Anthony Forbes Moreton Clavier

Before he was deposed it could be said Anthony Forbes Moreton Clavier (April 19, 1940-) was one of the leading figures in independent Catholicism in Britain, albeit he spend much of his life in the United States. He was the Archbishop of the American Episcopal Church. He was born in Yorkshire, England.

He entered the Bernard Gilpin Society, Sands House in Durham in 1958, leaving a year later to take a job as a teacher. In 1961, he was ordained a minister of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion.

He then became involved in a number of independent Episcopal churches. He was ordained by Francis Everden Glenn to the Catholic Episcopal Church in 1962. In April, 1963 he was ordained by Charles Dennis Boltwood of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church. In May, 1963, he was ordained by Charles Leslie Saul of the English Episcopal Church. In 1965 he associated himself with the Archbishop Gerard George Shelley of the Old Roman Catholic Church, only to leave and be ordained again by Hugh George de Willmott Newman of the Catholic Apostolic Church. He remained with that church through 1967, when he left for America.

Upon arriving in America, he joined the American Orthodox Church, staying with it until he returned to England and the Catholic Episcopal Church there.

In 1969, he returned to the United States once again, seemingly to stay. He became a priest under James Hardin George of the American Episcopal Church. On February 11, 1970, George consecrated Clavier and appointed him as a suffragan. Later that year, George resigned himself and Clavier served as primate for the next six years. Harold L. Trott became primate in 1976, only to leave office in 1981 with Clavier once again taking the position as primate.

In 1976, the Anglican Catholic Church was formed when several thousand conservative Anglicans left the church in protest of the ordination of homosexuals and women. Francisco Pagtakhan, a bishop of the Philippine Independent Church, assisted in the ordination of several of the new church's bishops. As the new church started to split into factions, Pagtakhan worked to reunite the new churches. In the process of doing so, he consecrated Clavier as a bishop and thus passed his lines of succession to him. The validity of the form and intent of this action has been seriously questioned, but as is mentioned later herein, Clavier was later without question made a bishop with the formation of the Anglican Church in America.

Since then, the Anglican Catholic Church and Anglican Episcopal Church have come through as the largest of the several new churches. In the formation of the Anglican Church in America, many seriously questioned the validity of Clavier episcopal orders. Clavier agreed to conditional ordination as deacon and priest. He then had hand laid upon him, making him a Bishop as part of the new Anglican Church in America. Clavier has assisted in the development of overseas foreign missions for the Anglican Episcopal Church.

While Anthony Clavier was a Bishop in the Anglican Church in America, an article appeared in the Roca News of Florida saying in part: Ten women have reported that Archbishop Anthony Clavier of St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral sexually abused them or urged them to have sexual relations with him, according to official with the Anglican Church in America. Clavier told some of the women that they were "Special" and should be "honored for Jesus Christ to want your body" said Pat French, special adviser to the primate of the Anglican Church in American and the counselor for the victims. In a number of cases. Clavier would invite the women into his office and then physically come on to them, French said. The Herald, on Saturday, February 4, 1995 reported the following: The archbishop of a Deerfield Beach Anglican congregation has resigned amid allegation that he sexual abused female parishioners. Ten women have reported that Archbishop Anthony Clavier of St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral sexually abused them or urged them to have sexual relation with him, according to official with the Anglican Church in America. Clavier told some of the women that they were "special" and should be "honored for Jesus Christ to want your body." said Pat French, special adviser to the primate of the Anglican Church in America and counselor for the victims.

The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America formally declared Anthony Clavier had violated his ordination vows by actions of an immoral and/or criminal nature. Also, formally declared was Anthony Clavier to be a notorious evil liver. In the same finding the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America declared that "Anthony F. M. Clavier has abandoned the Communion of this Church by renunciation of its discipline through persistence in actions in violation of (site omitted) of the Canons of this Church (actions of an immoral and/or criminal nature and in violation of his ordination vows)" The House of Bishop's of the Anglican Church in America unanimously voted on 24 July 1995 to depose Anthony Clavier. By the Canons of the Anglican Church in America this deposition was from all rank of clergy.

It is understood that church leaders advised some of the women to allow the church to handle the matter. It was only after the statue of limitation had run out thereby stopping civil court action that these church leaders did nothing. The Anglican Church in America at the same time they deposed Clavier disciplined at least one of these leaders, albeit not for that action but rather for giving communion to Clavier who at the time was living in an open adulterous manner.

Clavier then became part of an Old Catholic Church for a very short period of time. He then arrived at Saint Jude’s Anglican Church in Tucson Arizona, where he alleged to have been appointed vicar. The membership met in special meeting and expelled Anthony Clavier and the Bishop who appointed him. Both Anthony Clavier and his Bishop are now priests in The Episcopal Church in the United States. Anthony Clavier is now the rector of St. Paul's in LaPorte, IN, which is in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana.

Published Works

*"Why a New Church?", 1964.
*"False Motives", 1964.
*"English Old Catholicism", 1965.

References

*"Anthony Forbes Moreton Clavier", "Religious Leaders of America", 2nd Ed., Gale Group, 1999.