August 2, 2026 Trinity 9

August 2, 2026

Trinity 9

“Sermon” Version

(My friends, in lieu of a sermon this week, I will read some words that I gave private letter to Abbott Gentzsch’s wife, with some private words meant for here alone removed. Many of you have asked how the funeral went, which I will explain after this missive.)

When I first met Chuck (who I will occasionally refer to as “Fr. Charles” as he was known at the parish early on and then “Abbott Gentzsch” as he became more fondly known here at St. Francis) he seemed a bit surprised I would move here. As a small parish, it was probably a little surprising someone would move from Louisiana to here merely to become the rector of the “cathedral,” that was no larger than a chapel. Granted, it is not much to look at when you first see it – though much has changed in the years since – size of the building or ministry did not concern me. I was called to come and take over the parish and I went at it with the gusto of a teenager.

However, from day one, he was there to make my job easy, to offer assistance and opinions whenever and wherever I needed. From the first Mass, he acted as the server/Deacon of every Mass together, even though he was a priest as well. He never wanted to say Mass and seemed to be quite content with assisting me at Mass. His choice here would become more evident later.

During the early two or three years, Abbott Gentzsch was not often at Mass – generally once a month or so. When he and I were on our own without any other clergy, is when he and I would connect more and I would start to learn more about his personality. It became apparent that he was a “grumpy old man.” He would complain about multiple things with regard to the church, both our denomination, as well as the Roman Catholic Church. In Chuck’s mind, there was nothing to like about the RCC. This became the apparent reason he was with our denomination. This answered the elephant in the room question I had in the back of my mind, “Why was he ordained in the Liberal Catholic Church?” At first, I thought it was merely because he found a Catholic Church that ordained married men, but it later became apparent that this was merely only one of the reasons.

We both came from Roman Catholic backgrounds. I went through seminary and was ordained, but I knew that the Roman Catholic Church was not where I should be. I briefly tried being an Anglican priest, but it was not “Catholic.” During this period, I had been communicating with the Bishop here in California who could tell I was very unhappy. He had tried a few times to get me to come to St. Francis, and I had never said yes (but neither had I said “no”). Obviously, I finally said yes. (If I were being honest, my last member of my immediate family, my brother, passed away, so I no longer had anything keeping me in Louisiana any longer. So, a few month’s after his passing, I moved.)

Anyway, back to Chuck becoming part of our church, he would equally complain about our church as he would of the RCC. He felt that our leadership would not listen to new or different ideas in regard to the liturgy for the Mass. Of course, as a smaller church, we are far nimbler when it comes to change. There is no Rome or the multiple offices, doctrine, dogmas, Cardinals or the Pope to get things “changed.” Though I understood some of his ideas, some were not refined enough, nor were any of the powers to be at the time interested.

As time went on, we became friends, not just fellow clergy. He became more supportive and protective. Any choices I made as the pastor (and Vicar General of the diocese at this point) was fully supported by him, even if he might have a different opinion in regard to anything I set out to do, modifications to the liturgy, or any decisions of any kind in regard to the parish. By this point we were so well connected that he knew me well enough to be able anticipate my decisions or intentions in advance. This might be during meetings, or special holy days and how something affects the Mass of the day.

This by now was probably about fives years in my time at St. Francis. About this point he was able to attend Mass on a more regular basis. This did certainly offer some great help to me. It was also a point that about once a month some of us would go to lunch after Mass. Of course everyone would be treated to the true Fr. Charles we all knew and who had an opinion on everything, but also where his “grumpiness” would shine through. His colorful metaphors were becoming far more regular. He would have something to say about everyone. It was at this point in time where we would often preface his opinions by saying, “Fr. Charles, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?!”

There would become more opportunities that he and I would go to lunch together after Mass on our own. It was during these lunches that cemented our friendship and “working” relationship more. It was fun to listen to him speak of his family. He would have those colorful metaphors for various members of his family; extended and otherwise. He had, by this time, opened up more and as such, I began to learn more about his life, career and family. He would tell me stories about Kevin and Ethan more so than Margaret. I often wondered why this was but never asked him. I just generally thought she was his “princess” as seems to be the case with any father. However, I was able to follow what was going on with his family with some amount of comedic repertoire. Shamefully, I started to refer to the various family members of his with the same pet names he used – after all, he used the pet names more than their real names, so it was the only way I could remember who was who.

In 2007 we experienced a difficult time in our church. Our Ordinary (the bishop in charge of our diocese – the same who came with me to the hospital when Chuck had Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, if I remember correctly) called for a meeting of the parish one Sunday. When he arrived for Mass, it became apparent it was not going to be an ordinary meeting, because all the priests of the local diocese were in attendance. It was during this meeting that our Ordinary demanded that I sell St. Francis and divide the money four ways! He also announced he was going to ordain an older retired priest as a new bishop for diocese – something that no one seemed to understand why. That priest was never a fan of our Ordinary and made it clear he never wanted to be a Bishop, not to mention he was in his 70’s, yet suddenly he became our Ordinary’s best buddy. Chuck had a much more colorful way of putting it, but I will keep it to myself. Hahaha

So, as I do not go into the longer version of this, I will stick with what affected me and Fr.

