Trinitytide 2002

Fr. Samuel Edwards Admitted into Province of Christ the King

On June 27, 2002, The Rev. Samuel Edwards, rector of Christ Church, Accokeek, MD (ECUSA), resigned from his membership in the Episcopal Church. His resignation was sent to Bishop Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth. Fr. Edwards was simultaneously admitted to the APCK, DES. Bishop Iker remarked: "It is a tragedy that yet another traditionalist priest has been so marginalized and persecuted by the liberal establishment of ECUSA."

Fr. Edwards had been engaged in a bitter legal battle with the bishop of Washington, D.C., Jane Dixon, who wanted this conservative priest out of her jurisdiction, and sued him in civil court. Fr. Edwards declared that: "Following a long and unsuccessful... struggle against revisionist heresy and apostasy within The Episcopal Church, it is now clear that there is no longer any justification for my remaining in its communion... I have given much prayerful consideration to my future as a priest since May 22, when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its unanimous adverse ruling in the case of Dixon v. Edwards et al. ...I believe that I have done all that I can do in the effort to recall The Episcopal Church to its godly heritage of evangelical faith and catholic order. That effort, and my part in it, appears to have been unsuccessful. ...The Episcopal Church has moved beyond the likes of us."

"I now believe that, beyond a reasonable doubt, The Episcopal Church is neither desirous of reform from within nor capable of reform without. Indeed, the evidence indicates that, while some people of good will remain within it, the institution taken as a whole is unremittingly hostile to any calls to halt and reverse its decline from authentic Christianity..."

"No Christian can with fidelity, integrity, and dignity consent to live under such a system. It is now abundantly evident that The Episcopal Church cannot and will not be reformed; it therefore must be eschewed. Those who leave The Episcopal Church will not be leaving the Anglican Way of being Christian. It is time us to seek affiliation with a jurisdiction of Anglican Christians whose integrity in the faith is secure, and whose regard for the dignity of all the faithful is genuine-whose affirmation of the faith once delivered to the saints is a matter of deeds as well as words. Indeed, we now rededicate ourselves, not just to the preservation of that Way, but to its extension to those who are not now members of any Christian communion."