Anglican Watch

Spotlight on abuse: Episcopal priest canon Chester Arthur Larue, Jr.

Episcopal priest Chester Larue

Episcopal priest Chester Larue Episcopal priest Chester Larue Episcopal priest Chester Larue

Episcopal priest Canon Chester Arthur Larue, Jr. was arrested in 1997 and charged with felony possession of crack cocaine with intention to distribute from his rectory at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. Larue had been praised by NYC newspapers the previous month for fighting off two burglars at the church. The police investigation revealed that LaRue “was just trying to protect his stash.” Three other individuals including the parish sexton and his cousin were arrested in the raid on the rectory, which found a large-scale production and distribution facility for cocaine. Larue claimed that he had begun using cocaine as a way of coping with the stress of parish ministry, and because a parishioner struggling with addiction brought cocaine to him and he wished to demonstrate that it was easy to use and quit. He was sentenced in 1998 to 500 hours of community service. Larue is a 1968 graduate of Nashotah House ordained to the priesthood in 1969. He served parishes in California and Illinois before becoming canon to the ordinary and ecumenical officer of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago from 1976 to 1987. He was also associate priest of the conservative Anglo-Catholic Church of Ascension and St. Agnes in Washington DC in 1987 and 1988 before becoming rector of St. John’s where he was part of the Catholic Clerical Union. In 2003 Larue changed his name to Alexis and became a bishop of a small Russian Orthodox church. St. John’s, Brooklyn closed in 2013.

5 comments

    1. Dear Miss Virginia. He is a mendicant bishop of Christ’s universal Church triumphant. ::: Please seek peace in offering good will to others in the church, leave your tendency to have spite at home, and refrain from sullying others in publick. That is, concentrate on getting your own affairs in order, madam

      1. Perhaps it would be best for me to address how I have known Fr Chester, and from where I draw my position on his good and honorable character. I have been a layperson in the Episcopal Church since my college days where I was a congregant at St Luke’s Episcopal Anglo-Catholic in Evanston. I met Fr Chester when he was w Bishop James Winchester Montgomery, I then served and retired from the US Navy as as officer and w IRS as a revenue officer until I retired in that capacity. During this long Forty year stretch of our friendship things have happened in our individual and separate lives, the Lord has brought us each back to His good fold. Fr Chester has been my starets for all of these years: I have been able to find peace and correct guidance from him and spiritual comfort after reconciliation with God thru his pastoral office. Let’s just leave this child of God be and find other Count Dracula’s to drive stakes thru. Very respectfully submitted.

        1. Sorry, but “good and honorable” is not consistent with the allegations that he was manufacturing and dealing drugs. There is no fact pattern under which this behavior is acceptable.

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