Shenanigans at St. Thomas?

St. Thomas Fifth Avenue is the premier Anglo-music parish in the US. Its Choir of Men and Boys is world-renowned and with good reason. The rector there was formally accused of some misdoings last fall. The Diocese of New York investigated and found nothing wrong. However, The Advocate has got some good background. An excerpt:

In December 2006, nine gay Episcopalians filed a complaint against the rector of New York City’s St. Thomas Church alleging that he made derogatory comments about a fellow clergyman’s homosexuality. It was one of 16 charges leveled at the Reverend Andrew Mead, leader of the prominent Episcopal congregation at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 53rd Street whose wealthy, influential parishioners include Newsweek editor Jon Meacham and Standard Oil heiress Minnie Mortimer—who married Oscar-winning screenwriter Stephen Gaghan at the church in May. Among the other accusations in the complaint: that Mead paid for cat litter for his own cats and “large quantities of alcohol” out of St. Thomas’s kitchen budget; and that the rector, while dressed as Santa Claus, forced female employees to sit on his lap to receive presents at a staff Christmas party.

The complaint, signed by 12 people altogether, was investigated by the New York diocese’s governing committee this spring and ultimately dismissed, the matter declared formally closed at St. Thomas’s 11 a.m. Sunday service on May 20. For the gay complainants, it was a “crushing defeat,” in the words of one, Bruce Gilardi—and the final straw in a series of questionable events at St. Thomas since Mead arrived over a decade ago. “If the church feels it can sweep us under the rug,” says Gilardi, an entrepreneur who had attended the church regularly since moving to New York in 2000, “then that’s an indication that this isn’t a place for me anymore.”

Read it all, and pray for the church.

RFSJ