Episcopal Priest denied Access To church In Groton, CT

Groton — When the newly appointed “priest-in-charge” of the Bishop Seabury Church, the Rev. David Cannon, came to the church Tuesday morning, he was denied entry.

He was not given the keys or granted access to records.

Cannon, however, said he does not have any hard feelings. He accepted the appointment well aware of the ongoing tug of war between church parishioners and the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut.

Bishop Seabury parishioners have voted themselves out of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A., instead affiliating themselves with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, which is based on more conservative beliefs, including opposition to the ordination of an openly gay bishop.

Cannon, a retired longtime vicar from St. James Episcopal Church in Preston, said his meeting with Bishop Seabury's rector, the Rev. Ronald Gauss, was still “affable” even though Gauss blocked Cannon's efforts to take his new post.

“I don't have a dog in this fight,” Cannon said. “My job is to feed the sheep.”

That means Cannon is there to baptize, bury, marry or pay parish calls to any parishioners who want to remain within the Episcopal Church.

But Gauss said there are no parishioners for Cannon to minister to.

“Everything in this parish operates by 100 percent agreement,” he said, referring to the decision to leave the Episcopal Church. “If one person had said no, we wouldn't have done it.”

The diocese had told the 780 parishioners earlier this year to vacate the church, but Gauss maintains it has no authority to move them out. He said they will stay until they receive a court order to do otherwise.

“If by some fluke they make us leave the building, the only ones that would continue to come here are the very elderly who know no other way to go,” Gauss said.

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