(Anglican Unscripted 95)

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Every Week Kevin, George, Allan and Peter bring you news and prospective from around the globe.


STORY INDEX


00:00 The Pope a year in review
10:00 Global South adopts Diocese of South Carolina
18:10 ABC Canterbury year in review with Peter Ould
29:11 Why would anybody bring charges against Saint Schori?
38:14 R.I.P Terry Fullam
45:57 Closing and Bloopers

Bishop Lawrence to Dio. of SC: "We cannot allow the need for consolidating to replace the need for advancing the gospel."

http://locusthoney.blogspot.com/2014/03/bishop-lawrence-we-cannot-allow-need.html?spref=fb&utm_source=StandFirm&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=link


Bishop Lawrence: "We cannot allow the need for consolidating to replace the need for advancing the gospel."

Photo Credit: Good Shepherd, Charleston via Facebook

 Here is the full text of Bishop Mark Lawrence's brilliant address to the 223rd Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina. I have highlighted some of the most important points.

“The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.” So wrote the Swiss theologian, Emil Brunner, several generations ago. And it was clearly under the burning fire of the Holy Spirit that the apostles moved out to engage the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. For what God had done in Jesus Christ for the world must be made known to the world. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?” wrote St. Paul. “And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!’ … faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10: 14-17) So these early Christians sent out and so they went out. Pressing on, as one missionary statesman has written, “… going from city to city as heralds of the King, not staying to argue with gainsayers….” We spend too much time arguing with those within the church who do not believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ needs to be proclaimed to all people while we remain in guilty silence about the Gospel in the presence of its many cultured despisers. It was not so for the early disciples. Inflamed as they were with a saving message and filled with an unspeakable joy they brushed off the dust of those who had rejected their message and moved on looking for the next opportunity. The Holy Spirit never allowed them to let the need to consolidate what they had gained to replace the need to advance. In fact advancement became the method of consolidation. I am gripped by these words from Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, writing about the church’s need to press forward “… both to the ends of the earth and the ends of the world, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.” Of the Church’s need to press on in the strength of the Holy Spirit, living by grace, turning outward to engage the world, resisting the constant temptation to play it safe, he writes:

“When she (the church) becomes settled, when she becomes so much at home in this world that she is no longer content to be forever striking her tents and moving forward, above all when she forgets that she lives simply by God’s mercy and begins to think that she has some claim on God’s grace which the rest of the world has not, when in other words she thinks of her election in terms of spiritual privilege rather than missionary responsibility, then she comes under His merciful judgment (of God) as Israel did.” (p. 132)

Pressing forward in mission and rejoicing in hope: that is the glorious calling which we need to rediscover at the heart of our common life. One profound characteristic of the exploding growth of Anglicans in many parts of the Global South is their joy—joy in the midst of deprivation; joy in midst of persecution; joy in the midst of temporal uncertainty; joy that is rooted in the new life in Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. I yearn to see such unspeakable, irrepressible, iridescent joy within the life of our congregations, and frankly in my own life as well. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44) The man recognizes that the treasure is worth more than all that he has and with joy he does what we too often fail to do—he acts according to what he has discovered!

In this address I will take up three dimensions of our calling as a diocese to make biblical Anglicans for a global age. The first is the call to do this within our congregations and local communities. The second is the call to do this in the larger playing field of emerging Anglicanism. Finally, I want us to deepen our understanding of our God-given identity and to embrace our providential opportunities.

Every Congregation Engaging Every Generation

Much has been written and discussed in recent years regarding the challenge traditional churches have in reaching across the generational divides in our society. But, it is not just the traditional churches or congregations that are experiencing this problem; and not just the church either. The broader society struggles with it. When Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman published their book, When Generations Collide—raising questions about who these generations are? Why they clash? How to solve the generational puzzle at work?—They hardly knew what to expect from the reading public. But they didn’t need to wonder for long. Soon media outlets from CNN, Time magazine, local news stations, and even corporate businesses wanted in on the action. Still the questions hang there, challenging us as a diocese to find ways to help equip each congregation to engage every generation with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Three of our four workshops at yesterday’s pre-convention sessions were focused on some aspect of this challenge. Three of our diocesan staff members regularly engage this very work—Joy Hunter in communications strives to keep us current as we become more hi-tech savvy through E-Newsletters; an attractive, useable website; and a diocesan facebook page. She also leads workshops to help our smaller congregations create websites; works with Jan Pringle, Canon Lewis and others on press releases; and has even gotten the bishop blogging.

Then there is our diocesan Youth Coordinator, Dave Wright. You will hear from him later. It is a widely known when we were in TEC that we had the most successful diocesan youth program and more effective parish programs than any diocese in the national church. It would still be so today; and is equally true of the dioceses of the Anglican diaspora. But we have no reason to rest where we are. Too many of our churches do not have youth ministries or know how to start them. We want to help change that. Dave will have more to say about this later in this convention.

The third diocesan staff person engaging across the generations is our Faith Formation Coordinator, Peter Rothermel. He is on the cutting edge of this field. His working to strengthen Christian families, helping grandparents share their faith with their grandchildren, and our parishes to engage in men’s ministry has been transforming for many of our congregations. For instance confirmation at St. James, James Island has become a unique parent-youth rite. Or take just this past month, I spoke at the Christian Men’s Conference at St. Christopher here in the Diocese of South Carolina—almost 300 were in attendance—many men attending with their sons. Most were from the diocese but others came from across the state and even farther afield. In recent months Peter has been helping the Diocesan Church Women rethink this new chapter of their ministry post-TEC. It is an exciting, re-visioning time for them.

I mention these three diocesan staff persons because they are, like all our diocesan staff, Canon Lewis, Nancy Armstrong, Beth Snyder, Susan Burns including your bishop, here to build up and strengthen the parishes and missions of the diocese. You are not here to serve us—we are here to serve you with every gift and resource that the Holy Spirit makes available. To that end, no conversation in the diocese about engagement across generations would be complete without referencing the dynamic ministry of the diocese at St. Christopher every year—Buddy Camp (for parents and children), Family Camp, Youth Camps for all ages. These are stunningly effective examples of ministry to the various age groups and generations. This year we’re offering a new Grandparent Camp designed for grandparents and grandchildren 6-12 years of age. If you are a person who’s concerned that their grandchildren may not know Jesus Christ because they’re not going to church, sign up! Is this cutting edge engagement for Christ across the generations? You bet!

