Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Brisbane (Australia) has deprived a priest from his benefice, saying the Rt. Rev. David Chislett may not hold episcopal orders in a continuing Anglican Church and remain rector of All Saints’ Church, Wickam Terrace.

Bishop Chislett and the Rt. Rev. David Moyer were consecrated bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Feb. 16 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pa., by 10 bishops including two active Anglicans: the Rt. Rev. Ross Davies of The Murray (Australia) and the Rt. Rev. Maternus Kapinga of Ruvuma (Tanzania). At the close of the Rosemont service, Bishop Davies licensed the two as assisting bishops of The Murray.

The Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., condemned the consecrations saying they were invalid, as only two Anglican bishops had laid hands on Fr. Moyer and Fr. Chislett.

The diocese has yet to make another move against Good Shepherd’s property. In 2002, Bishop Bennison deposed Fr. Moyer for “abandoning the communion” of the Church. The bishop’s actions are the subject of continuing litigation in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.

Writing to the Brisbane clergy on May 24, Archbishop Aspinall stated that Fr. Chislett, vice-chairman of Forward in Faith Australia, had been removed from office as a rector under the Benefices Avoidance Canon. His consecration in a continuing church was “fundamentally inconsistent with his position within the Anglican Church.”

While noting the April 7 tribunal examining the matter was “unreserved in accepting that Fr. Chislett has acted genuinely to heal the pain and sorrow” experienced by opponents of the ordination of women and that he had acted in good faith to resolve “the perceived lack of alternative episcopal oversight” afforded to those whose conscience could not accept women’s priestly orders, Archbishop Aspinall argued that the unresolved divisions within the Church on this issue could only be resolved “within the structures of this Church, and not outside of them.”

The decision to depose him, Bishop Chislett wrote to his churchwardens on May 24, was an abuse “natural justice” that threatened all clergy, irrespective of theological stripe.

“It is clear,” he noted, “that the archbishop’s action is not based on any perceived dishonesty on my part, or on my contravening of the constitution, canons, rules or regulations of the Anglican Church of Australia in the Diocese of Brisbane. Rather it is based on an entirely subjective interpretation of what is “grave cause,” to use the language of the Benefices Avoidance Canon.”

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