Sometimes small local events escalate into ever widening circles of disturbance. Luther set off seismic shifts banging his thesis into the Catholic cathedral doors in Wittenberg. Serbian nationalists shot an Archduke and plunged Europe into war. And in America in the previous couple of weeks a unbroken Anglican bishop of the Anglican Catholic Church, a part of the weird and ever-fragmenting continuing church within the USA, has fired considered one of his clergy by press release.
The problem was that the clergyman was a media superstar who inside 4 months of his appointment to a small and otherwise secluded parish in Michigan had photographed himself dancing to the brand new political anthem YMCA behind president Trump’s head as he greeted supporters after winning his election.
Calvin Robinson has gathered a military of online fans. Can we call them disciples? In their eyes he can do no unsuitable. ‘Who does this Archbishop Haverland think he’s?’ runs the trend on X. Didn’t he know who he was getting when Robinson offered himself to their vacant parish which, having languished in obscurity with no clergyman, was catapulted onto the world’s stage by Fr Robinson’s arrival and installation?
It wasn’t just his web followers who got involved. Quite a lot of substantial public figures in America backed him in a combination of shock and frustration.
Eric Metaxas, an evangelical, authority on Bohnhoeffer and friend of Trump, wrote on X: “The ‘leadership’ on the Anglican Catholic Church have behaved DESPICABLY in defrocking my friend @CalvinRobinson who’s a heroic Christian & staunch defender of life. They haven’t any humorousness and — far worse — are cowards. SHAME ON THEM! Contact them!”
Patrick Coffin, a widely respected traditional Catholic, weighed in with: “Archbishop Haverland’s decision to revoke Father Calvin Robinson’s priestly license is nothing but a thinly veiled attack on a powerful, fearless voice for all times and truth.
“His so-called ‘offence’ was a lighthearted, ironic gesture at a pro-life event; yet inside hours, the woke machine moved against him.
“This is not a couple of hand gesture; it’s about silencing a person who boldly stands against abortion, radical ideologies, and the destruction of Christian values.
“I do know Calvin personally. He’s been on my show, we have travelled together, and he’s considered one of the nice ones.
“We need more men like him, not fewer. Let’s stand with him.”
The web has been awash with anger and vituperative criticism against the Anglican Catholic Church for not only withdrawing his permission to act as a priest of their church, but for apparently informing him by press release that he had been let go, losing not only his parish but his house and after all his status to remain and work within the US (no less than for the moment).
Robinson himself issued a series of public laments adding to the disagreement on X: “My parishioners and I even have still not been permitted a conversation with Archbishop Mark Haverland.
“He has, nonetheless, just released one other press statement,” he complained.
Calvin informed the world on X:
“Bishop Chandler Jones broke the news, but he just isn’t my bishop, and he just isn’t responsible.
“Archbishop Mark Haverland revoked my licence. He is yet to have a conversation with me about any of this, but we will read his stance at http://anglicancatholic.org.”
So that was Calvin’s side of the story and it launched a tidal wave of anger, rage, frustration and resentment against this reasonably modest denomination consisting of 200 parishes in America that had come to his rescue after he made his way through three previous denominations and have become ‘churchless’.
The ACC clearly lacks a media office to advise on media relations. The peremptory sacking of a media superstar apparently by succinct press release was a careless mistake to make, and one they’re paying for dearly.
Nonetheless, the statements from the ACC propose a special narrative. It was one during which Robinson had been warned from the very starting that he was being appointed conditionally to the Michigan parish. The condition was that he dial down his public platform because political campaigns were incompatible along with his being appointed to pastoral responsibility inside that denomination.
One of the ACC statements read: “When Robinson was received into the ACC, he was told that there was a distinction of offices between political activist and parish priest. His bishops made it clear to him that he had been received into the Church to minister to a parish, and as such, he would should eschew the provocative political behavior that characterised his prior profession as a TV presenter, blogger, and social media influencer. He has not done so, and what happened on the National Right to Life Summit was not an isolated incident.