How I wish you could join me on my travels around the diocese to see the incredible ministries that our congregations are engaged in—from St. Luke’s Hilton Head to our several congregations on the Grand Strand. The Cross, Bluffton’s Buckwalter Campus is filled with children during the week at the Cross school and then filled again on Sunday morning with a contemporary worship service—The Cross, one church on two campuses, added over 220 new members just this past year of 2013 as they ministered across generations! In Beaufort, St. Helena’s sponsorship of Holy Trinity Classical Christian School in its second year of existence is nurturing children in a unique educational approach that may well do for North America what the Irish did for Western Civilization in the early Middle Ages.

So many of our congregations are engaged in re-missioning, or helping with church planting, I haven’t time to name them all. I made a list last fall that included 11 congregations that were struggling or faced with very significant difficulties. I spent a lot of time with them. Of these 11 at least eight and perhaps even nine are presently moving forward in positive ways. It is by helping them advance not helping them consolidate that a difference is made. This is true for even our strongest parishes. Take for instance St. Philip’s Charleston’s partnership with one of our new church starts, Church of the Resurrection, North Charleston. God-willing, Resurrection will be fully received at next year’s convention—but thanks be to God they are here with us today. How encouraging it is witness the Mother Church of the diocese stepping once again into her historic nurturing role in yet another century—the fourth and counting! Now, St. Paul’s, Summerville, in partnership with the diocese and one of its members, Mr. Gary Beson, who was this week approved for ordination after three years at Trinity School for Ministry, is exploring the possibility of planting a church on the east side of I-26. And up on the historic Waccamaw neck, quietly and without much fanfare a miracle has been taking place. Grace Church, Waccamaw, a congregation of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) has prayerfully chosen to become members of this diocese. Equally as remarkable is the way Christ the King, Waccamaw and Grace Church have been walking together, merging their life and ministry for the sake of the kingdom of God. It is a work only the Holy Spirit moving in the hearts of his people could accomplish. In some ways it is a merging of different generations for the sake of the gospel. Together they are congregations more equipped than ever to engage every generation with the good news of Jesus Christ. How grateful we are to have both parishes and their rector seated at this Convention. And farther to the north and just received as a mission of this diocese is Grace Church, North Myrtle Beach. I must tell you that without the sacrificial ministry of the Reverend Linda Manual this would not have been even a remote possibility.

I wish I could tell you about the exciting ministry going on by the priests, deacons and lay members of the diocese in such places of education as—Porter-Gaud, the Citadel, Francis Marion University, and Coker College. If time permitted I could tell you one story after another —where young people’s lives are being changed, baptisms are taking place, and where biblical Anglicans for a global age are being made.

The more I see the hand of God working among us the more I realize that to enable every congregation to engage every generation with the good news of Jesus Christ is a realistic, achievable, and transformational goal. If you get a chance ask Mr. Pinckney Thompson, Sr. Warden at Redeemer, Orangeburg about the ministry he has as layman among the young members of his congregation and community. While you are at it, ask the Ervin brothers, Joe and Bill at St. Matthew’s Darlington about the youth ministry they lead there. Let us never forget my friends — the first order of ministry is the lay order. We have some remarkable lay men and lay women in ministry in this Diocese of South Carolina—some in Cursillo, Faith Alive, Brotherhood of St. Andrew, DOK, DCW, Men’s Conference, but most of all in congregations from Holy Apostles, Barnwell to St. David’s Cheraw—from Walterboro to Pinopolis to Bennettsville. Where there is trust in the power of God’s Holy Spirit and the willingness among God’s people, God will make a way. We don’t talk enough about ordinary people doing extraordinary ministry under the power of the holy spirit.

So far I have been speaking about our calling locally to make biblical Anglicans for a global age within our churches and local communities— equipping every congregation to engage every generation. I have only mentioned a handful of parishes. There are so many other stories I wish I could share of congregations moving forward in mission and ministry. But I need to move along to the larger scene in North American Anglicanism and the emerging scene in the larger Anglican Communion. Here, too, I believe we have our part to play.

Helping to Shape Emerging Anglicanism in the 21st Century

… has been an important part of every bishop’s address since I became your bishop in 2008. This year will be no different. Let me retrace some of the significant happenings since last year’s diocesan convention. After the New Wineskin’s Conference in Ridgecrest, N.C. (at which we had a large number of parishioners and clergy attending) we were visited by seven bishops of the Anglican Communion—from Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Ireland, Egypt, the Horn of Africa, and then later in the fall by Bishop Rafael from the Anglican Church in Bolivia. Each spoke in various congregations and diocesan settings. I mention this among other reasons because it is amazing the way mission can help us engage across the generations. Just one story to illustrate—but there are many like it: When Robin Quick heard Bishop Rob Martin tell of a Tree-Church congregation in his Diocese of Marsabit, Kenya that was losing the huge tree it met under by river erosion she went back to Christ Church, Mt Pleasant’s Sunday School and set about to raise $25,000 to construct a building for this Tree Church. In raising the last dollars they planned a 5-K run. So, as you might imagine, when I was asked to run in the race what could say but “Yes!” I have to tell you I won first place in the over 60 category and Fr. Ted Duvall won first place in the 50 and over. Never say the clergy of the Diocese aren’t fit! The 5K run got parishioners and unchurched people ages 5—75 involved in this project! Remember God’s mission engages God’s people across every generation!

This past June Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) invited us to be observers at their Provincial Synod. Dean Peet Dickinson and Mrs. Suzanne Swank from the Standing Committee and I attended. We were welcomed warmly and were encouraged by their vision and by their common life. God willing we shall send another delegation as observers at their upcoming June Provincial Synod. Then last October we joined a substantial delegation of Bishops, priests and lay persons from the ACNA in attending the Global Anglicans Future Conference (GAFCON II) in Nairobi, Kenya. Representatives from the diocese were Fr. Greg Snyder, President of the Standing Committee, and Fr. Robert Lawrence, chair of the ACD Committee, my wife, Allison and I. This was one of the largest and most remarkable gatherings of Anglicans in history—over 300 bishops and 1000 priests and laity. As you know one of the resolutions before this convention is affirming the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GFCA) and the Jerusalem Declaration both of which are key to the GAFCON movement. Let us pray that God continues to bless such movements of renewal, mission, and ministry in the Holy Spirit among fellow Anglicans. God is doing a new work within the communion. We’re glad to be a part of it.

