Father Allan Hawkins, pastor of the Forth Worth-area Anglican-use parish that allowed a suspended priest to work at his parish was reprimanded. Hawkins told his parish that he’d been reprimanded, but continued to defend his actions. The chancellor said Hawkins had been told he was out of line and should have followed diocesan policy.
Hawkins continued to insist that he’d been given the okay by Clay’s bishop back in Scranton. But that’s not the point (and even those facts are still in dispute). Even if Clay is pure-as-the-snow, Hawkins still failed to inform the diocese that he was at the parish. Why the secrecy? Why the failure to follow procedure? Why bother having policies in place if no one pays attention to them? Policies aren’t there just for the “bad guys”, but for everyone because you can’t always identify who the bad guy is first.