After A Long Fight, Bishop Seabury Church Holds Last Service In Building Sunday

Father Ronald Gauss said he never thought he’d lose the fight to stay in Bishop Seabury Church.

If he did, he said he would have left a long time ago.

It turns out he did lose. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to review a Connecticut Supreme Court decision that the church property belongs to the Episcopal Diocese, and parishioners from another congregation cannot take that property with them.

On Sunday, the congregation called Bishop Seabury Anglican Church, will hold its last service at 10 a.m. in the church on North Road in Groton. Parishioners will circle the building, pray, and drive to the Groton Inn & Suites, where they will hold future services.

“We’ll be all right. We’ll survive,” said Guass, who has been with Bishop Seabury 37 years. “This is a very devout Christian body, and whatever happened, God has allowed it to happen.”

The congregation is being put out of the building because it lost a fight that started when it notified the Episcopal Church in 2007 that it was affiliating with the Church of Nigeria, Gauss said.

The Hartford Courant reported that Bishop Seabury was among six parishes that left the Episcopal Church after it ordained a gay bishop in 2003 and elected a woman as presiding bishop in 2006.

Gauss said the Episcopal Church determined Bishop Seabury congregation was not a part of the church anymore, and told the governing board of the parish to leave. The board refused, and the Episcopal Church sued. The Diocese then won rulings in the Connecticut courts, including the Connecticut Supreme Court.  

Connecticut Diocese Bishop Ian T. Douglas said in a prepared statement on the diocese website that it’s been a long, difficult process.

“With the decision of The Supreme Court we can now put this matter behind us and once again turn our full attention to the work of proclaiming and making real God's mission of restoration and reconciliation in all the world," he said.

Gauss said he always knew it was a possibility the parish would lose the battle, but he believed it would win because its name was on the deed. He said the congregation offered to buy the property when the fight originally started, but the church would not negotiate.

The congregation has about 750 members, but on Sundays typically sees 250 to 300 people at its 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. services.

Alex Robertson of Waterford, a member of the church for two years, said he's disturbed by the idea of a diocese removing a congregation.

"That doesn't help anybody and it's not exactly a Christian thing to do," he said.  "I don't know what they're going to do with (the building), because our whole body is going to leave. You have a hard enough time filling churches as it is."

But he said the congregation will remain together, even if it is temporarily displaced.

Gauss, 73, said he’s a creature of habit, and sometimes he’s so used to driving to the church, he just automatically goes there.

He suspects some of the older parishioners may do the same, before they realize things are different.

But Gauss said losing the building may also be meaningful for the church. Even if he doesn’t understand why this is happening now, he said he will eventually.

“Everything happens with God for a purpose,” he said. “Even to the point of us leaving our building. God is bringing us back to do the work we have to do. Sometimes, the building gets in the way. Because you get so comfortable, that you don’t go out into the street.”