Again last year at Archbishop Duncan’s request we host a meeting at St. Christopher for the various bishops of or connected with ACNA who have overlapping jurisdictions in South Carolina. It was agreed that I would function as convener at future meetings several times a year. These will be meetings for conversation, prayer and for mutual support. All these bishops were present at our Opening Eucharist last evening—Bishops’ Gadsden and White of the Reformed Episcopal Church, ACNA Bishop Steve Wood of the Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas, Bishop David Bryan of PEAR of the Southeast (also with ACNA) and Bishop Paul Hewett (FACA). I pray that this is a harbinger and a sign of our growing fellowship and unity as we work towards a united, orthodox Anglicanism in North America.

There are two other noteworthy events for the diocese on the broader stage that I want to briefly celebrate. This past February St. Michael’s Charleston hosted their annual Global Impact Celebration—what an exhausting and exhilarating week it was. Along with bringing all their missionaries they help support, this year they invited Baroness Caroline Cox as their keynote speaker. She has been justly called the Anglican Mother Teresa. Her challenge to the some 450 members of St. Michael’s and parishioners from around the diocese who gathered at the Charleston Music Hall for witness and worship was hauntingly memorable—she challenged each of us by her words and life to engage more fully in mission for the gospel and in mercy for the suffering and persecuted Christians around the world. It was an emboldening call to move forward in mission to the ends of the earth.

Then the preceding week was the Mere Anglicanism Conference. This annual event which was begun by Bishop Allison and dean emeritus, William McKeachie has for the past two years been led by the Reverend Jeffrey Miller. This year’s conference because of the numerous luminaries on the schedule and its theme “Faith and Science” was a landmark event. It filled the Charleston Music Hall with some 650 attendees from all over the world. But for me at least seemed more than a conference. Yes, the parishioners of St. Helena’s gifts for hospitality were in splendid display. But there was something else at work this year. This was not just Episcopalians and Anglicans getting together to talk about the in-house problems of the Church. Here were Christians across the denominational spectrum gathered to engage one of the great issues of the culture, but done amidst dynamic Anglican worship and within the Diocese of South Carolina. I could not help but believe it represented a profound shift in our diocesan life. Sure many from within the diocese were not in attendance and perhaps had little knowledge and even less interest in what was taking place. Nevertheless it felt like another divide had been crossed. No longer were we held back by the gainsayers within the Church. We were discussing an issue of the day which the world sees as important and for too long (because of our denominational squabbles) we had failed to engage. I tell you friends I saw our diocese in new light. I saw it through the eyes of others. And I pray that I saw it through the eyes of Jesus Christ - resplendent with new possibilities not just for North American Anglicanism but for the role we might play by God’s grace on the larger scene of global Anglicanism.

It is for now an embryonic dream and I have debated with myself if I should even share it with you at this convention. But since I’ve been speaking about moving forward so let me give you glimpse of something I’ve only a glimpse of. What if we established in this diocese an institute to bring emerging Anglican leaders from across the world for 4 -6 weeks of residential study, prayer, renewal and reflection with seasoned Christian leaders and scholars? Imagine what a season—building relationships of gospel affection and a missionary vision for reaching the secular and the religious cultures of the 21st Century—might mean for those who labor in demanding vineyards under great depravation and persecution. Perhaps we might call it the St. Augustine or the Theodore of Tarsus School for Anglican Leadership Development. Imagine what it could mean for emerging Anglican leaders to come here from various parts of the communion for a season of study, renewal and refreshment and to have our clergy here study and pray alongside them under men such as Michael Nazir-Ali and many others who come quickly to mind. Imagine what remarkable vision and perspective these young leaders and our own priests might be given. We already have seminaries to train our future ordinands. There are programs for advanced degrees in our colleges. That’s not what I have in mind here. This would be designed for emerging leaders and those in mid-stride who have been ministering for 10, 15 or perhaps even 20 years who would be strengthened by such a time for prayer, study and visioning with other leaders to deepen their confidence in Gospel. Do you know that even now The Cross, Bluffton brings priests and laity from Ireland for a week every year to learn principles of congregational growth and to be refreshed and renewed in the midst of a lively congregation? I wonder who gains the most when all is said and done—those who minister or those who are ministered to? So I ask that you might dream and pray with me about this. We have not yet even scratched the surface of what we might do for God’s kingdom and Church.

Of course I can imagine some thinking, “Bishop, this is the wrong time to be talking about such a bold venture what with law suits and litigation expenses before us.” I can only respond by saying we cannot allow the need for consolidating to replace the need for advancing the gospel. I believe emerging Anglicanism needs this; North American Anglicanism needs it; and our own diocese and clergy need it. And I believe by God’s grace we can do it. Now to my last topic:

Clarifying our Episcopal or Anglican Identity and Provisional Primatial Oversight

The question of identity has been confusing to some lay persons in the diocese since our departure from The Episcopal Church in the fall of 2012. They ask, “How are we to refer to ourselves now that we are not part of the national church? Are we Episcopalians? Are we Anglicans?” A variety of answers can and have been given both by me and others. This is neither the time nor the place for a thorough exposition of this question. But, yes, we can and have referred to ourselves as “Episcopalians” but then one has to define what that means—though of course many of us have been doing that for years! The simple truth is that the word “Episcopalian” is not the exclusive property of TEC nor has it ever been. One might also say we are “Anglicans”—but this also needs to be explained to many within our parishes and even more to those outside. But remember the identity in God has an even deeper origin for people of faith then such descriptive names. God reminded Israel through the prophet Hosea that after a season judgment and suffering his restoring power would grant them identity:

“And in that day, says the Lord
I will answer the heavens
and they shall answer the earth;
and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer Jezreel;
and I will sow him for myself in the land.
And I will have pity on Not Pitied,
and I will say to Not my People, ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘Thou art my God.’” (Hosea 2: 21-23)

Bishop Lessile Newbiggin refers to this deeply captivating identity that comes to the Church from God’s mercy by calling us into fellowship with His Son with these challenging words:

“The Church exists, and does not depend for its existence upon our definition of it. It exists wherever God in His sovereign freedom calls it into being by calling His own into the fellowship with His Son. And it exists solely by His mercy…. To that end He is free to break off unbelieving branches, to graft in wild slips, and to call ‘No people’ His people.”

