Your letter mentioned in this article to the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, Sean Rowe, was removed, but if it's available somewhere, please let us know.
Here you go. To date, I have yet to receive a response.
VIA EMAIL AND WEB CONTACT FORM
January 23, 2025
The Most Reverend Sean Rowe
The Episcopal Church
Dear Presiding Bishop Rowe:
I do not believe I ever had the pleasure of meeting you during my time on the Presiding Bishop’s staff from 2011 to 2015. I served in the Communications Department, and was instrumental in getting the denomination’s digital evangelism efforts off the ground. You may recall the resolution, B009, which I helped to push through the General Convention in 2015.
Unfortunately, I am writing to you now as a former priest of the Diocese of New York. My service to the Episcopal Church came to an abrupt halt about this time last year when I was, for all intents and purposes, constructively removed from ministry by the actions of one Brad Eubanks, at the time a seminarian from the Diocese of Arizona.
I am writing because I still very much consider myself a priest of Christ’s Church, and so it pains me deeply to see my former denomination — a denomination I had no desire to leave, but, rather, to see renewed — fall so far.
I am, of course, referring to Bishop Marianne Budde’s embarrassing performance at the National Day of Prayer on Tuesday at the National Cathedral.
Discouraged by what I saw, indeed what the whole watching world saw, and from the burden of concern which I still carry for the church that ordained me (which, by God’s grace you now lead) I wrote this op-ed piece for American Reformer. You can read it here: https://americanreformer.org/2025/01/nationalized-cathedral/
I believe the Episcopal Church needs to do some real soul-searching, and, specifically, that it needs to reach out to those, who, like myself, were harmed when it abandoned the historic faith, order, and discipline of the Church catholic.
You have called for the Episcopal Church to be one, but that can never be when so many of your former sons and daughters have left you — with pain and grief in their hearts — these past 20 years. Indeed, the hurt goes back further, to the 1970s, and the reckless actions that were taken then.
When we stumble and fall God always provides the means for us to get back up on our feet.
It is my prayer that after witnessing such a public fall this past Tuesday, that you, as the Presiding Bishop, will begin the conversations that need to be had, so that the Episcopal Church can get back on her feet and start on the long road back to faithful obedience to her Master, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
The Rev. Jake Dell
CC: The Right Reverend Matt Heyd, The Right Reverend Marianne Budde
Thank you. I could say so much in agreement with this letter, but will keep it to a simple acknowledgement and thank you for the good work you are doing.
Your letter mentioned in this article to the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, Sean Rowe, was removed, but if it's available somewhere, please let us know.
Here you go. To date, I have yet to receive a response.
VIA EMAIL AND WEB CONTACT FORM
January 23, 2025
The Most Reverend Sean Rowe
The Episcopal Church
Dear Presiding Bishop Rowe:
I do not believe I ever had the pleasure of meeting you during my time on the Presiding Bishop’s staff from 2011 to 2015. I served in the Communications Department, and was instrumental in getting the denomination’s digital evangelism efforts off the ground. You may recall the resolution, B009, which I helped to push through the General Convention in 2015.
Unfortunately, I am writing to you now as a former priest of the Diocese of New York. My service to the Episcopal Church came to an abrupt halt about this time last year when I was, for all intents and purposes, constructively removed from ministry by the actions of one Brad Eubanks, at the time a seminarian from the Diocese of Arizona.
The Living Church magazine spotlighted Eubanks’s behavior in an article last April, “‘Weaponizing’ Clergy Disciplinary Canons for Ideological Purposes,” which you can read here: https://livingchurch.org/news/news-episcopal-church/weaponizing-title-iv-for-ideological-purposes/
I am writing because I still very much consider myself a priest of Christ’s Church, and so it pains me deeply to see my former denomination — a denomination I had no desire to leave, but, rather, to see renewed — fall so far.
I am, of course, referring to Bishop Marianne Budde’s embarrassing performance at the National Day of Prayer on Tuesday at the National Cathedral.
Discouraged by what I saw, indeed what the whole watching world saw, and from the burden of concern which I still carry for the church that ordained me (which, by God’s grace you now lead) I wrote this op-ed piece for American Reformer. You can read it here: https://americanreformer.org/2025/01/nationalized-cathedral/
I believe the Episcopal Church needs to do some real soul-searching, and, specifically, that it needs to reach out to those, who, like myself, were harmed when it abandoned the historic faith, order, and discipline of the Church catholic.
You have called for the Episcopal Church to be one, but that can never be when so many of your former sons and daughters have left you — with pain and grief in their hearts — these past 20 years. Indeed, the hurt goes back further, to the 1970s, and the reckless actions that were taken then.
When we stumble and fall God always provides the means for us to get back up on our feet.
It is my prayer that after witnessing such a public fall this past Tuesday, that you, as the Presiding Bishop, will begin the conversations that need to be had, so that the Episcopal Church can get back on her feet and start on the long road back to faithful obedience to her Master, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
The Rev. Jake Dell
CC: The Right Reverend Matt Heyd, The Right Reverend Marianne Budde
The Rev. Jacob W. Dell, Pastor
The First Congregational Church of Woodbury
214 Main Street South
Woodbury, Connecticut 06798
Sent with Proton Mail secure email.
Thank you. I could say so much in agreement with this letter, but will keep it to a simple acknowledgement and thank you for the good work you are doing.