agreed. But we could not find fifty who would come, though twenty-eight did on short notice (Shuler, The First Promise Statement – 20 Years Later).

August 1996

Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire forms a corporation in Wisconsin called the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA, Inc. PECUSA, Inc. goes on to incorporate in at least 45 states. PECUSA intends to be a movement within the Episcopal Church to create an “umbrella for orthodox individuals, organizations and parishes” unnerved by the perceived liberal shift of General Convention and the national hierarchy.
Bishop Wantland, with the Rt. Rev. John Howe, Bishop of Central Florida, and the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of San Joaquin, Calif., were founding directors of the corporation. Trustees include Bishop Wantland, the Rev. Canon Lawrence Rowe and Eunice Muenzberg of the Diocese of Eau Claire, Bishop Schofield, the Rt. Rev. Alex Dickson, retired Bishop of West Tennessee, Fr. Shuler, the Rev. Chuck Murphy, rector of All Saints” Church, Pawleys Island, the Rev. Larry Hall, rector of St. John’s, Houston, and the Rev. John Rodgers, retired dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. The national church is incorporated as “The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.” The Rev. Jon Shuler, president of North American Missionary Society (NAMS) was the designated spokesperson for PECUSA, Inc. (link)

8-9 September 1997 

Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, First Promise launched.
Jon Shuler came out of GenCon with the idea to find 50 rectors from parishes large enough to resist the pressure of ECUSA and do something. They got 28 rectors who flew to South Carolina and formed First Promise.
One of the rectors of the largest churches in America signed the First Promise declaration, but by the time he flew home, he asked to have his name removed from the list.
The First Promise statement caused so much trouble so fast that Shuler recommended that they ask Archbishop Moses Tay for help. Tay was the Archbishop of Southeast Asia. Shuler knew he was bold for the gospel and was adamant about orthodoxy.
Renewal movements started to coalesce after the First Promise declaration. Chuck Murphy suggested getting leaders together, and that became the First Promise roundtable. Murphy facilitated those discussions.
Three bishops gave First Promise a lot of advice: FitzSimons Allison, Alex Dickson, and William Wantland. (Shuler)

Donald Peter “Pete” Moriarty of the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA) says, “On 8-9 September, I joined a group co-hosted by Fr. Chuck Murphy (All Saints, Pawley’s Island) and Fr. Jon Shuler (NAMS) to consider current events within ECUSA and a reaction to them. The group were predominantly rectors of parishes from the south-east region, in all representing more than 30,000 souls in their respective congregations. Many of these individuals had previously not been heard from in the various conversation groups and networks; some were active ACC members; Synod members present included Fr. Dow Sanderson, Fr. Jeffrey Steenson, and myself. On the first day, Bishops Allison, Benitez and Dickson were present. Bishop Dickson remained for the second day, also. The group convened in a general atmosphere that it was now time (possibly past time) for all present to take a definitive stand in rejection of ECUSA pronouncements at General Convention.
The group debated and promulgated the following statement which, as you will see, is very much in line with the “Open Letter” and “Statement of Solidarity” issued by ESA at Rosemont. The title of the statement is “The First Promise” and, I believe, will be self-explanatory.”

20-24 (24-28?) September 1997

Flower Mound, Texas: Anglican Life and Witness conference. AAC, Ekklesia Society, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. Stephen Noll and others prepare Global South bishops for Lambeth, informing them of Global North machinations. (Hansen 59-62).
T.J. Johnston, Alex Dickson, and Jon Shuler meet Rwandan Bishop John Rucyahana at this conference. (Hansen 69) (Barnum 100).

1998 

Chicago: William Beasley founds the Greenhouse Movement, a church-planting organization. It is a nonprofit organization that also became a deanery within the ACNA Upper Midwest Diocese in 2012.

1 December 1998

A not-for-profit entity called The Anglican Mission in America is incorporated in Illinois.

2-3 March 1998

In January 1998 there was a meeting in Atlanta. “Nobody knew what to do next.” They hit huge opposition from many people they thought had been friends and who were orthodox. Someone suggested that they send three bishops to Southeast Asia. (Shuler)

Spring 1998

Jon Shuler, Alex Dickson, Fitz Allison, and Bill Wantland journey to see Moses Tay. Moses Tay puts them in contact with other Archbishops and suggested getting the Anglican Primates together in Singapore for an emergency meeting. The thought was that the Primates would bring discipline to ECUSA.

Dickson asks to be made a bishop of Southeast Asia and sent back to the USA as a missionary. Tay says he will consider it but that nothing will happen until after Lambeth. (Barnum 127)

Tay also asked Shuler if his bishop would allow him to come under Tay’s care. A week later he asked Shuler to move to Thailand. From 98 to 2018 he was canonically part of that diocese. (Shuler)

6 April 1998 

Bishop Salmon transfers TJ Johnston to the episcopal oversight of John Rucyahana in Shyira, Rwanda. (Barnum 118)

2-3 June 1998 

Great Lakes Regional Pre-Lambeth Conference, Kampala.

August 1998 

Lambeth Conference: Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10 upholds Scriptural and traditional teaching on marriage and human sexuality.
John Rodgers and Chuck Murphy spend an entire day with the Rwandan bishops who promise to find a biblical solution to their problem and support them. (Rodgers 187)
Immediately after Lambeth, Moses Tay runs into John Rucyahana in Canterbury and agree to meet about next steps. (Barnum 147-149)

September 1998 

Chuck Murphy convenes the First Promise Roundtable. (Lindsay)

January 1999 

Chuck Murphy flies to Singapore with Jon Shuler to meet with Moses Tay, then to Rwanda with Thad Barnum to meet Kolini and Rucyahana. (Barnum 151)

2 February 1999

A lawsuit from Bishop John Spong of Newark and Bishop Joe Doss of New Jersey against Bishop Wantland’s PECUSA, Inc. is settled. “Under the terms of the order, PECUSA, Inc. cannot “use any promotional and informational materials or brochures bearing the words The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America or The Episcopal Church or the acronym PECUSA, Inc. or PECUSA or any other use of the words Protestant and Episcopal together in the State of New Jersey.” As part of the settlement agreement, the New Jersey dioceses waived all claims for damages against Wantland and the corporation.”