“He was not hired by the ACC to be an official spokesman, social media influencer, or to impress the ‘hysterical liberals’ (his words) in online culture wars; he was licensed by an ACC bishop to function a parish priest. He was repeatedly warned not to have interaction within the kind of behaviour that he displayed on the National Right to Life Conference, and he didn’t comply. As such, his license to serve within the ACC was revoked. In doing so, the bishops acted in accordance with ACC canons.”
A senior spokesman commented: “Robinson was conditionally ordained to the priesthood within the Nordic Catholic Church, after which he approached Archbishop Haverland with the proposal that he be allowed to serve an ACC parish in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Archbishop Haverland noted that overt political activity is commonly incompatible with the necessities of sacerdotal ministry. The expectation that such behaviour just isn’t acceptable by ACC clergymen was made clear.
“The revocation of Robinson’s license was not undertaken rashly or suddenly. In the short time that Robinson had his license from the ACC, he was warned repeatedly that his continued partisan political activity was inconsistent along with his ministry. These warnings got here each from Archbishop Haverland and Bishop Fodor. They began politely as reminders and have become firm admonitions as they’d to be repeated. Robinson was told that his license was in danger because he was continuing to act as a political social media personality, and it was reiterated that such activity was inconsistent with priestly ministry. Robinson was aware that he was repeatedly disobeying legitimate episcopal authority, yet continued his course of conduct.”
At this point common Christian courtesy breaks down. The ACC claim they’d warned Robinson repeatedly in the course of the sixteen weeks of his transient tenure as a parish clergyman, and Robinson says they didn’t.
Behind the scenes this has changed into a war of ‘who’s the liar?’ and it is popping reasonably nasty. The situation just isn’t eased by the proven fact that proof is tough to come back by. Robinson says very bullishly “prove you warned me” and as yet, the ACC has not yet released a paper trail refuting Robinson’s claims of innocent ignorance.
But the issue just isn’t made higher by the track record. While it wasn’t Robinson’s fault that the Church of England, of their woke-indoctrinated haze, took against him, one has only so many lives in each skilled and Church circles.
As Oscar Wilde might need put it within the Importance of Being Calvin had he foreseen it: “To lose one denomination could also be considered a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.” But Calvin has lost 4.
The Free Church of England found their relationship had so broken down that they refused to ordain him as a ‘presbyter’, and so he took refuge with the Nordic Catholic Church. It was not clear who was more desperate within the encounter. As one senior clergyman within the NCC suggested, “We were desperate. We had few clergy under 75. It was Calvin or bust we thought.”
Sadly it turned out to be Calvin and bust. Without even having a parish to put him in, but in addition very wary of the problematic line between politics and pastoral care, they too fell out with him over what’s most charitably described as a series of intensifying miscommunications.
These tragically ended with them asking him to return the symbols of ordination they’d presented him with only just a few months before. They also were reasonably wounded when, they allege, they only came upon Fr Robinson was transferring back to Anglicanism when he was already within the States in mid-negotiation with the ACC, his next port of call.
Wise after the event and with a history of three lost denominations behind him, smart counsel (if he had asked for it) might need urged on him the necessity to ensure that all channels of communication along with his next employers. Sadly, because the enraged claim and counter claim between Fr Calvin and his (now former) Archbishop Haverland show, that does not appear to have happened.
At first sight what looks like being a tragedy could have a silver lining nonetheless. Calvin Robinson is an immensely gifted apologist and public rhetorician for the Christian faith. He has gifts which have had probably the most serious impact within the culture wars and given beleaguered Christians hope and confidence.
To have a vocation to the priesthood requires not only an inner sense that that is who you’re and what God is looking you to, however it must be confirmed by the Church as well. If 4 denominations inform you that your gifts lie elsewhere, this will likely even be taken to be a facet of divine guidance.
It could also be that, free from the burden of clerical persona and accountability, Calvin Robinson can find true freedom and maximum impact simply as a baptised Christian taking the culture and ideological fight to the enemy within the political and web arena in a way that only he can so effectively do. Perhaps the internecine war of wrangling about who said what, when and tips on how to whom, might be gently laid to rest, and Calvin might be let out to do what he does best.
Gavin Ashenden is Associate Editor of the The Catholic Herald and a former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II.
