ANDREW PEARSON LEAVING HIS NEW CHURCH IN BIRMINGHAM

On yesterday, 12 April, the "leadership team" of Grace Church, in Birmingham, Alabama, sent out an email announcing the departure of the Rev. Andrew Pearson from Grace Church. Find the email here .

The email contains Pearson's letter to his "Church Family" giving his explanation for his leaving "this summer." I suspect there is more to this story than the letter reveals. It does have the sound of someone exhausted: "my tank is empty." Pearson founded this new church less than a year ago shortly after he departed his post as dean of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Advent, in Birmingham. Grace Church is in the Anglican Church in North America.

Grace has not found a permanent home. It meets in a synagogue on the south side of downtown Birmingham.

There was speculation at the time of Pearson's departure from the Advent that there would be a mass departure of parishioners from the Advent to follow Pearson out. Apparently this did not happen. 

The timing of this news is curious. Why did this occur in Holy Week? There are many unanswered questions at hand.