After Lambeth 98:

…a few weeks after this summer’s Lambeth Conference ended, the trustees met again and determined that the aims of the corporation had
changed and that the current structure and name “were no longer appropriate for the corporation’s work,” according to Wantland’s statement.

Resolutions at the Lambeth Conference affirmed the church’s traditional understanding of sexual morality, calling homosexual activity “contrary to Scripture,” and said that bishops opposed to the ordination of women should not be coerced into accepting their ministry. Both issues were crucial to the formation of PECUSA, Inc. “We feel everything we stand for was vindicated at Lambeth,” Wantland told a reporter.

“The trustees voted to change the name of the
corporation,” but felt they could not move ahead without settling the lawsuit. So they instructed the corporation’s attorneys to “settle the lawsuit so that the corporation could get on with its long-range plans,” Wantland said.

The statement added that the trustees expected to “work toward the formation of an orthodox Anglican Province in the United States, either by the reformation of the present institution of the Episcopal Church, if possible, or by the establishment of an orthodox Province apart from the present institutional structure, if necessary.”

Traditionalists in the Episcopal Church have been pressing for a separate province to protect their interests for a decade but Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has said publicly that he will recognize only one province in the United States-the Episcopal Church.

8 April 1999

Charleston, South Carolina: Chuck Murphy has a ten-minute meeting with Archbishop George Carey. Carey tells Murphy to stand down and not go ahead with ordination to bishop. (Barnum 154-55)

April 1999

In April 1999 seven Primates came together in Singapore and decided to meet again in the Fall in East Africa. Shuler was not at this meeting. (Shuler)
John Rodgers, Moses Tay and Bob Duncan were at this meeting. Rodgers passes around a photo directory from his old diocese, showing gay men with their male partners, which revolutionizes the meeting. (Rogers 188)   
The Primates of Rwanda (Emmanuel Kolini), Uganda, and Moses Tay formed a kind of triad. Secretly, they thought North America needed a new province.

Summer 1999

Kolini was not persuaded that things in America were as bad as they were portrayed, so he came to the USA for thirty days in 1999. The Presiding Bishop took him around and Kolini saw that the problems were real. After this visit, he told First Promise to select three bishops, draft a constitution, and draft canons for a new North American province. (Shuler)

29 July 1999

Bishop Samuel Ssekadde of Namirembe Diocese, Kampala, Uganda travels to the USA and attends the consecration of Ray Sutton, REC bishop. (Hansen p 148-49)

27 September—6 October 1999

USA: Frank Griswold conducts a “Come and See” tour for overseas clergy. Two archbishops and three bishops participate, including John Rucyahana. On October 6, Griswold tells Rucyahana he can do nothing if someone ordains a practicing homosexual, saying that his hands are tied. Rucyahana writes Kolini and tells him America needs a missionary district. (Barnum 160-62).

21 October 1999

Bishop Rucyahana calls Archbishop Moses Tay from Pawley’s Island. They fully discuss the details of a US intervention before March. (Barnum 165-66)

1999

Shuler was asked to be on the committee to draft the constitution with John Rodgers and William Beasley. Shuler and Beasley flew to Ambridge, PA to meet Rodgers and hash out the rough constitution and canons. They found that Rodgers had already written it. They tweaked it. While there, at the house of John Rodgers, Shuler saw a letter on his desk from a David Pytches in England. Pytches was talking about consecrations of new bishops. Rodgers was convinced that Tay had started a new Reformation.

November 1999

The next meeting was in Kampala Uganda in November of 1999. The Africans had agreed among themselves that they would not take a stand if they were not unanimous. The Archbishop of Canterbury knew this meeting was going to happen and he intimidated Uganda (Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo) to stand down. Bob Duncan and Jim Stanton were there. It was a tumultuous meeting. Chuck Murphy and T.J. Johnston were also there. Bob Duncan said to them, “we can’t fix ourselves, you have to come and help us.” Kolini and Moses Tay were walking back to the hotel together. On one of the stairwell landings, they stopped and talked. Tay told Kolini that if they didn’t do something now, no one ever would. Tay volunteered his cathedral to consecrate bishops. (Shuler)

Duncan asks for foreign intervention, but bishops Andy Fairfield, Steve Jecko, and Jim Stanton, do not. The Africans see that the American Anglican Council (AAC) bishops are divided. (Barnum 169-70)

Kolini and Rucyahana were there, as well as the primates from Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya and the Southern Cone of the Americas. John Rodgers attended. (Hansen 102).

Rev. Geoffrey Chapman of First Promise calls for “…a new jurisdiction on American soil, under the temporary oversights of an overseas province.” (Hansen 103)

First Promise brings a draft constitution for a proposed Anglican Missionary Province and has priests ready to be consecrated as bishops, but this does not happen. (Hansen 103)

On the last day, John Rucyahana meets with Chuck Murphy, Thad Barnum, and Jim Beard (First Promise administrator) in a tent. Tay and Kolini had given Rucyahana a mission to enlist these men in an outside strategy. There would be an inside strategy (primarily Bob Duncan) and an outside strategy, which would produce missionary bishops. (Barnum 179-182)

Shuler flew from that meeting to a SOMA conference in Singapore. When he walked into the church, a priest came up to him and told him that he had heard that Moses Tay was going to make him a bishop.