What is essential for us to remember is that though we have a centuries old history in this diocese and clearly demonstrate the “visible marks” of the Church, manifest first during the colonial era in a relationship with the Church of England which gave us Episcopal oversight (albeit from a distance), clergymen, and a Prayer book. This over-arching culture coupled with our well-known trait of independence made us much of who we were then and are now—sometimes through the established parish and clergy system and at other times through the preaching of Anglican revivalists like George Whitefield; then, in the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary War times this ethos continued to evolve and adapt given the dramatic change of context, and from this we emerged eventually in 1785 as the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina; and after 1790 through an association with the PECUSA; (then a several year sojourn as a diocese in The Episcopal Church in the Confederate States); then, again with PECUSA; and now we continue our sojourn under God as a diocese in the present era—an era characterized by a growing globalization within Anglicanism. None of this, however, can be our deepest identity. That is reserved for our call under God’s sovereignty: He who has called and continues to call ‘No people’ His people. We are who we are through his mercy and sovereignty in Jesus Christ. And He can bind us to whomever he chooses.  

Again hear some words of Bishop Newbigin:

“And if, at the end, those who have preserved through all the centuries the visible ‘marks’ of the Church find themselves at the same board with some strange and uncouth late-comers on the ecclesiastical scene, may we not fancy that they will hear Him say—would it not be like Him to say— ‘It is my will to give unto this last even as unto thee?’”

Yes, we have maintained the ‘marks’ of the Church for centuries within an ever changing context. But it is God in his providence that breaks off one and grafts on another, and calls in his mercy ‘No People’, ‘His People’. If we are not His People and do not have fellowship with His People, then it matters not who or what we call ourselves. So I remind us of an important truth that that doctrine theologians have referred to as God’s Providence has echoed again and again in the history of this Diocese . And this word, “Providence” or, rather its derivative, “providential” appears in what to my mind is the most important resolution to come before this 223rd Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina. In the final rationale for resolution R-3 “Response to Offer of Provisional Primatial Oversight” you will find this statement: “Most importantly, however, this resolution is the response others in the communion have created, and it provides a means for us to better make biblical Anglicans for a global age in this in between-time. We choose to see it as a providential provision which gives us further sacramental closeness with the global Anglican family which we so richly treasure.”

This final rationale reminds me of an address I made before the clergy of the diocese back on August 13, 2009:

Among the many doctrines of our Faith to which I might ask you to turn your thoughts this morning it is first to that wonderful doctrine of God’s Providence. It was to this doctrine that my distant predecessor, The Rt. Reverend Robert Smith, first bishop of South Carolina, turned when he addressed the Colonial Assembly which gathered at St. Philips Church in the early months of 1775 as the winds of war were blowing on the eve of the American Revolution. Of course he was not at that time a bishop. There were no bishops on these shores, though Anglicanism was well into its second century on this continent. Nor was he a bishop when he returned to Charleston from imprisonment and banishment in 1783 to give his homecoming sermon, where once again he spoke of an “overruling Providence”. As perhaps you know, his banishment to a northern colony was due to his having taken words and arms against his former king and country—and having thrown in his lot with his adopted home, he risked and lost everything. He was taken to Philadelphia bereaved of wife (she had recently died), and bereft of home and parish. But on that public occasion in February 1775, before he had ever fired a musket towards a British troop, this unlikely patriot declared his deepest allegiance:

“We form schemes of happiness and deceive ourselves with a weak imagination of security, without ever taking God into the question; no wonder then if our hopes prove abortive, and the conceits of our vain minds end in disappointment and sorrow. For we are inclined to attribute our prosperity to the wisdom of our own councils, and the arm of our own flesh, we become forgetful of him from whom our strength and wisdom are derived; and are then betrayed into that fatal security, which ends in shame, in misery and ruin.”

Notice how his eye looks upward; his mind striving to understand; his heart taking refuge in God’s ordering of things. Trusting the One “… who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. (Isaiah 40:21-24) It is under such a godly Providence that we live my friends—and it is under this godly providence, whether we act or merely stand firm in prayerful posture, that we in faith “shall mount up with wings like eagles … shall run and not be weary, … shall walk and not faint.”

So let us remember this comforting doctrine of God’s Providence. We have passed through much as a diocese. We have more challenges to encounter but we do not do so under our own power or by our own insufficient plans. There has come to us, as if by a providential hand, this offer from the Global South Primatial Steering Committee; an offer brought about not by our scheming or plans, but by the concern that others have for us; a concern that we do not walk this way alone. There’s an African proverb that wisely states—“If you want to go fast go alone; if you want to go far go together.” This offer of Provisional Primatial Oversight does not come with colonial intent or to burden us with a cultural mandate other than that of the Gospel; but rather to assure us that we are not on this long Anglican journey alone. I believe our prior relationships with so many of the Anglican Churches, our unity in the Holy Spirit, in the bonds of affection, and in the mission and gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can only be strengthened by our accepting this offer of ecclesial relationship. This Primatial Oversight will bring us an extra-provincial diocesan status with an ecclesial body of the larger Anglican family. It will deepen our mutual responsibility in the Gospel. It will give our bishop a Primate with whom to seek counsel and fellowship; and bring us gracious oversight from one of the largest ecclesial entities within the Communion; one which includes Anglicans from a diverse body of believers from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, the Indian Ocean and many, many others. So without committing us to a hasty affiliation or alleviating our need to continue the work of ongoing discernment for a more permanent provincial relationship, it does bring us, as I have noted above, a needed mutual responsibility in the Gospel. And, yes, it strengthens our Anglican or Episcopal Identity.

So in conclusion, let me say it clearly, I fully support the passage of this Resolution, R-3. Should we pass it, along with the two other related resolutions, R-1 “Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans” and R-2 “Discernment of Provincial Affiliation” we will be placed, I trust by God, squarely in the midst of the emerging Anglican world of the 21st Century. From here we can continue to move forward in strength, fulfilling our God given vision of making biblical Anglicans for a global age—striving to equip every congregation to engage every generation with the good news of Jesus Christ; and in whatever way God chooses to enable us—helping to shape emerging Anglicanism in the 21st Century. For such a gift and calling I believe we all can be grateful—and proclaim—to God alone be the Glory!

VOL's "Short" (Slight? Thin?) Analysis of Move by Dio. of SC Re: Global Oversight

With all David Virtue's connections, one rather expects analysis not a press release.  As such, it's slight, slender, thin and rather small.


http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=18678#.Uxu9NsKYZjo


Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina Seeks Provisional Primatial Oversight
By David W. Virtue www.virtueonline.org
March 8, 2014

The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina is looking for an ecclesiastical home.

