Chapel Guardian have uncovered a series of Twitter posts (also known as "tweets") from Friends of Chapel members Terry Hall and Amy Hall. They reveal the lengths - again - that the Friends of Chapel have gone in the past few months to vilify people they don't agree with. Below, we look at these tweets and analyze. First, we tackle Terry Hall's. Then, we deal with what Amy Hall had to say, and there is an interesting note with that one.
From Terry Hall comes five tweets:
1) "Rev Ann Lorenzini thinks she is Donald Trump. Fires entire Chapel of Awareness congregation in Encinitas, CA"
2) "Pope gets taken down & Rev Ann Lorenzini exhibits "Pope Complex" excommunicating entire congregation - Encinitas, CA"
3) "Rev Ann Lorenzini delivers a very Gumby Christmas to Chapel of Awareness Congregation by revoking all memberships"
4) "Rev Ann Lorenzini of Chapel of Awareness Spiritualist Church gets Pope Complex & excommunicates entire membership"
5) "What do you do when your Church revokes all memberships and hires armed guards to block entry into annual meeting?"
Terry Hall's published messages mischaracterize the conflict that was going on at Chapel of Awareness. For one, the original list of those removed from the membership rolls was compiled and approved by the Board of Directors for people who were deemed no longer active in membership, per board established criteria.
When the Friends of Chapel group sued the Chapel of Awareness over this action, their collective vitriolic behavior (including disruptive shouting matches at board meetings and nasty public statements containing falsehoods and personal attacks) caused such chaos that the Board ultimately felt it needed to rebuild the whole membership from scratch. Maybe a misguided decision, but not done out of spite; but it was done under threat from these "Friends".
That feeling of threat lead the Board to bring in security for the annual meeting. And they were right to do so when the so-called "Friends" flooded the sidewalk out front and harassed members trying to enter the meeting, and themselves demanded entry despite the fact that their lawsuit was in litigation.
Now for Amy Hall's tweet:
1) "Seminar companies aren't the only ones with internal ego issues..."
The reference in this tweet is to former pastor Rev. Ann Lorenzini. Chapel Guardian find it interesting that Amy Hall would be attacking Chapel of Awareness and its former pastor when she served under controversial self-help coach James Arthur Ray, only resigning from Ray's organization after the deaths at his sweat lodge retreat in Sedona, Arizona.
Now, since the Friends' takeover of the Chapel of Awareness, the Friends of Chapel have been quietly promoting a San Diego mountain retreat in the coming weeks. Chapel Guardian want to make it clear they are not saying this retreat is planned with ill-intent. But in Chapel Guardian's opinion, the timing is terribly inappropriate given the raw nerves and the Ray controversy, and Friends of Chapel members' links to the Ray organization.
Chapel Guardian: thank you for speaking truth to power.
ReplyDeleteI am a Chapel member, and am absolutely horrified at the recent turn of events. Twenty years ago Rev. Larr chose Rev. Ann to lead the church, and the members of the congregation have consistently voted her as Pastor every year for two decades. She and her spouse, Joe Myers, devoted all these years of their lives to the continuing care and stewardship of the Church.
ReplyDeleteRecently, 72 members from the highly volatile and fanatically organized Friends of Chapel group, attended the April special election in person and by proxy, to take over the Board of Trustees. According to the third party neutral Ms. Hasler, who was chosen through mediation to run the meeting, there were 252 members entitled to vote.
The result of the election was that 7 Friends of Chapel members became a majority on the 9 member Board of Trustees. These majority members are now in the process of orchestrating a list of "grievances" which they intend to use to destroy the Chairman of the Corporation Rev. Ann, who holds office as Chairman of the Board until the year 2012.
The 7 called a "May Day" Board meeting for Saturday, May 1st, to which only Friends of Chapel members were invited. They held this meeting in the spiritual sanctuary of the church, to begin the process of evisceration.
It is interesting that this was the first meeting of the Board of Trustees ever held on a Saturday. Board meetings have always been held on Sundays, after services. It appears to me this date was chosen to enhance a "May Day" effect, and it is a sad use of the Chapel's sanctuary.
It is time for the rest of the 180+ members of the Chapel to speak up, if they want to save their church.