Charles during the episode. Obviously, I refused to sell the parish. Fr. Charles was very upset with the entire idea of selling and spoke his mind in no uncertain terms. Our Ordinary told him he was fired, even though Canon Law made it a bit more involved than a simple verbal “firing.” I in turn resigned, as did our Auxiliary Bishop (who, I might add, our Ordinary did not fill in or consult prior to the meeting). I was accused of being “selfish,” but before I could respond, Fr. Charles went into virtual rage expressing that “no one had a clue what Msgr. Robert has done for the parish, not to mention that St. Francis is only open because Msgr. Robert pays all its bills.”

Fr. Charles had expressed many times that he felt we should sell and set up a church elsewhere more visible. He also would make mention each year during our annual meetings and the financial details showed that 75% (or so) of the expenses were being paid by me. (This missive is about Chuck and I, so I do not wish to go on and on about this. I only mention it to show his dedication to me as the years went by.) However, our churches are not set up the same as the Roman Catholic churches, so the parish did not belong to the Ordinary and therefore could not be sold on his whim, nor could he force me to do so. The closest our bylaws come to in this regard is by virtue of whoever is the president of the corporation, who, theoretically, would be the person most able to execute a sale at a property. And I had been that person during this period of time. Fr. Charles knew this, and this was his way of attempting to “help me.” In his mind opening up a church in a different area of the city and surrounding areas would afford us

to be able to grow more rapidly in a better area. I always knew that he meant well. But Chuck would be darned if someone was going to force me to sell as was the case here.

With all of us resigning, that essentially left me as the president still of the corporation of the parish. Something that our Ordinary could not simply erase, based on our bylaws. The parishioners would have had to agree to have me dismissed and then a new president appointed. This obviously did not take place. The gentlemen who had been our Auxiliary Bishop and who had also turned in his resignation along with the rest of us, we elected him as our new Ordinary. (Though there is a great deal regarding Canon Law and the Constitution that would come into play normally, but the parish first voted to leave the LCCI, which effectively made this vote for a new Ordinary easier. Long story that I will not add to an already long one.)

Now that this had taken place, and I still being the president, and appointed as the rector of the parish by our new Ordinary, this opened up a new facet in the relationship of Chuck and me. He immediately felt that I needed to be consecrated as a Bishop as quickly as possible. His main reasoning for this was simply that the Bishop that we had just elected was also retired from the Navy as an engineer and as an attorney and was soon going to be moving to a different state.

As such, we would be without a Bishop – not really, but Chuck wasn’t viewing it that way! LOL. Our Ordinary did not agree with the urgency and nor had he made-up his mind one way or another about making me a Bishop. (In his defense, now that we were now on our own and were forming a new denomination and all the legal aspects of such, he was a bit busy getting everything set up.) (A side story here – the denomination we had all resigned from, has generally fallen apart hence.) Of course, we must keep in mind that I was not interested in becoming a Bishop at all, but there wasn't really any other choice. Fr. Charles did not want to be a Bishop, and he was still working full time plus he had a family. I also was working full time, but I did not have a family. Because our Ordinary did not do what Fr. Charles thought should be done right away, Fr. Charles went out of state to Texas, to one of the bishops of our former aforementioned group, and had himself consecrated as an Abbott-“Bishop” (yes, there are different variations in the spelling of “Abbott,” but I cannot say why we chose this variation, and given Chuck never stated differently, so it stuck).

He didn’t do it for himself directly, but I am sure he was glad he did so even if only in a small way for himself. He rarely if ever did anything from an Episcopal standpoint unless we had an ordination or some such, in which case he would then “play dress-up” and at least in the outer layer, looked like a Bishop. (We must have all the bells and smells, don’t you know?!) When asked why he did not dress that way every Sunday, he would often be heard saying, “Robert is the Bishop, I am not.” Well, of course he was, but he would quickly change it to “Abbott” and change the topic. I don’t think he was ever comfortable with being thought of as a Bishop, though I never asked why.

Chuck’s reasoning for doing this was because he was upset that our new Ordinary was

“dragging his feet” in making me a Bishop, so he went and got Consecrated a Bishop so he could make me a Bishop immediately! (Chuck never even told me he intentions. Oh, yes, he made some sarcastic comments about going, but given his propensity to sarcasm, I never gave it an ounce of seriousness, and I did not want to be a Bishop anyway.) Well, that was all that was needed for our Ordinary to decide that I needed to become a Bishop, like or not, because as a new denomination, we needed Bishops in order to grow, and given that I was one of the main clergy that helped form the denomination, it made sense that I should be a Bishop. (There was more to this as well, from Archbishop Bekken’s point of view, but enough of the dirty laundry.)

