Court asked to remove renegade Episcopal priest

After biding its time for years, the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania has asked a civil court to remove the Rev. David Moyer as rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, and to declare the diocese as owner of the renegade parish's property.

Moyer, a vocal critic of liberal trends in the Episcopal Church, has served as the parish's rector and lived in its rectory since 1989, even though he was deposed as a priest nearly seven years ago.

Last week, the diocese informed him and Good Shepherd's vestry that it had petitioned Montgomery County Orphans Court to order the parish to transfer the title to its buildings, as well as all other assets, to the diocese.

It also asked the court to "restrain and enjoin" Moyer "from further use and occupancy" of the site, which fronts on Lancaster Avenue.

Founded in 1870, Good Shepherd has never formally broken with the 55,000-member diocese or the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church.

Angered by the denomination's ordination of women and gays, however, the traditionalist "high church" Good Shepherd has withheld its parish assessments from the diocese for more than a decade. It sends no representatives to the annual diocesan convention.

It also has barred diocesan bishops from preaching or conducting confirmation in its church.

In 2002, Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr., the diocesan bishop, said Moyer had "broken communion" with the Episcopal Church and deposed, or defrocked, him as an Episcopal priest.

Moyer not only refused to leave Good Shepherd - which continues to pay his salary - but sued Bennison for damages in Montgomery County Court, seeking to have his defrocking overturned. He lost that suit in October, which opened the way for the diocese to remove him.

Since 2005, Moyer has served as a bishop in the Traditional Anglican Communion, part of a worldwide network of conservative Anglicans.

Yesterday he and his attorney, John Lewis, declined to comment on the filing, saying they were studying their options. Moyer and the three parish vestry members named as respondents have 30 days to reply.

"What does it mean to be Episcopalian if you don't pay and don't acknowledge the leadership?" Edward Rehill, the diocesan chancellor, said yesterday. "It means you've left the church."

Rehill, chief legal officer for the diocese, said that it was the "expressed intention of the [diocesan] standing committee to reestablish an Episcopal church on that site," and that it was "unlikely" the committee would agree to sell the site to the congregation.

The standing committee has been serving as the chief administrative body of the church since October 2007, when the Episcopal Church suspended Bennison on charges he concealed his brother's sexual abuse of a minor girl many years ago.

In July, a church court ordered Bennison - who had defrocked Moyer - removed as diocesan bishop. He is appealing that verdict.