Open main menu

OrthodoxWiki β

Changes

St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust

1,157 bytes added, 01:49, November 7, 2007
m
About
The two buildings currently owned by the Trust are valued in excess of £12,000,000, and are well located in or near the city centers of Poole, Dorset, and Bradford, England. Pursuant to the Redundancy Scheme of the Pastoral Measures legislation, both church buildings were acquired from and with the approval of the Commissioners of the Church of England, as reflected by the Privy Council. The Trust's charter also calls for the diffusion of Christian knowledge through the distribution of "literature." Hence, establishing a bookstall is one of the first items of business upon re-opening a redundant church. The Trust is committed to the widest possible dissemination of Christian literature.
 
St Osmund's Church in Poole, acquired by the SSG in 2005, became mired in controversy in August 2007, when the Orthodox congregation there, led by Fr Chrysostom MacDonnell, walked out of the Church and decamped over to St Edmund Campion Roman Catholic Church in Bournemouth. Fr MacDonnell stated “We parted company with Mr Brewer and his organisation, as we found that the way in which they operated was contrary to our deanery statutes regarding the control of parishes.” [http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=46788] The Antiochan Orthodox Deanery Newsletter explained that relations had completely 'broken down' between the SSG and the Church. [http://www.antiochian-orthodox.co.uk/deanery_newsletter.pdf] It is thought this was a reference to SSG bringing in the Romanian Metropolitan Joseph Pop to oversee a congregation under the juristiction of the Patriarch of Antioch. In November 2007 Fr Gregory Hallam, of St Aiden's Orthodox Church, described the distance between SSG and UK Orthodoxy as comparable 'to the span of the observable Universe' [http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=010601;p=2#000075]
==Purpose==
9
edits