Once my Consecration as a Bishop took place, I immediately elevated Chuck to my Vicar-

General. I knew that he was the only one I could trust to keep the church on the correct path if I was somehow incapacitated or out of the country. At this point in time there was a change of some degree when it came to Chuck. He was always my biggest supporter at St .Francis, but he now became even more of a supporter and an outspoken one at that. Whatever ideals or thoughts I had in regard to our parish or denomination he would always support - especially publicly. Yes, there would be those timeswhen we would go to have lunch after mass and discuss some things where he would express a different view, but when the moment came to execute something that he might have disagreed

with, he did not make it known publicly. And it was through these years that I got to know him even more, because by this point, he was starting to slow down, and his work wasn't taking him out of town as much. We had “our” church, and we were always in such agreement, we were happy. We had our Apostolic Succession in valid continuity, so I think this made him happier than it did I.

After Chuck had that surgery in which he had the heart attack (?) on the operating table, he came down to Mass less often as would be expected given his health. As his health continued to deteriorate over the years, and the two years that the state of California made churches stay closed during COVID, we didn't see each other quite as much, but we would get in touch mainly through text or e-mail. His health became something that I was greatly concerned with. Given that he was a nurse practitioner, I guess I expected him to be doing far better than he was. Similar to the adage,

“Doctor, heal thyself.”

On his rare occasions that he would come down to Mass or when we would meet up for lunch, they were always a great value to me. As the years went by, and saving my fingers due to the tremors from having to type more, and your eyes from having to read it, I will digress with my story.

Chuck will always remain as “Abbott Gentzsch” to me. He was a great friend, a great colleague, and by far my most devoted follower and supporter. I could not possibly put into words at this point everything that I would like to say, because my emotions just simply fall apart at this point of this story. As my health started to decline, neither of us were able to visit one another as much as we would have liked.

I will forever miss him. We had 25 years of working together at our tiny little parish here in San Diego. He always had big dreams, and grandiose ideas, in regard to what he would like me to do here with the parish. The main one was always the same. He was always trying to get me to buy different places that he thought would be perfect as a retirement home for priests. At the retirement home, he wanted to take care of the medical aspects of the home while I took care of all the spiritual ends and did the business management end of such. Though obviously we never did get anything like that off the ground. I never wanted him to feel as though I did not respect his ideas. No matter how big they were, I always wanted to be the same to him as he was to me by respecting those ideas. I only wish I had the resources to have been able to make

his dream come true!

Rachel, again I want to say that if there was one thing I could say about Chuck, that which you probably know, and if you don’t, I am making known now, it was of his great love for you and his family. No matter what he would complain about, one would know that he did it out of love.

Everyone expresses it in different ways, and this was his.

I am so sorry for your loss. And I know that there are no words that can make you feel any

better. But being in ministry 30 years now, I also know that no one really expects us to have words that will make us feel better; they merely want someone who can listen and offer comfort. I am always here should you need anyone to talk to.

I cannot express how much I appreciate being able to perform a little service for Chuck. It is an honor that I will treasure always. He deserves far more than I have the wherewithal to do, but I have done this out of love for my friend – who I suspect is now in heaven telling Jesus how things should be run!

Let us Pray.

In today’s gospel we read how Jesus fed the multitudes with loaves and fishes.  We pray that we too, like the multitudes, listen to His Word so that we also are nourished and renewed in our spiritual lives. We pray to the Lord.            

We pray for the peace and repose of the soul of our dear brother, (The Rt. Rev.) Abbott Charles Gentzsch. We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the comfort and an outpouring of love to the Gentzsch family. We pray to the

Lord.   

We thank our Loving Father for the gift of the Eucharist and pray that this manna from Heaven be appreciated by all as the true food of life and spiritual nourishment for the soul. We pray to the Lord.            

We pray to the Father that we be bestowed with a generous heart and recognize that to live the life of Jesus, we too must have compassion for the poor and feed the hungry. We pray to the Lord.            

We pray for all throughout the world, particularly young people, who are spiritually hungry, that through the inspiration of Jesus and the generosity and example of Christians, they find and nurture the love of the Lord in their hearts. We pray to the Lord.                                    

We pray for those who have dedicated their lives to feeding the hungry in our society, to

housing the homeless, caring for the abandoned and bringing comfort to the sick. We pray to the Lord.            

We pray for our parish and church that it be a special place of spiritual nourishment for all who worship here. We pray to the Lord. 

We pray to God for an increase of priests, deacons, and religious for our denomination to bring the Good News to all peoples without prejudice. We pray to the Lord.

We pray that those with generous means may be led to our small church and give generously to our mission so that we may continue to be a church open to all peoples. We pray to the Lord.

For those on our parish prayer list, that they may receive swift answers to their needs and that they may find consolation through Christ’s healing presence. We pray to the Lord.

We bow our heads and remember in silence our own personal intentions and the intentions of those who have asked for our prayers (pause). We pray to the Lord.

In lieu of additional prayers from me, I would like us to take a few moments to remember

Abbott Gentzsch. We pray to the Lord.

God Love You +++

The Most Rev. Robert Winzens

Pastor – St. Francis Chapel

San Diego, CA.

Donations … As a small parish, we come to you all as beggars! Share with us this Christmas, a

little sacrifice for the Christ Child. Your generous support also allows us to continue these

important projects that fuel the movement of progressive Christianity. Thank you and God bless

you! +++

paypal.me/stfrancischapel

Sincerely yours in Christ,

++Robert