A Letter for what reason.....?

This is a bit of a strange post....
First, some history.

Larry used to be a priest. He retired a few years ago, and was hoping to still be active in the Diocese of Brandon. The Bishop (Jim) chooose not to license him, but Larry continued to help out on a couple of committees - namely financial and business ones. Larry has over 25 years of experience in these fields prior to his priesthood.

Larry got a letter from the Bishop informing him that Larry's services would no longer be requried. As you will read, Larry takes this in a certain way.

For Larry, this is calm. Larry did our wedding ceremony and he can be very relaxed about most things. But when he gets upset.......

I know he waited a few days before he wrote this missive. This letter is an "open" letter and was sent to a variety of people and places, including a large number who are active in Anglican Essentials Manitoba and Canada.

Needless to say, I got a copy too.

And here it is.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RIGHT REVEREND JAMES NJEGOVAN BISHOP OF BRANDON


January 25, 2007

Response to: Your Letter of January 18, 2007

Dear Bishop Njegovan:

I must begin by stating that I was not in the least surprised by your subject letter removing me from the Diocesan Technology Committee (of which I have been Chair) and the Diocesan Investment Committee. Despite the superfluous material constituting its first paragraph and the first sentence of the second paragraph, we both know that the final two sentences, “Knowing of your mistrust and criticism of my leadership it does seem appropriate that this mark the end of your involvement on official diocesan committees. While I regret this it would seem somewhat hypocritical for you to continue.” constitute the driving force and primary criteria behind your unilateral “decision.” And, this process undertaken with no prior consultation or discussion with me, is entirely consistent with your actions of last spring in refusing to license me and in your attempting to discredit me with the ELCC Bishop via a clandestine and defamatory telephone call – in fact, I had predicted your actions, including this one, long before you undertook them. And so it saddens me that one to whom I should be able to look up to as “father in God” in his occupying such an exalted position is so motivated by personal insecurity and paranoia that he finds it necessary to participate in such covert acts of subterfuge.

Further, as usual, your statements are made without foundation or any form of evidence that would tend to support them. And, as far as hypocrisy is concerned, I do not find any such concern in my actions as I was working on these committees for the good of the people of God with no concern about you or your “theological” positions. However, I might have questions about my levels of hypocrisy if I had held revisionist/liberal theological positions and taken subversive actions in my Parish Church while continuing to work under the Godly Bishop Malcolm Harding for over eight years – let alone how I would be forced to act due to my ordination vows..

My giving my 7 years of formal post-secondary business education, 46 years of experience in the technology and business systems environment , my experience in dealing with the formation and operation of multi-million dollar budgets, and my acumen in investments and gift planning processes are totally donations of the skills God has given me, coupled with my 48 years of intentional and active ministry has been entirely to the Glory of God and the Church of my Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ (I know, that, to you, this probably sounds too much like I stand in the theology of Jesus Christ as portrayed by our former Godly Bishop) . I consistently donated these skills during my time as a pre-retirement Priest in the Anglican Church of Canada and have continued to do so in and for the people of the Diocese of Brandon and as a promised commitment to my friend Canon Michael Lowery until his own retirement. These latter time donations have had absolutely nothing to do with any disagreements between you and me. It is not in me to lower myself to allowing personal situations to affect my God-driven actions for the good of the Body of Christ.

It is your right, but a shame, that you have chosen to deprive the people of the Diocese of Brandon of the use of this God-given and God-driven skill set to satisfy the machinations of your own human paranoia. It is, also, from both orthodox/conservative and true revisionist/liberal viewpoints a travesty of the inclusive and tolerant stances that you would claim for yourself. It is a further demonstration of how you bend and/or make-up your rules and criteria as you go along in order to satisfy your whims and obsession of the moment. And this has been clearly noticed, marked, and identified by persons of both the orthodox and the liberal bents (clergy and lay) in the Diocese. It gives me much grief to witness the episcopate that I revere being so demeaned in the Diocese.

