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Bill Melnyk 'I was wrong. I repent of and recant without qualification'
There is no greater cause for rejoicing today than in the public repentance of Episcopal priest William Melnyk and the reported repentance of his wife, fellow Episcopal priest Glyn Lorraine Ruppe-Melnyk, of their involvement with Druidism.

Recently it has been brought to light by several agencies and individuals that I have been involved in work with Druid organizations in the United States and England, exploring the relationships between Christian and pre-Christian Druid spirituality and theology. These individuals and agencies have presented you with pages of documentation of my activities from the internet. You and I have discussed this material, and you have pointed out to me that it is the opinion of the church that my involvement, writings, and activities go beyond the bounds expected of a Christian and a Christian priest.

I affirm to you with all my heart it was never my intention to engage in such error, but only to help others who had lost connection to the Church to find a way to reconnect. I also thought that there was much in our early British heritage that could help those of us in the Church to broaden our understanding of Anglican tradition.

I was wrong. I repent of and recant without qualification anything and everything I may have said or done which is found to be in conflict with the Baptismal Covenant, and the historical Creeds of the Church. With God as my witness, I reaffirm my belief in the historical creeds of the Church, and the Baptismal Covenant, and reaffirm to you my faith, as expressed in that covenant. I am resigning my membership in the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, as a sign of my repentence.

I have been a follower of Jesus Christ since my Baptism in 1947, and a faithful deacon and priest of the Church, with the exception of the error admitted above, since 1981. It is my desire to continue as such, and I ask for the mercy of the Church, and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To conservative Anglican sites, he appended this message:

I now take pains to publicly affirm this statement, and to thank the contributors to the various Anglican weblogs for bringing this to my attention and helping me to see the truth.

He also said, "My wife has sent a similar letter."

On the Druid message board, he wrote this:

I hereby resign from the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. I repent of, and recant, all posts on this Board, except in the many places where I have affirmed my faith in Jesus Christ. I ask that my membership in this board be terminated, and that all my submissions be deleted. May God bless you all, and keep you in health and peace.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's front page reports that Bennison "continues to review his options" and may remove or suspend the Melnyks as priests. Orthodox Anglican bloggers, however, are joyful and comforted by Melnyk's letter. They'll keep an ear out for what Bennison decides to do, but where they really want to see movement is in the Episcopal Church USA leadership, especially in the Office of Women's Ministries. Orthodox Anglicans are used to individual Episcopalians (including Bennison, actually) saying and doing un-Christian things. What was particularly noteworthy about this story is that a pagan liturgy with references to idols of the Old Testament appeared on the official Episcopal Church website with the denomination's press office promoting it for Sunday worship services.

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November (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48