There’s news today in the Jacksonville Sun of a priest who has been reinstated to the ministry by his Ugandan Anglican bishop. The reinstatement is due to the priest’s “modeling true repentance for a real failure”. The priest was removed for having an inappropriate relationship with a parishioner in his former parish.
From the article
“‘Sam has modeled true repentance for a real failure, and we, as believers, need to model and demonstrate true forgiveness,’ said the Rev. Neil Lehbar of Church of the Redeemer on Baymeadows Road in Jacksonville, who has been friends with Pasco for 30 years. ‘I’m grateful for Sam and Beth’s [Pascoe’s wife] determination to grow personally and stay faithful to Christ. His return to ministry will be a work in progress.’
Lehbar invited Pascoe to share his story at the 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. services June 1 at his church. Pascoe, former pastor of Grace Anglican Church, will also celebrate communion for the first time since his defrocking in February 2007 for having an inappropriate relationship with a church member.
On June 8, Pascoe will be a guest preacher. He hopes to land a full-time pastor position at a church somewhere.
‘That was the church that embraced me. They said, ‘We have room for one more sinner.’ We can minister out of this, it can’t hurt me anymore, it can only heal,’ he said.
After the scandal broke, Pascoe and his family moved to Virginia for a year. He’s been in counseling for 15 months now and has been working with some accountability groups. He said his reinstatement was mainly paperwork.”
Read the full article here.
For background on the situation look at Episcope’s archives
and
Update: a commenter who didn’t leave a name points out that Pascoe was disciplined by a Rwandan bishop and reinstated by a Ugandan. Which seems to indicate that once you decide provincial structure and the concept of geographic diocese is irrelevant, any bishop can claim authority anywhere.