“Industry, economy, honesty, and kindness form a quartet of virtues that will never be improved upon.” This is the motto I chose for myself, In Christ, upon receiving my undergraduate degree at 20 years of age. As a 6-year Committed Christian at that point I was, as I remain today, extremely serious about the integrity of my person as a representative of Jesus Christ to the world around. And, despite my many failures and considerable personal sinfulness that has required much repentance and forgiveness throughout the years, and despite my own unwittingly falling into a heretical form of popular theology for a period of time while I was open to delusion during my 20’s, I have always striven to maintain the integrity of that motto – most especially the matters of honesty and kindness. It is in consideration of these that I have been totally open with you at all times and have refused to undertake any actions “under the table.” It is in the spirit of these that I have tried in every way possible to differ with you in theological direction and still call you “friend.”

I have always been above board in dealing with you – despite the fact that there has not always been reciprocation on your part. Of course, you may think that this is false witness due to the recent Sue Careless article in the Anglican Planet. I would not be surprised if you have thought that I was behind it. But, while I heard about it before publication, I didn’t know about it until the day you were called for comment by the Anglican Planet. Further, the truth is that none of the AEM Executive or Clergy Advisers knows how she obtained a copy of your All Souls Day ruse. It seems there is someone we do not know about who is feeling strongly about your actions – which is quite uncanny, although somewhat interesting, even from our point-of-view. In my own suspicious way of thinking, I even wondered if it was a ploy of your own in trying to accomplish further artificial discrediting of Essentials.

This commitment under Almighty God to the principles of my motto has also made me extremely rigorous and sincere in the undertaking of my ordination vows. When I promised and vowed “to take the Holy Bible as BEING the Word of God and containing all things necessary to Salvation and to accept the content of the traditional Creeds and the 39 Articles of Faith” I did so in all honesty and integrity. According to my Godly Bishop of the day – The Right Reverend Frank Nock – these were to be understood in accordance with the God-inspired intentions of their authors and in accordance with the understanding of those who first received them. These vows take precedence over all other seemingly moral and humanly legal responsibilities. There can be no violation of these vows no matter what so called human power, authority, academic “theological findings,” forces, or misuses of human contrived Canon Law are applied to attempt to compel such heretical actions. My vows must, as they always have in the past, take precedence over life itself let alone economic certainty. Further, if I personally should ever reach a point where I could no longer ascribe to these vows of faithfulness to Almighty God I would be required by my own integrity to renounce my Holy Orders. And I expect no less from anyone else that has made these vows and did not, or does not, hold them in all sincerity as they were envisioned in their production and inclusion in the ordination and consecration processes.

I want you to know that, despite all your unreasonable and irrational actions against me and against Anglican Essentials (both National and Manitoba) in general with which I stand, I and all the members of these organisations are continuing to pray for you. We are concerned for you as a child of God. We know that, in Christ, you could accomplish so much for the True Body of Christ. We pray for you to recognise that the Essentials movement stands first and foremost for the unity of the Church under the Headship of Jesus Christ as He reveals Himself in His Holy Word – albeit in the vein of Traditional Reformation Anglicanism based upon the Truth of the Holy Word of God, the Traditional Creeds, and the 39 Articles of Faith (the foundations of the English Reformation) as they were originally understood by their authors and the original recipients – not the revisited, revised, and reinterpreted manoeuvrings of the revisionist/liberals in the Church today. In this understanding of the Apostolic Tradition and Reason we stand in line with the beliefs and directions of the majority of the Worldwide Anglican Communion. We pray that you will recognise that the Church is being torn apart by the revisionist/liberal movement’s dedication to falsely relegating the Holy Word of God to reference status, the Traditional Creeds to ancient irrelevant statements of primitive faith, and the 39 Articles of Faith to being an irrelevant 16th century political document, in favour of accommodating the false gospel of experience and acquiescence to the machinations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

My friend, I do hope you will seriously consider the love and concern for you that is expressed in this letter. I do truly care for you as does Essentials as an organisation. We pray that sometime in the near, the very near future, it will once again be possible to say that we, in Brandon, have a God-fearing Bishop whom we can endow with the dignity and honour that should be earned by, and bestowed upon, the person in that position.

Your friend in Jesus Christ,


Father Larry Winslow
Priest (Retired)