You are here
Former TAC Archbishop Served Papers Alleging Misappropriation of Church Funds
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
May 6, 2012
The disgraced former Archbishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion, John Hepworth has been served papers alleging that he misappropriated church funds while he was the Archbishop of the Adelaide-based Traditional Anglican Communion.
The announcement was made in a number of TAC churches in Australia. The notice was sent by e-mail to VOL.
Presiding Bishop Brain Marsh of the Anglican Church in America (ACA), the American branch of the TAC, could not confirm the actions of the TAC in Australia. However, an e-mail to VOL said that both Hepworth and Philadelphia-based Fr. David Moyer will be officially suspended on May 15 from the TAC College of Bishops should they decide not to remain within the ACA/TAC and say where they are ecclesiastically resident. Both have received letters from Archbishop Samuel P. Prakash, Acting Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC).
Hepworth resigned as Primate of the TAC just prior to a meeting of the TAC's House of Bishops in Johannesburg in March. It was a swift and sudden end for Hepworth who had sought, in vain, for acceptance into the Roman Catholic Church via the Pope's offer of an Ordinariate.
Hepworth had applied for and been rejected for the Ordinariate, the Pope's offer for traditionalist Anglicans who wished to join the Roman Catholic Church while retaining certain Anglican traditions, following allegations by Hepworth that he had been raped by three Roman Catholic priests four decades ago. Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson rejected Moyer for the Ordinariate owing to unresolved legal issues.
Both Hepworth and Moyer were offered laicization by Rome, but rejected it. Msgr. Steenson said that members of Moyer's Newman Fellowship who desire entry into Rome should join Philadelphia-based St. Michael the Archangel under its rector, Fr. David Ousley, who is preparing to be ordained a Catholic under the provisions of the Ordinariate.
END