Since leaving the Episcopal Church it has not come under any Episcopal or Anglican authority and has resisted coming under the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

An upcoming resolution to be presented at their Annual Diocesan Convention March 14-15 could change all that. In response to an offer by the newly created Global South Primatial Oversight Council for pastoral oversight, the diocese seeks to have a formal ecclesiastical connection to the larger Communion and a consequent pastoral relationship.

This new entity was created in Cairo, Egypt, by the Global South Primates Steering Committee on February 14-15, 2014.

Most importantly, however, this resolution is the response to something others in the communion have created, and it provides a means for us to better make biblical Anglicans for a global age in this in between-time. We choose to see it as a providential provision which gives us further sacramental closeness with the global Anglican family which we so richly treasure.

The Diocese of South Carolina recognizes this as a "period of fluidity in the Anglican Communion" and reserves the right to revisit this decision, as a convention, should it be necessary during this temporary discernment period, however long it may last.

Several aspects of this resolution need to be made clear. First, this resolution in no way takes away from the need for, and the careful discernment of, an ultimate diocesan affiliation for the diocese. Therefore it is to be seen as a matter of both/and rather than either/or.

The resolution does not speak in any way about GAFCON or ACNA, the ministries of which the diocese appreciates, and the relationships within which they continue to seek nurture, cooperation and strength in the days ahead.

Speaking to the resolution personally, Bishop Mark Lawrence had this to say, "Therefore, as we continue in this ongoing process of discernment, this Provisional Primatial Oversight, if by God's grace established, will give us what some might term an extra-provincial diocesan status with an ecclesial body of the larger Anglican family. It should also be noted in this regard; this Provisional Primatial Oversight, while bringing a mutual responsibility in the Gospel, commits us to neither a hasty affiliation nor alleviates our need to continue the work of ongoing discernment for a more permanent provincial relationship.

END

Diocese of SC: Mr. (Bp) Mark Lawrence's Message Re: Resolution R-3

http://www.diosc.com/sys/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=557:bishop-lawrences-message-regarding-resolution-r-3&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=75 Bishop Lawrence's Message Regarding Resolution R-3

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Today, March 7, 2014, Canon Jim Lewis emailed to all our diocesan clergy and the lay delegates to our upcoming March 14-15, 2014, Diocesan Convention a resolution that God-willing, and with the Convention’s consent, will come to the floor. This resolution, R-3: "Response to Offer of Provisional Primatial Oversight,” originated in the Anglican Communion Development Committee (ACD) but has also been supported by a majority of the clergy of the West Charleston deanery with whom I met at their recent clericus on Shrove Tuesday. The ACD Committee is an arm of Diocesan Council. It was established in 2009 in order to strategically establish mutually-enriching missional relationships with provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion. It has played a key role in pursuing our diocesan vision of “Making Biblical Anglicans for a Global Age.” As your bishop I fully support this resolution and for all of the reasons mentioned in the Rationale attached to it.  But particularly for the reasons presented in the final rationale: “Most importantly, however, this resolution is the response to something others in the communion have created, and it provides a means for us to better make biblical Anglicans for a global age in this in between-time. We choose to see it as a providential provision which gives us further sacramental closeness with the global Anglican family which we so richly treasure.” I want you to know, also, that I have been in conversation with Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) regarding this resolution.  It is my hope that should the Diocese of South Carolina affirm this offer from the Global South Primates’ Steering Committee for Provisional Primatial Oversight that it will not be interpreted, either by those within the Diocese or across the wider Anglican Communion, as a step away from ACNA or any other more permanent provincial affiliation. What it does offer us, and those who may be in similar circumstances, is an ecclesial way of recognizing the relationships we have in the Holy Spirit, through the bonds of affection, and in the mission and gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as we continue in this ongoing process of discernment, this Provisional Primatial Oversight, if by God’s grace established, will give us what some might term an extra-provincial diocesan status with an ecclesial body of the larger Anglican family. It should also be noted in this regard; this Provisional Primatial Oversight, while bringing a mutual responsibility in the Gospel, commits us to neither a hasty affiliation nor alleviates our need to continue the work of ongoing discernment for a more permanent provincial relationship. Yours in Christ, The Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence The Right Reverend Mark Joseph Lawrence XIV Bishop of South Carolina

Diocese of South Carolina Requests Oversight from Overseas: Global South Primates

Press Release.


http://www.anglicanink.com/article/south-carolina-request-oversight-global-south-primates

 South Carolina to request oversight from Global South Primates

07 Mar 2014  

Author: 

Diocese of South Carolina

Resolution R-3 

"Response to Offer of Provisional Primatial Oversight" Offered by: The Anglican Communion Development Committee

Recognizing the generosity of spirit and the faithful concern for the Anglican
Communion represented by the Global South Primates Steering Committee in offering a means for bodies such as the Diocese of South Carolina to have a formal ecclesiastical connection to the larger Communion and the consequent pastoral relationship,

Be it resolved that the Diocese of South Carolina accept the offer of the newly created Global South Primatial Oversight Council for pastoral oversight of our ministry as a diocese during the temporary period of our discernment of our final provincial affiliation and,

Be it further resolved that in this period of fluidity in the Anglican Communion we
reserve the right to revisit this decision, as a convention, should it be necessary during this temporary discernment period, however long it may last.

Rationale:

Resolution R-2 of this Convention speaks to the beginning of a formal process of
deciding upon the final provincial affiliation of the diocese. When Resolution R-2 was written and distributed, the Global South Primatial Oversight Council had not yet been created. This new entity was created in Cairo, Egypt, by the Global South Primates Steering Committee on February 14-15, 2014.

Because this new entity was created within a month before our Convention, and because it speaks directly to our need by mentioning the possibility of diocesan affiliation, we believe the timing Providential to add this resolution as a third resolution from the floor for the current Convention.

Several aspects of this resolution need to be made clear. First, this resolution in no way takes away from the need for, and the careful discernment of, an ultimate diocesan affiliation for the diocese. Therefore it is to be seen as a matter of both/and rather than either/or.  Bishop Mark Lawrence has made clear that the diocesan affiliation decision should be made neither hurriedly nor by him individually but by us corporately as a diocese.

Secondly, there is a specific time frame for the decision, but not a named date because it is unknown how long a process the discernment of affiliation will be. So while the time frame is temporary it is also open. We do not want to box the Holy Spirit in. 

Thirdly, the second resolved is necessary because the situation on the ground in the
communion continues to change, and, given that this latest change has just happened
before our own convention, other as yet unknown changes may emerge BEFORE our ultimate diocesan affiliation decision has been reached.

