Two weeks ago I had my license revoked by the Metropolitan of the Anglican Catholic Church. I am hoping this will be a final update on the situation and provide some closure on the matter.
Closure
To this day, I have still not been graced with a phone call or Zoom conversation with Archbishop Mark Haverland, who removed my license and released a lengthy press statement within 45 minutes of receiving a complaint from the woke mob. However, the Archbishop has released more public statements. I made my refutation on X, and as I said at the time, I will be leaving the matter there. Since then, Haverland has leaked personal communications not just between him and me, but also including third parties. I cannot refute those conveniently clipped and out-of-context communiques without implementing innocent third parties, and Haverland knows this. Regardless, I do not want to engage in a constant tit-for-tat or he-said-he-said. Frankly, I find the Archbishop’s approach unedifying for the Church and quite scandalous. I have tried to bite my tongue and not engage in an internet argument with my superiors, preferring to have a proper conversation, but when that is not mutual it is incredibly difficult. People will make of the Archbishop’s stream of statements and leaks what they will. I have found much of it to be half-truths and mistruths in the form of a character assassination, I would hope our shepherds were above that. Haverland’s canon lawyer Wassan has been going further by publishing outright lies, some of which are surely libelous. Wassan has been obsessively posting literally hundreds of comments about me over the past fortnight. Her dislike of me is palpable. For the denomination’s canon lawyer to be taking privileged information and using it to paint a false narrative is highly unprofessional. But that is to be expected in these small cliques. I have no idea how I rattled her particular cage, but I hope she finds peace now that I am gone.
It has been asked whether I will be appealing Haverland’s decision. I did inquire into the Anglican Catholic Church’s appeals process. Haverland made it clear that the person responsible for hearing my appeal would be his friend Bishop Mead. I have only interacted very briefly with Bp Mead, but I do not trust that this would be a fair and impartial appeal due to the fact that he has already publicly admonished me in the press, giving a disparaging statement agreeing with Archbishop Haverland’s stance. It is safe to say Bp Mead has made his prejudice known. The only other thing I know about Bp Mead is that when I joined the ACC, one of his contemporaries warned me about him. Apparently, Bp Mead was annoyed that I got ordained by the Old Catholics instead of the Anglican Catholic Church in the UK. To be quite frank, it was not clear that the ACC existed in the UK. It seems they have a chapel and perhaps a couple of house churches in the South East, but they are not very present in Anglo-Catholic circles. This should come as no surprise to anyone in the least bit aware of Anglican ecclesiastical polity. There are lots of snobbish men with pointy hats fighting over fiefdoms. If these bishops spent more time disciplining the nation, and less time contesting over already fertile ground, perhaps Christendom would be in a better state today.
Suffice it to say, trust has been broken. I do not trust Haverland or Mead; they do not trust me. Even if I was to file an appeal and it was somehow successful. Say, for example, I ate humble pie and apologised for my silly joke and agreed to give up my public ministry as Haverland seems to want – I would not trust my Archbishop to have my back if anything ever happened in the future. I am still yet to be contacted by a single safeguarding officer or person responsible for mental well-being in the denomination. Despite receiving thousands of messages of abuse, having the media at my door with cameras, and receiving death threats, there has been zero pastoral support from the higher-ups, nothing but handwashing from the so-called pastor to the pastors. More importantly, there has been very little attention made to ensure my parishioners have regular access to the Sacraments. It has become crystal clear to me that the ACC does not care about me or my parishioners. Our church is a net contributor to the diocese, and as far as I can gather, gets very little out of being a member of the jurisdiction.
A number of godly laymen, priests, and bishops from the ACC have contacted me informally and unofficially, and I appreciate each and every one of them. They know who they are. In fact, one particular bishop asked me to appeal and said I should request that the College of Bishops hear my appeal instead of Bp Mead. This bishop thought I would get a fairer hearing that way. I put this request in to Abp Haverland, but he made it clear that it would be Bp Mead hearing my appeal, although he said Bp Mead could ask the College of Bishops to review his decision if he liked.
Going forward
With trust broken down to an irreparable level, I will not be pursuing future ministry in the ACC. Bear in mind that my license was revoked without so much as a conversation, with no formal warnings, reprimands, and no prior disciplinary action.
The parish that I have been called to remains on my mind, in my heart, and in my prayers. My parishioners are still making their deliberations as to their next move, and working through the processes. Please keep them in your prayers. They are a faithful congregation, and my only regret in all of this is bringing drama to their doorstep. This situation may have exposed the cold uncharitable leadership of the ACC, but the parish does not deserve to go through all this rigamarole. The lesson for me has been to be more fatherly in my public ministry, that is certainly something I can work on, with the right support. When I am speaking at the podium, I need to always have in the back of my mind, “how will this affect my people back home.” Granted, many of them have told me personally that they support my public ministry and, in fact, that I should not apologise for the joke I made at the end of my pro-life speech, but still, I repent of creating a stressful situation for us all. They are a strong bunch, but they should not have to be. It is one of the problems of the delicate balance between public and parish ministry. I have always and will always put my parish first – this is something people on the outside may not always appreciate. There have been many an exciting event – including foreign trips, or invitations to Mar-a-Lago – that I have turned down because the Mass comes first. Everything revolves around the Mass, the source and summit of the Christian faith.
