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Written by Louis Weisberg
Feb 19, 2012
A breakaway Episcopal congregation in Elm Grove desecrated the altar of a church it had occupied for years to protest the denomination’s ordination of openly gay clergy.
Although a number of Episcopal congregations have seceded over the issue, St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church is the only one in Wisconsin to do so. In 2008, the congregation voted to join the anti-gay Anglican realignment movement, which has attracted U.S. parishes and dioceses mostly in the South.
The realignment away from the Episcopal Church is particularly popular in African nations such as Uganda, where laws calling for the public execution of gays and the imprisonment of their family and friends have drawn controversy.
Following St. Edmund’s vote to join this movement, “They changed the locks and in effect took the property away,” said bishop’s assistant Rev. David Pfaff of the Milwaukee diocese. He said diocesan officials tried to negotiate the return of the church property before filing a lawsuit in the winter of 2009.
“Going to court was not our first inclination or option but we couldn’t get any discussion going,” Pfaff said.
Courts have ruled consistently in Wisconsin and other states that church property is held in trust by the denomination and does not belong to the congregation’s current membership. In December 2011, Waukesha Circuit Court granted the Milwaukee diocese a summary judgment and ordered the breakaway congregation to return the property.
On Feb. 1, Pfaff and other diocesan officials went to inspect their property after being locked out for years. What they found inside disturbed them greatly, Pfaff said: Hebrew words painted all over the altar.
“My understanding is that it was an attempt to quote a passage from the Old Testament having to do with the Philistines taking control of the (great) temple and something to the effect that the glory of God has departed,” Pfaff said. “Just to see something that you regard as a sacred object being defaced is disappointing in a really deep and profound way.
“Bishop (Steven) Miller, who was kind of leading the group, got very quiet and had a very angry and upset expression on his face. There was not weeping and wailing and beating or breasts. There was just a feeling that this was kind of low.”
Pfaff said the graffiti was relatively easy to remove and the diocese is eager to put the whole episode behind it. But far-right bloggers have attempted to make martyrs of the congregants who illegally possessed the property and then desecrated it.
Anti-gay zealots also have attempted to discredit Waukesha Circuit Court Judge J. Mac Davis for the ruling because he’s a member of the Episcopal Church. The evangelical Christian blog VirtueOnline.org opined: “The judge would like to make St. Edmund’s a 2011 Christmas present to Milwaukee Episcopal Bishop Steven Miller much the same way that in 1864 Union General William T. Sherman made the City of Savannah a Christmas gift to President Abraham Lincoln.”
But Davis’ finding was the same as the others in the nation, including those in the Bible Belt South. The same month Davis issued his ruling, the Supreme Court of Georgia found in the denomination’s favor in a high-profile case involving a historic $3-million historic Episcopal church in Savannah.
Pfaff said there would be a “period of discernment” during which the diocese would listen to input from the public concerning how people would like to see the building used in the future. The diocese is allowing a pre-school associated with the evicted group to continue in the building until March 1.
Meanwhile, the breakaway congregation is temporarily meeting at Elm Grove Evangelical Lutheran Church, 945 Terrace Drive in Elm Grove.