Fourthly, this affiliation does not speak in any way about either GAFCON or ACNA, the ministries of which we appreciate, and the relationships within which we continue to seek nurture, cooperation and strength in the days ahead.

Most importantly, however, this resolution is the response to something others in the
communion have created, and it provides a means for us to better make biblical
Anglicans for a global age in this in between-time. We choose to see it as a providential provision which gives us further sacramental closeness with the global Anglican family which we so richly treasure.

Members of the Anglican Communion Development Committee 

The Rev. Bob Lawrence (Chairman), St. Christopher, Seabrook Island
The Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon (ACD Coordinator), Christ-St. Paul's, Yonges Island
The Rev. Chris Warner, Holy Cross, Sullivan's Island
Ms. Cindy Pennington, St. John's, John's Island
Mr. Don Hurst, Church of the Cross, Bluffton
The Rev. Janet Echols, St. Matthew's, Ft. Motte
The Rev. Kathie Phillips, St. Luke's, Hilton Head
Dr. Chuck Milliken, Redeemer, Orangeburg
Ms. Lisa Holland, St. Michael's, Charleston
The Rev. Marcus Kaiser, Holy Comforter, Sumter
The Rev. Michael Clarkson, Our Savior, John's Island
Mr. Sam Dargan, St. John's, Florence
Ms. Sue Harrison, St. Paul's, Conway

Other Clergy Sponsors 

The Very Rev. Craige Borrett, Christ - St. Paul's, Yonges Island
The Rev. Wey Camp, Trinity, Edisto
The Rev. Tyler Prescott, St. Paul's, Summerville
The Rev. Matt McCormick, Resurrection, N. Charleston
The Rev. David Dubay, Holy Trinity, Charleston
The Rev. Jimmy Gallant, St. Andrew's Mission, Charleston
The Rev. Greg Snyder, St. John's, John's Island
The Rev. Shay Gaillard, Good Shepherd, Charleston
The Rev. Rob Kunes, Christ - St. Paul's, Yonges Island
The Rev. Canon Jim Lewis, Diocesan Staff, Charleston
The Rev. Mike Lumpkin, St. Paul's, Summerville
The Rev. John Scott, St. Paul's, Summerville 

- See more at: http://www.anglicanink.com/article/south-carolina-request-oversight-global-south-primates#sthash.oxkJn1v1.dpuf

17 Nov 2012: Dio. of South Carolina Special Convention: Bishop Lawrence's Address

http://anglicanink.com/article/resistance-has-been-futile-mark-lawrence-tells-south-carolina-and-it-time-go

Resistance has been futile, Mark Lawrence tells South Carolina, and it is time to go

Address to the 17 Nov 2012 Special Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina by Bishop Mark Lawrence

Article | November 17, 2012 - 1:40pm | By Mark Lawrence

 

Photo: Kevin Kallsen

 

Bishop’s Address—Special Convention November 17, 2012

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith….” Hebrews 12:1—2a

When this Diocese last met in a convention at St. Philip’s, it was September 16h, 2006. I was one of three candidates for the XIV Bishop of South Carolina. In my opening address the week before, I spoke these words to the assembled clergy and laity : “We meet this morning in this lovely city of Charleston. Inside the walls of this great old historic edifice—we can only hope the wisdom of the years might seep into our minds that we might rightly appreciate the present, and more importantly imagine an even greater future for tomorrow.” I purposely referenced the past, present and future in this opening sentence. So too we meet here today, our hands reaching back to bring the rich heritage of the past with us and with our feet firmly placed in the present—and with our hearts seeking God’s grace for an even greater future for tomoorow we are facing reality as it is, not as it was nor as we wish it were, but as it is. Before, however, turning our minds to consider the future, I need to say word about what in recent years we have come through. For since that day on September16th this Diocese and I have passed through two consent processes for Bishop, and two Disciplinary Board procedures for Abandonment of the Communion of The Episcopal Church—the last without our even knowing it and while we were seeking a peaceable way through this crisis. I have not done the research but I suppose two consent processes and two disciplinary board procedures is and may well remain unique in the annuals of TEC. You may remember that during that stormy first consent process I stated that: “I have lashed myself to the mast of Jesus Christ and will ride out this storm wherever the ship of faith will take me.” Well it brought me two years later here to the marshes and cypress swamps of the Low Country. Where many of your relatives landed centuries before—some searching for wealth and others herded like cattle in the hulls of ships. During these past years I have grown to love this land, set down roots in your history and, even more to our purpose, become one with you in a common allegiance to Jesus Christ, his Gospel, and his Church.
 
Consequently, I trust you will understand that I have strived in these past five years, contrary to what some may believe or assert, to keep us from this day; from what I have referred to in numerous deanery and parish gatherings as the Valley of Decision. There is little need to rehearse the events that have brought us to this moment other than to say—it is a convergence of Theology, Morality, and Church Polity that has led to our collision with the leadership of TEC. I hope most of our delegates and clergy who have heard me address these matters know in their hearts and minds that this is no attempt to build gated communities around our churches as some have piously suggested or to keep the hungry seeking hearts of a needy world from our doors. Rather, let the doors of our churches be open not only that seekers may come in but more importantly so we may go out to engage the unbelieving with the hope of the gospel and serve our communities, disdaining any tendency to stand daintily aloof in self-righteousness. Indeed, let us greet every visitor at our porch with Christ and while some of our members stand at open doors to welcome, still others will go out as our Lord has directed into the highways and byways of the world—across seas and across the street—with the Good News of a loving Father, a crucified-yet-living Savior and a community of wounded-healers learning, however falteringly, to walk in step with His Spirit. Let not God’s feast go unattended. This is our calling and our mission.

But I must say this again and again. This has never been about who is welcome or not welcome in our church. Its about what we shall tell them about Jesus Christ, his mercy, his grace and his truth – it is about , what we shall tell them when they come and what we shall share when we go out.

We have spent far too many hours and days and years in a dubious and fruitless resistance to the relentless path of TEC. And while some of us still struggle in grief at what has happened and where these extraordinary days have brought us, I believe it is time to turn the page. The leaders of TEC have made their positions known—our theological and creedal commitments regarding the trustworthiness of Scripture, the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ, and other precious truths, while tolerated, are just opinions among others; our understanding of human nature, the given-ness of gender as male and female, woven by God into the natural and created order, is now declared by canon law to be unacceptable; our understanding of marriage as proclaimed in the Book of Common Prayer “established by God in creation” and espoused by Anglicans around the world hangs precariously in the life of the Episcopal Church by a thin and fraying thread; and our understanding of the church’s polity, which until the legal strategy of the present Presiding Bishop’s litigation team framed their legal arguments, was a widely held and respected position in this church . Now to hold it and express it is tantamount to misconduct or worse to act upon it – is ruled as abandonment of this church. While one might wish the theological and moral concerns were on center stage, it is the Disciplinary Board for Bishops misuse of the church’s polity that has finally left us no place to stand within TEC. So be it. They have spoken. We have acted. We have withdrawn from that Church that we along with six other dioceses help to organize centuries ago.