The parish knows this. My parishioners – their pastoral needs and the Sacraments – always take priority. But people outside of the parish see only my public work and often make assumptions. One of the benefits of having a public profile is that I gain more support than I get abuse; but every Joe and Jane Blogs has an opinion on how my ministry should look, from their perspective. Some people think I should focus more on the public ministry, Americans tend to think I should focus there, Britons tend to think I should return to the UK. Some people think I should give up the public ministry and focus entirely on my parish ministry. Protestants think I should be preaching more Low Church theology, Catholics think I should cross the Tiber, and OrthoBros think I should become Orthodox. As humans, we tend to project our own feelings onto others, and I should take it as a compliment that people want to shape me into their own image. But I want to be loyal to God first. We should all want to be shaped in Christ’s image. I try to pray through these decisions and discern His calling on my life. My platform has been gifted to me for His purposes, not my own. And He calls me to the priestly vocation, affirmed by the Church. The two things need not be mutually exclusive, as much as we might like them to be at times. The balance is not something I always get right, but with the right support, there is no reason it cannot be done. I was also called to Michigan, of that I am certain. I could have stayed and fought longer in the UK, but I think perhaps I played my part for the time being, and hope to one day return; I could have gone somewhere really conservative like Florida, Texas, or Alabama, all of which are places I love, and where I have plenty of friends. But God called me to West Michigan, where I have had to start pretty much from scratch. I am not fully sure why, other than to minister to the wonderful people in my parish. I have received the warmest of welcomes, that is for sure. I love the place, even with the sub-zero temperatures and all the lake-effect snow!
Relentless attacks
I believe God is setting something up for us in Grand Rapids. He has a plan, we know that, and I think it is going to be marvelous. And I think that is why the enemy is relentless in his attacks. He does not want us to succeed.
This week, after being doxxed, abused, hounded by the press, sacked, and smeared by the Archbishop, I have had another battle to fight. My US visa was revoked.
For context, I am not on a religious visa – I am on a media visa tied to my public ministry. It seems someone was waiting for me to leave the country. I arrived in Israel to an email saying my US visa had been revoked, giving no reason and saying that I should visit the US Embassy in London.
Now, the question is who at the US Embassy in London revoked my visa and why? It is difficult to speak with anyone directly, and it is even more difficult to get a direct answer out of anyone.
Considering that my home is now in Michigan, and all my worldly belongings are currently in a shipping container on their way there, I felt quite isolated. What made matters worse was that my ESTA was revoked, too. I assume this is an automatic response to someone’s visa being revoked. But it meant that I could not go home; I could not get back into the country.
My next consideration was, is it safe to return to London? President Trump made it clear that if the hostages were not returned by Saturday, all hell would break loose in the Middle East. As good as it was to get a picture of the situation on the ground in Israel, I did not particularly want to be caught up in the middle of a foreign war. But the question people were asking me is, if someone – perhaps a Leftist UK politician – leant on someone at the US Embassy to revoke my visa, what would stop them from leaning on the police to arrest me the moment I entered the country? They could charge me with some trumped-up charges about “hate speech”, or a “hate crime” and run roughshod over my human rights, just as they are doing with Tommy Robinson.
As an aside, it is criminal what they are doing to Tommy. He is a political prisoner. In prison for “contempt of court” given 18 months, sent to a max security wing, then to solitary confinement, now they are banning him from buying food in the commissary and preventing him from speaking to his loved ones over the phone or having visitors. For what? Releasing a documentary the Establishment did not want aired. Shame on them!
And so I had to decide, is it safer to stay in the war-torn Middle East or head back to London and possibly get arrested? It must be said, London is not looking too different from the Middle East, these days. One could get killed by an intolerant Mohammedan in either place. For my thoughts on Israel and the situation in the Middle East, check out my latest episode of Fox & Father and Common Sense Crusade.
I reached out to a few contacts for support, to get a better picture of what was going on. We discovered a few interesting tidbits. The Visa Coordination Unit is responsible for revoking vias. However, there exists another unit called the Revocation and Coordination Division. “Their remit is to be alert to any negative information about visa holders that was not known at the time of the application. They can both dig in any visa holder’s past and monitor the present. If something they don’t like comes to their attention, they simply revoke the visa and the right to visit the US altogether without any explanation. Judging by how many institutions refocused from homeland security to conservative witch-hunt, it wouldn’t be surprising if this office followed suit. Most people don’t know this office exists.” How many other conservatives does this happen to? Losing access to your home/belongings/life without a moment’s notice? Those without contacts and/or a platform? We might never know unless this department is looked into by DOGE.
In the end, I decided to return to London so that I could at least be around friends and family whilst I tried to appeal for the restoration of my visa. Who knew how long it would take? Could be months for all I knew, especially considering the US Embassy in London is still full of Biden’s people. President Trump has not selected a replacement, yet. To be fair to him, he has had other priorities.
Thankfully, I got my visa restored. God is good, and He still has plans for me in the US. I heard from a number of people who were handling my case throughout the week, and was given two different reasons for the revocation:
1) Someone high up in the ACC reported that I was no longer working there and therefore did not need my visa any longer.
2) One of the visa agents noticed in the media that I had been fired and assumed I no longer needed my visa.
We may never know the real reason. Or perhaps it was a combination of the two. Going by the vitriolic output from the Archbishop and his attack dog canon lawyer, I would not put it past them to try to disrupt my life after having disrupted my ministry. But I could also see how an agent may be monitoring online activity and not knowing what it means to lose one’s license to administer the Sacraments might have been confused, although, in that case, a conversation might have helped, and this is something the agents I spoke to were confused about. Or maybe it was a leftist/Democrat bureaucrat looking to take some scalps, who knows?
Blessings
When we are persecuted for the sake of the truth, we are blessed because of it. The Lord told us that we would be hated for following Him, but to remember that it is He who was hated before us.
Every worldly and demonic attack ensures we are storing up treasure in heaven. Thank God for my recent persecutions. Although, I would not mind a break from it all for a while, in your great and charitable mercy, Lord.
After being canceled by The Church of England, Royal Academy of Dance, The Conservative Party, GB News, Mere Anglicanism, and Anglican Catholic Church, losing my church and potentially my home is jarring. But we soldier on.
The Reverend Brett Murphy is one of the remaining soldiers for Christ in the United Kingdom, and the good man has teamed up with my dear friend Laurence Fox to launch a crowdfund for me. They are asking people who want to support me, to do so there, so that they can help me gain a bit of security.
Weak and liberal bishops apply pressure on priests to remain silent, and they can do so because they know that they can strip not only our ministry but also our housing away from us at a moment’s notice. Priests get paid very little because it is a life of service, but that means we are stuck in a sense of indentured servitude to sometimes corrupt bishops. If I were to have a base of my own, I would be able to continue with my public ministry regardless, safe in the knowledge that even though they may apply pressure, they could not make me homeless again.
Rev’d Brett Murphy knows what this is like. He had a crooked bishop who tried to literally force him out of his church and his home with a police escort, all for being a faithful vicar. Thankfully, his congregation – both online and in person – came to his aid and acquired him an abode. He is now stronger than ever.
I wish some of our shepherds would stop trying to pull down people like me and Rev’d Brett Murphy. Instead of trying to cancel us, perhaps they could lead by example. I would not need to be fired for ending a solid pro-life speech with a silly joke if the bishops were out there on those platforms in the first place. Lead the way, shepherds, please. Take the microphone, speak truth to the world, proclaim the Gospel, defend the innocent, protect the vulnerable and the unborn. There are a few good ones out there doing this very thing, but unfortunately, they remain in the minority. The world is tired of elitist bishops in fancy garments sitting on their thrones watching the world crumble around them. Wokeness and liberalism on one side, Islam on the other, the West is sinking into a paradox of degeneracy and intolerance, and the metropolitan liberal elite types would have us sit silently in our pews, instead of advancing the Kingdom. Shame on them, I say.
As a prime example, this week we heard that 70 Christians were beheaded in the Congo by Mohammedans. The legacy media is not covering the story because it disrupts their narrative about the religion of peace, and there is no love lost for Christianity. But where are the bishops on this? The UK bishops are quick to comment on the government’s Rwanda policy. The US bishops are quick to sue their government for halting USAID money which was being used for people trafficking. We knew where all the bishops stood on Brexit, Covid jabs, and the Ukraine. But when it comes to Christians being persecuted, the silence is deafening. May light perpetually shine upon these martyrs.
Pray for our bishops. Pray for our clergy. And pray for persecuted Christians around the world.
I will continue to speak the truth; I will always fight the good fight for the faith, no matter the consequences.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me, in the comments or in prayer. An old adversary approached me at ARC this week and asked how I was, and I was really struck by the genuine charity and compassion of someone who has diametrically opposing views to mine. They said, it is okay when Elon Musk and co make bold statements, they have a lot to fall back on, and they are un-cancellable. “Are you okay?” this person asked. And I am because of you all.
The cost is different for each of us, and I appreciate not everyone is in a position to stick their head above the parapets. Thank you to Rev’d Brett and Laurence for trying to make me un-cancellable, and thank you to everyone who has supported me via the crowdfund set up by Rev’d Brett and Laurence.
God bless you.
