Father Todd Wetzel

The Rev. Todd H. Wetzel was born and raised in Warren, Ohio.  He graduated Summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Ohio University in 1968 and with highest honors, Bexley Hall Seminary, Rochester, New York in 1971.  He served his diaconate at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland, OH and was ordained to the priesthood there in May of 1972 by the Rt. Rev. John Harris Burt.  Three months later, he became the vicar, Church of the Advent, Westlake, OH where he served for nearly 15 years, bringing the church into full parish status within the first two years.

An active participant in Episcopal Renewal Ministries in Bath, OH, Fr. Todd became the editor of Acts 29: that ministry’s newsletter in 1976.  For the next decade, he worked closely with the Revs. Chuck Irish and Terry Fullam.  In this capacity, he attended the 1986 Three R’s Conference in Winter Park, Florida and was one of the three that wrote the statement denouncing the revisionist trend of the national Church.  Two months later, Episcopalians United for Revelation, Renewal and Reformation was formed at Trinity School for Ministry, Pittsburgh with the Rev. John Throop as the first Executive Director.

At Throop’s resignation in 1989, the board named the Rev. Todd H. Wetzel as the new Executive Director.  The first job was to finish full incorporation for EU and gain tax-exempt status; the second was clearing nearly $100,000 in debt.  Slowly through the ‘90’s Fr. Todd established the newspaper The United Voice, a small publishing company named Latimer Press; the Joshua Circle prayer ministry, and the Canon Law Institute as adjunct ministries of Episcopalians United.

Episcopalians United became Anglicans United & Latimer Press in 2003, because of the pending confirmation for V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire at that General Convention.

The ministry mounted its most successful presence at the 1994 Indianapolis General Convention.  They sponsored daily information seminars for Deputies and Bishops and with Doug LeBlanc as the Editor, published The United Voice daily with full Convention coverage.  Additionally, Fr. Todd blew the cover off an explosive and high biased sexuality study commissioned by the national church offices.   Advance copies of the study were mailed to all deputies and bishops prior to Convention.  Once received, Fr. Todd quickly implemented a plan to use the secular press to reveal the blatant “gay-friendly” content of the study and thwart the adoption by either the House of Bishops or the House of Deputies.  This effort buried the study before it had an opportunity to influence the Convention and subjected Fr. Todd and his family to public excoriation by then Presiding Bishop the Most Rev. Ed Browning.

After that Convention, EU was labeled as both alarmist and strident by the national church press and most bishops.  Looking back, we are proud of those labels.  However, reform in the Church would be impossible without the assistance of bishops.  In 1995, Fr. Todd founded the American Anglican Council, especially challenging their Bishop’s Council to interact with the House of Bishops.   The Rt. Rev. David Anderson is the Executive Director of the AAC today.

Beginning in 1995, in preparation for the 1998 Lambeth Conference, EU and Ekklesia with Canon Bill Atwood, began the efforts to gather archbishops from around the Communion.  At two conferences held outside Dallas, TX the work changed into introducing and networking like-minded bishops from Asia, Africa and South American, who did not know each other.  This network was greatly expanded the first week of Lambeth ’98, resulting in the passage of Resolution I.10 on Human Sexuality, the statement that declared homosexuality to be incompatible with Scripture.  While I.10 was categorically rejected by bishops from the Episcopal Church within days of passage, the resolution was declared to still be the ‘Mind of the Communion’ at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, and was not open to discussion or revision.

That network of archbishops helped create the Primates Council of the Communion.  The Windsor Report of 2004 named the Primate’s Council as one of the four ‘Instruments of Communion.’

The 1997 General Convention elected Frank Griswold, Bishop of Chicago, as their new Presiding Bishop.  After meeting with him in New York City in 1997, Fr. Todd concluded that more local and international pressure would be needed to stem the tide of revisionism in the Episcopal Church.  After the 2000 General Convention, he organized four successful U.S. Anglican Congresses, held between 2001 and 2005.  This was the first attempt in a decade to get members of the ‘Diaspora’ of Anglican jurisdictions in the United States to sit and talk with each other.  These congresses helped lead to the development of the Common Cause Partnership, now led by Bishop Bob Duncan, Pittsburgh; and Federation of Anglican Churches in America (FACA) led initially by the Most Rev. Leonard Riches, Reformed Episcopal Church.  In April, 2008, the Rt. Rev. Paul Hewitt of the Diocese of the Holy Cross, Phoenixville, PA, became the new President of FACA.

Fr. Todd always dreamed of returning to parish ministry, which he believes is the cutting edge of evangelism and discipleship in the Church.  In October, 2002, under the direction of Bishop James M. Stanton, Dallas, Fr. Todd became the rector, Church of the Good Shepherd, Cedar Hill TX, while continuing part-time with Anglicans United.

In 1997 as  Executive Director of Episcopalians United/Anglicans United, Fr. Todd authored a bestselling Christian book, Steadfast Faith.  He has written hundreds of editorial and news pieces, widely published both at home and abroad and received a number of awards for editing and writing.  He is a gifted speaker and teacher and has enjoyed many invitations through the US to teach and preach.

The year 2008 was a particularly rich year as Fr. Todd and Cherie attended the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council meeting in Quito, Ecuador; the GAFCON Conference in Jerusalem and spent three weeks in Canterbury, England at the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

Fr. Todd met his wife, Cherie, in confirmation class, Church of the Good Shepherd, Athens, OH when both were seniors in college.  They have been happily married for over 40 years and have two sons.  Cherie became the full time administrator of Anglicans United when the ministry moved from Cleveland to Dallas in 1999 and continues as administrator and Editor, The Anglican Voice, the monthly newsletter  and the ministry’s website, www.anglicansunited.com.

In September, 2009, Fr. Todd celebrated 20 years of ministry as Executive Director of Episcopalians United/Anglicans United and is looking forward to further involvement both on the national and international levels of the Church.