While I have strived to keep us from this Valley of Decision, having walked so long in its gloom myself—once forced to decide—my allegiances are firm. The doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this church has received them and the solemn declaration “that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary for salvation” cannot be surrendered. Nor can we embrace the new revisions to the doctrine, discipline and worship so wrongly adopted. Whether we could or could not have stayed longer, or continued to resist in the face of these recent innovations need not detain us further. An unconstitutional process has weighed us in a faulty canonical balance and found us wanting. The PB’s legal team having entered with coy excuses and without canonical authority into this diocese some three or more years ago, now emerges from the shadows, stepping boldly into the light of day. We must of course address them and their actions; but should they look to reconciliation and not litigation, changing from their prior practice of speaking peace, peace while waging canonical and legal war, we shall meet with them in openness to seek new and creative solutions. Yet let this be known, they will not detract us from Christ’s mission. We move on. Those who are not with us, you may go in peace; your properties intact. Those who have yet to decide we give you what time you need. Persuasion is almost always the preferable policy, not coercion. By God’s grace we will bear you no ill. We have many friends among the bishops, priests and laity of TEC, and we wish you well. Furthermore, I bear no ill toward the Episcopal Church. She has been the incubator for an Anglican Christianity where God placed me many years ago. Rich is her heritage and regal her beauty. When I have quarreled with her it has been a lover’s quarrel. For many of the precious gifts she has received from prior generations she has not maintained. And she has left no place for many of us to maintain them either. So I say free from malice and with abiding charity we must turn the page. And I say this as well: to all who will continue with us: “Let us rend our hearts and not our garments.” Let us be careful not to poison the waters of our communities with our differences with TEC. Rarely have the spiritually hungry, the seeker, the unconverted or the unchurched been won for Jesus Christ through church conflicts, denominational discord, or ecclesiastical excesses. If we are to have the aroma of Christ we must live in his grace with faith, hope, and charity. The apostle has described it well the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness (long-suffering) and self control. Therefore, we cannot allow either personally or corporately any root of bitterness, resentment, un-forgiveness, anger or fear to take us like untied and forgotten buoys in an outgoing tide, burying our hearts and mission in some muddy marsh or to float adrift in some backwater slough. No, we shall turn the page with hearts wide open and love abounding for the chief of sinners – which is always us. We shall move on. 

Actually, let me state it more accurately. We have moved on. With the Standing Committee’s resolution of disassociation the fact is accomplished: legally and canonically. The resolutions before you this day are affirmations of that fact. You have only to decide if that is your will and your emotions will follow.

Following Christ the Pioneer and Perfecter of our Future

So turning the page let us take a brief look at this next chapter of the Diocese of South Carolina. We shall need, of course, the promises and exhortations of the apostolic word. I began this address with verses from the Letter to the Hebrews. After surveying in the 11th Chapter of his letter the luminaries of past generations who walked by faith and not by sight—Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, David and many lesser known men and women— the writer turns the page for his readers to the present and the future. Surrounded by these witnesses or martyrs from the past these early Christians must take their place in this great narrative of salvation history. Shedding themselves of every hindrance and clinging sins and (may I suggest perhaps things they cannot take with them) they are to press on looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of their faith. And so must we.
   
Challenges and Opportunities within the Diocese: Much speculation has arisen now that we are out of TEC as to where the Diocese of South Carolina is going? I have repeatedly said at gatherings around the diocese that this question has not been a topic of serious discussion among the changing members of the Standing Committee over the years, or for that matter among the deans, or within the Council. It needs to be state again that our time has been taken up with keeping the diocese protected, while being intact and in TEC. And knowing that should push come to shove we would need to be prepared for numerous contingencies, we put in place various protections. These are now profoundly helpful: we have a pension plan for clergy and laity; insurance possibilities for our congregations; a diocesan health insurance program. These do not allay every sacrifice or concern by any means, but they do at least fill a void that would otherwise be unnerving and almost unmanageable for many of our clergy and congregations. Yet work remains to be done in these areas, and will be done in a timely manner. Our challenges in this new landscape are many. Some rather small, and others quite enormous—but so are the advantages.

Having chosen to persuade rather than coerce we have a great meeting place—the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ! He is the one who opens the great doors or closes them. You may recall that the risen and glorified Christ spoke to the Philadelphian church in the Revelation of St. John the Divine: “Look, behold I set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.” I believe he has opened a door for us as well. We know how to do mission. We know how to preach the gospel; to make disciples; to share our faith with others; to do effective youth ministry; hold on to the essential doctrines of Christ while being innovative in reaching emerging generations; We know how to plant and grow congregations. Do we have much to learn? You bet. Will we learn it? We will. I ask you to imagine if this might be true that perhaps the greatest congregations in this Diocese of South Carolina have yet to be grown, Maybe they haven’t even been planted. Some of us are getting long in the tooth and need to learn from and make way for younger leaders. As for me I realize how quickly it has happened: those words of the Psalmist that once caused me to think of retired priests and elder statesmen I now apply to myself: “O God, you have taught me since I was young, /and to this day I tell of your wonderful works. /And now that I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, /till I make known your strength to this generation and your power to all who are to come.” (Psalm 71:17-18) 

When did that come to be about me and not someone else? The LORD spoke to Servant-Israel regarding her witness to the world saying: “Behold, I do a new thing—before it breaks forth I tell you of it.” It is a time for the old to dream dreams and the young to see visions. If we can combine prudence and dynamism we can get somewhere. So even while we keep the richness of a residential seminary clergy track, we need to explore new ways of preparing young men and women and even middle-age ones for ministry; especially those who know how to travel light. It is a new day and new ways of proclaiming the old truths need to be adopted.

