It looked like the gas fitter that installed Erin's gas meter must have been drunk but I figured the angular stance must have been caused by some exterior force and could have slowly morphed over time.
You can see by the pictures that the earth has settled several inches below the parging on the wall. We knew we had to bring in a load of soil to fill it back up because rainwater now runs right against the house. Fortunately there is no evidence that water has ever entered the basement.
Possibly due to the settling, all the pipes were askew but upon examination it was apparent that no single fitting had rotated more than a few degrees. After turning off the gas I went at the problem with my trusty pipe wrench.
Luckily, no single joint had rotated more than an eighth of a turn and most required tightening to fix, not loosening, so I was able to tweak them back nearly to the way they probably looked before. I did a 'soap test' later and it revealed no leaks so I'm confident I've solved the problem.
Below is a video about settling gas lines. This is maybe what happened??? Or maybe something ran into the pipes or meter and knocked it out of whack. I guess we'll really never know.
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