Priest, Community Activist Fired From St. John’S Cathedral

The Rev. Ken Beason, an Episcopal priest and community activist, was fired from St. John’s Cathedral this week.

Beason, a retired Air Force chaplain, worked at the cathedral for three years, first as an interim priest and then as a full-time member of the staff.

He is fairly well-known throughout the religious community as a founder of Churches Against Racism, which brought together a variety of Christian churches to speak out against white supremacists.

Most recently, Beason was among those who organized a walk from the Jewish synagogue, Temple Beth Shalom, to St. John’s Cathedral. The event attracted more than 1,500 participants who packed into St. John’s to pray for an end to racism.

Officials at the South Hill church declined to comment on the termination, saying the legal wording of the arrangement needed to be finalized by the attorneys on both sides. But sources at the church said the dismissal would allow the Rev. John Smylie, the newly appointed dean of the cathedral, to hire someone with a different set of ministerial skills.

Smylie was hired two years ago as dean, or head priest, at the church. Normally when a new dean is hired, the other priests on staff tender their resignations to allow the dean to bring in a new ministerial team. It is then up to the dean to decide whether to accept the resignations.

That didn’t happen when Smylie was hired. Before he arrived in Spokane to assume charge of the cathedral, his wife was diagnosed with brain cancer. All administrative changes were postponed while Smylie cared for his wife, who died in December 1998. The staffing changes were further delayed by the death of the Episcopal Bishop Jeff Terry, in February 1999, following a heart transplant.

Beason is still in good standing with the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane and eligible for employment at other churches throughout the diocese, which covers Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Beason said Saturday that he would be seeking employment as an Episcopal priest on the west side of Washington. He was most upset about not being allowed to say goodbye to his congregation.

“Closure is going to be very difficult because of the way this has happened,” he said. “But I am very proud of the work I have done at the church and in the community.”

Smylie declined to comment, except to say that he had scheduled an emergency meeting of the congregation at 12:45 p.m. today.