DENVER—An Episcopal church court issued a preliminary ruling that the leader of a breakaway church is guilty of financial misconduct, officials said Wednesday.
The Rev. Donald Armstrong of Colorado Springs faces internal allegations including theft and tax fraud. The ruling was made Aug. 2 and released Wednesday.
Both Armstrong and Colorado bishop Robert O’Neill have 30 days to respond to the preliminary ruling. The court will then issue a final judgment along with recommendations for a sentence.
Armstrong, the rector of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s parish in Colorado Springs and now a member of a conservative Anglican diocese, is accused of having the church pay him $392,409 between 1999 and 2006 without authorization of the church vestry. The diocese also alleges that Grace Church failed to report $548,097 in non-salary income to the IRS, including the $392,409 in personal expenses.
Church lawyers allege the money was used for personal expenses for his wife and family and were covered up by “false and misleading” entries that Armstrong told the church’s bookkeeper to use.
Armstrong has denied the charges against him. He and his lawyer, Dennis Hartley, boycotted a church court hearing on his case last week because they say the Episcopal Church no longer has jurisdiction over him.
Armstrong’s office referred questions to church spokesman Alan Crippen, who said Armstrong seems to have been targeted by O’Neill because of his conservative views. He said the church’s vestry has hired a forensic accountant to investigate the allegations and he expects Armstrong to be cleared.
“Then I think all of this will prove to be the embarrassment that it is to the Episcopal Church,” Crippen said.
The diocese issued a statement thanking the court for its work but diocese spokeswoman Beckett Stokes declined further comment.
While the diocese was investigating Armstrong, the Grace and St. Stephen’s vestry voted in March to leave the Episcopal Church and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America or CANA, a missionary diocese of the Church of Nigeria. They were upset about the Episcopal Church’s liberal theological teachings on issues including homosexuality but Crippen acknowledged that the Armstrong investigation sped up the action.
The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a fellowship of churches that traces its roots to the Church of England. Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, one of the most vocal Anglican critics of gay relationships, formed CANA to create a rival to the Episcopal Church in the U.S.
