Bajan priest storms out of hearing
Complaining about “kangaroo court”, a Bajan priest in New York staged a dramatic walkout of an ecclesiastical court hearing on Long Island on Monday but failed to bring the proceedings to a sudden halt.
Canon Llewellyn Armstrong, an Anglican and Episcopal priest for more than 50 years, is facing several charges, including disobeying an inhibition or suspension from duties imposed by Long Island Episcopal Bishop, the Right Reverend Lawrence Provenzano; failing to explain expenditure of US$243 000 over a six-year period of the Rector’s Discretionary Fund when he headed Calvary/St Cyprian’s Church in Brooklyn; and of initiating a civil suit against the diocese for money owed to him.
He had moved at the trial’s opening to have the charges against him dismissed on the grounds the court proceedings were fatally flawed because he hadn’t been provided with the services of a legal consultant as the church’s laws required.
Armstrong contended, and the court acknowledged, that he was only offered a consultant less than three weeks ago in a case that was in the works for at least two years.
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