Echo Park Conflict : L.A. Episcopal Bishop Censures Four Laymen

The Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles has placed four laymen under ecclesiastical censure--tantamount to excommunication--for their role in a bitter court fight over the leadership of an Echo Park parish.

The censure imposed by Bishop Robert Rusack, which forbids the four from accepting communion in any Episcopal church in the nation, was described by church officials Monday as very rare. The move also means that the four men will not be able to vote or run as candidates in an upcoming court-ordered election of the parish governing body of St. Athanasius Church.

The parish is bitterly divided over the recent removal of Rev. Ian Mitchell as its rector. The four are staunch supporters of Mitchell.

“This is spiritual death,” Bruce Cuttrell, former church treasurer, said of the edict.

Out of Mainstream

“It means that I am removed from the mainstream of a church I love very much,” said Steven Acree, the parish’s former organist and junior warden.

Also censured were former senior warden John Bohreer and James Griffin, Mitchell’s attorney.

The term “excommunicate” does not appear in the Episcopal canon, said Rev. William Dearnaley, news director of the church’s national headquarters in New York. But censure, he said, is equivalent to excommunication and is unusual.

“Any kind of disciplinary action against lay people is uncommon, but so is the situation (at St. Athanasius),” he said.

Rusack was unavailable for comment Monday.

In letters sent to the four men last week, Rusack did not mention the dispute, but said he hopes that each will “amend your life” so that he can remove the censure.

When asked why all of Mitchell’s supporters did not receive similar censures, Los Angeles diocese attorney Joseph Connolly, explained: “These (four) people have filed a lawsuit against the bishop and other people in the church accusing them of very nasty things. I think that more than anything else separates them.”

The four men were planning to run for posts on the vestry board in Sunday’s election, which was ordered last month by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Cole.

Mitchell was hired by the vestry in 1983, but was never recognized as rector by the bishop because he divorced and remarried without permission, diocese officials said. In September, a majority of the parish vestry voted to fire Mitchell and Rusack rescinded his license.

Mitchell claims that he was forced out because he attracted Latinos and homosexuals to the congregation. Diocese officials deny the claim.