Jason Roberson is an Episcopal priest who served as a seminarian, and as associate rector, at Grace Episcopal Alexandria, the clergy perjury parish. As of this writing, he is transitioning — amusingly enough — to a role as Canon Missioner for Congregational Vitality and Transitions in the Diocese of Southeast Florida. He’s also a world-class hypocrite and not always accurate in his statements.
Vis-a-vis his hypocrisy, Jason likes to babble on about standing with the least among us. Yet he spent his entire four years at Grace turning a blind eye to perjuring priest Bob Malm’s bullying, his lies, and the toxic culture within the parish. If that’s his idea of Christianity or the baptismal covenant, no thanks. He can keep it.
As to his veracity, shortly after perjuring priest Bob Malm left Grace Church, Jason published an article in the church newsletter claiming that “Grace is growing and flourishing….”
For the record, even in those days before the pandemic hit, Grace was not growing and flourishing. Not spiritually. Not financially. Not in membership. In fact, in all those areas the church had been declining for years, and in a 2014 email I sent to perjuring priest Bob Malm, I was able to pinpoint almost to the day when the parish would hit a cash crunch. Nor was it all that hard to figure out—the numbers were there for all the world to see.
In fact, during Jason’s tenure, the parish imploded, resulting in the departure of Jason and three other full-time employees — the director of music, the assistant for family ministries, and the parish administrator.
Thus, it’s pretty amusing that Jason, having presided over one of the great meltdowns in parish history, will now be responsible for ensuring parish vitality in Florida.
And for the record, standing with the oppressed means something more than pretty sermons. It means speaking up, taking a chance, rocking the boat, having a backbone, doing something to effect change. Jesus did these things, but Jason can’t even tell the truth about the church he serves.
The church surely is a mess when a ballless wonder like Jason Roberson winds up responsible for congregational vitality, either at the diocesan level, or at any other level, for that matter.