A Taste of Their Own Medicine?
by A S Haley, Stand Firm:
The ever-litigious bunch at 815 Second Avenue, the New York headquarters of ECUSA, may be getting a taste of their own medicine. Or it may just be a case of litigation inculturated beyond the point of no return: the litigators at ECUSA have been sued by the Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls, one of their own (and a former lawyer in his own right), who worked there as Chief Operating Officer until the Presiding Bishop terminated him last April.
The complaint, unusually filed in Alabama’s Mobile County Circuit Court (see remarks below), makes for an absorbing read (or maybe that’s just a lawyer talking): you may download it here. (A big tip o’ the Rumpolean bowler to The Living Church, which first broke the story.) It names ECUSA and its corporate arm, the DFMS, as defendants, along with 30 unidentified “John Does”, who allegedly participated in some manner in the actions alleged.
Herewith are some pertinent extracts, with my annotations in between:
6. Bishop Sauls has served in a number of leadership capacities in his career in the Episcopal Church. For more than four years, he served as the Episcopal Church’s Chief Operating Officer, under two Presiding Bishops. Both of those Presiding Bishops have praised his work performance. In the annual performance evaluations of Bishop Sauls, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, by whom Bishop Sauls was appointed Chief Operating Officer, complimented his “creative and deeply effective leadership as COO”. Bishop Jefferts Schori’s successor, The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, who took office in November 2015, has stated publicly that DFMS was never more effective than under Bishop Sauls’s leadership.
7. Sauls, however, is the victim of a wrongful conspiracy via a calculated, determined, and prolonged series of acts in furtherance of the conspiracy, as carried out by individuals employed by the Church, and others outside the employment of the Church, who repeatedly have attacked the office and person of Chief Operating Officer, including by measures calculated to undermine the authority, stature, and leadership of the Plaintiff and his former office, as part of a scheme to elevate the stature and authority of the President of the Church’s House of Deputies and to constitute that position as an office to be regarded and treated, in respect to Church governance and the exercise of authority over the staff and resources of the Church, as co-equal with the office of the Presiding Bishop.
Got that? Bishop Sauls is alleging that he lost his position due to “a determined and prolonged … conspiracy … to elevate … the President of the … House of Deputies … as co-equal…” That would be the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, who indeed is named in the next paragraph.
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