COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—An auditor hired by an attorney for the pastor of a breakaway Episcopal parish found no evidence the pastor committed fraud or theft, the parish said Tuesday, contradicting diocesan leaders.
An Episcopal church court found the Rev. Donald Armstrong guilty of financial misconduct last month.
Armstrong denied wrongdoing. He has been suspended by the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado since December when the investigation began.
A parish summary of the findings of forensic auditor Robert D. Johnson suggest Armstrong wasn’t at fault. Diocesan officials said they had not seen Johnson’s report Tuesday afternoon.
The church court found Armstrong guilty of stealing $392,000 from Grace Church & St. Stephen’s Parish, causing the church to file false tax reports and causing the church to underreport his income by $548,100.
The court also found Armstrong received illegal loans of $122,000, failed to maintain proper accounting records and improperly used discretionary funds.
The bishop was to formally sentence Armstrong next week, diocese spokeswoman Beckett Stokes said. The church court has recommended he be removed from the priesthood.
According to the parish, Johnson found that the clergy’s use of discretionary church funds and the loans were approved by other clergy or staff.
Johnson concluded that Armstrong relied on a tax preparer’s advice that scholarships provided for his children were nontaxable, the parish said.
On the accusation of failing to keep proper records, Johnson found that parish leaders replaced a bookkeeper who was found to be incompetent, the church said.
The parish vestry—a panel of parish leaders—voted in March to leave the Episcopal Church and join a conservative Anglican diocese. Some parish members have been worshipping as a separate congregation that decided to stay with the Episcopal Church. The leaders of that congregation called Johnson’s audit “biased and flawed.”
The vestry of the breakaway congregation has characterized the diocese’s investigation of Armstrong as “politically motivated.”
In a statement released by the parish, Armstrong said he was grateful for Johnson’s report and apologized for “the suffering, embarrassment and division” his actions had caused.
“But I also join with others who have been publicly ridiculed and humiliated to witness to God’s most sustaining presence and power in difficult times,” he said.
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On the Net:
Robert D. Johnson’s audit report:
