Wes Nolden | |
|---|---|
 Lt Col Nolden (front) in 1999 | |
| Ecclesiastical career | |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Church | |
| Ordained | January 2009 |
| Title | Bishop |
| Military career | |
| Branch | US Air Force |
| Rank | Lieutenant colonel |
| Commands held | 97th Services Squadron |
Wes Nolden is a United States Air Force officer and disputed bishop in the Reformed Episcopal Church.
In 1999, Nolden was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, and commander of the 97th Services Squadron at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma. [1]
In 2005, the United Episcopal Church of North America (UECNA) presiding bishop, Stephen C. Reber, welcomed Nolden as new clergy. [2] Nolden was consecrated a UECNA bishop in January 2009. [3]
In April 2009, Nolden was received into the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC). That June, Reber deposed Nolden allegedly because the latter "conspired to leave the UECNA before his consecration." According to Reber, the deposition effectively reversed Nolden's consecration, saying "It is hereby declared, therefore, that your so-called consecration as Bishop of UECNA is invalid, that you did not ever become a Bishop of the UECNA, and any reference to your becoming a Bishop is untrue." Nolden disputed the claims, saying that his reception into the REC as a bishop was done according to the rules. REC bishop Royal U. Grote Jr. also opposed Reber's claims, saying that Nolden was no longer in the archbishop's jurisdiction, and could therefore not be deposed. [3]
From 2010 to 2012, Nolden served as a representative of the Anglican Church in North America (a denomination in communion with the REC) during ecumenical dialogue with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. [4]
An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. It is the structure used by many of the major Christian Churches and denominations, such as the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches or denominations, and other churches founded independently from these lineages.
The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion.
A presiding bishop is an ecclesiastical position in some denominations of Christianity.
The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), is a Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955. It is an Anglican church and it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the Reformation and particularly of reformed doctrine.
The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) is an Anglican church of evangelical Episcopalian heritage. It was founded in 1873 in New York City by George David Cummins, a former bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The United Episcopal Church of North America (UECNA) is a church in the Anglican tradition and is part of the Continuing Anglican movement. It is not part of the Anglican Communion.
Stephen C. Reber Sr. of Statesville, North Carolina, is a former Presiding Bishop of the United Episcopal Church of North America (UECNA). Before being elected as Presiding Bishop of the UECNA, Reber had some years previously been a presbyter in the Anglican Orthodox Church and rector of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Statesville. He is married to Judy and is an avid Anglophile.
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Royal Upton Grote Jr. was an American Anglican bishop. He served as the Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC), from 2014 to 2016, which was a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America in June 2009. He also served as bishop ordinary of the REC Diocese of Mid-America.
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Sanco King Rembert was an American Anglican bishop notable for being the first African-American bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church. Consecrated in 1966 to assist in the REC's Missionary Jurisdiction of the South, he served from 1987 to 1998 as bishop ordinary of the Diocese of the Southeast. Since Rembert, all bishops ordinary in the Diocese of the Southeast have been black.
Daniel Gilbert Cox was an American bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church. He also served for 36 years as rector of Bishop Cummins Reformed Episcopal Church, overseeing its move from its historic building in Baltimore to Catonsville, Maryland.
Reformed Episcopal Bishop Royal Grote Denies Irregular Transfers[ unreliable source? ]