I stated at our recent Clergy Conference that I hoped we will maintain a comprehensive Anglicanism. Should we lose an African-American congregation we shall look at planting another. If we lose an Anglo-Catholic parish we will pray for what God will have us do; there are those from whom we can learn from here in this area. As for multi-racial congregations surely that is a gift whose time has come - or perhaps is past time. Imagine what this Diocese of South Carolina can accomplish for the Kingdom of God and the Gospel if so much of our common life is no longer siphoned off in a resistance movement. 

What can our diocesan and deanery gatherings become when our focus is first and foremost on our ministry at home and Christ’s mission in the world? If we can move beyond our parish silos and into relationships that foster mutual growth and mission a new day of possibilities awaits us. I will be calling together a task force to link stronger parishes with congregations and missions in the diocese that may suffer the loss of members due to this departure from TEC. If a smaller parish has lost 10, 20 or 30 percent of its membership it may not be able to afford a full time priest. So while continuing to keep the door ajar for disaffected parishioners to return, we need to find ways to enable that congregation to continue to support their rector or vicar; and not merely in order to keep ply wood from the windows but in order to reach their community for Christ and to grow his Church. That is what it is about. Let’s get on with it. This will be one of our first priorities. We also need to re-configure some of our deaneries. Some are functioning well and others are almost defunct in offering little if any real support for clergy or for drafting cooperative work for ministry and mission. There is room for exciting developments and opportunities here.

Let me turn to the challenges and opportunities in North American Anglicanism for a minute: South Carolina has been and continues to be a microcosm of North American Anglicanism—with all that is good and vital, and all that is most troubling. In an address at the Mere Anglicanism Conference last January I noted that there were some six overlapping jurisdictions within the boundaries of our diocese all making claims one way or another to being Anglican. With the exception of this Diocese of South Carolina, the oldest of these Churches is the Reformed Episcopal Church. There are many REC congregations throughout South Carolina. They reach a good number of people with a vital faith and a strong Anglican tradition. They have a goodly heritage and a seminary just up the road in Summerville. Then three’s the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) which has until recently been the mother church of their movement at Pawleys Island. Recently the All Saints’ Pawleys Island congregation voted to associate with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). But AMiA has still other congregations scattered across the Low Country—some with bishops and some with rectors. Then, just this year ACNA ordained a former rector of this diocese, The Right Reverend Steve Wood, of St. Andrew’s Mt. Pleasant as the first bishop of their new Diocese of the Carolinas, which includes North and South Carolina. St. Andrew’s offers dynamic ministry and many within this diocese have kept bridges of relationships with these brothers and sisters in Christ and for this I give thanks. There are other Anglican bodies as well, some of whose bishops I know and some I do not. As I have stated before this is all rather un-Anglican! All these bishops overlapping one another - but to reflect on a more positive note we ought to at least to acknowledge that South Carolina may well be the most “Anglicanized” turf in North America! Everybody’s talking about Anglicans. You know what happens when everyone’s talking about Baptists? They grow churches. Everyones’ talking about Anglicans. It’s our moment!

All this might be what lies behind the question often raised at the deanery and parish forums I’ve been addressing—“Bishop, with whom will we affiliate?” My answer has been quite simply, “For now—no one.” As any wise pastor will tell you, if you been in a troubling, painful or dysfunctional relationship for a long period of time and then the marriage or relationship ends, you would be wise not to jump right away into the first one that comes along and tie the knot. You’d be wise take your time. 

Nevertheless, I hope we can work with and for a greater unity among the Anglican Churches within our local region and also within North America. We have many friends and bonds of affection that unite us and along with this—a common mission, Christ’s Mission and unity will deeply assist it. A century ago a son of this diocese, William Porcher DuBose, wrote these helpful words: “The question, How to restore and conserve Unity must go back to a prior one,--What is the Unity in question? Let us recall and repeat in our Lord’s own words: ‘I will not leave you orphans; yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but ye shall see me; because I live, ye shall live also.’….If then, in all our differences we are thus able to concentrate and agree upon the one necessity of being in Christ and of being one in Him, we must not despair of some ultimate Way to it. If we will cultivate and prepare the disposition, the will, and the purpose—God will make the Way….let us, I say, once begin on that line, and the differences that do not eliminate themselves will be turned into the higher service of deepening, broadening, and heightening the resultant Unity.” To this end I will appoint a task force to begin contacting, praying and working with these other Anglican bodies as they are willing and as God gives us the grace we will together seek a greater Anglican Unity within South Carolina or at least within our jurisdiction.
   
I recall some other challenging words from the past. Those sardonic and haunting words of William Reed Huntington, whose genius over a century ago shaped the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral: “If our whole ambition as Anglicans in America be to continue a small, but eminently respectable body of Christians, and to offer refuge to people of refinement and sensibility, who are shocked by the irreverences they are apt to encounter elsewhere; in a word, if we care to be only a countercheck and not a force in society then let us say as much in plain terms, and frankly renounce any claim to Catholicity. We have only, in such a case, to wrap the robe of our dignity about us, and walk quietly along in a seclusion no one will take much trouble to disturb. Thus may we be a Church in name and a sect in deed.” I mention these cutting words for two reasons. I believe we need to work in two directions at the same time. First we need to allow ourselves to draw near to the throbbing needs of the world around us. And while maintaining the four pillars of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, we need to creatively engage our culture not with the tired arguments of the past, answering questions no one is asking, but answering those questions in the sorrowing and aspiring heart of our society.

Some years ago actually after the General Convention 2009 I went with a group of conservative Bishops to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury. But not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket, I also made an appointment with the Bishop of London. His offices are near St. Paul’s Cathedral. And not wanting to be late for an appointment with the Bishop of London I got there a little early. Since it was raining as it often is in England, I took cover under the portico of the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral. If you’ve been there you know it is a conjunction of many streets coming in various directions. I watched the bustling crowd. I watched the people coming and going - cars and taxis and busses the heartbeat of a city. And I thought to myself, “How did it happen that I’m spending time all my time with these ecclesiastical problems and meetings when for most of my life my heart has been to engage the culture with the Good News of Jesus Christ?” We cannot let this happen. Christ said to go out into the hurting world. When Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail he didn’t mean the church would stand in Alamo-like fashion against the world beating down at the doors of the church, he meant his disciples would go out where people were shackled behind prison doors of pain and suffering, broken relationships, addictions, hopelessness and that these gates of hell will not stand against God’s people. That’s our call. Because it’s Christ’s call.

Finally, I turn to our place in The worldwide Anglican Communion. Our vision since 2009 has been to Make Biblical Anglicans for a Global Age: Helping by God’s grace to help shape emerging Anglicanism in the 21st Century. Just this week I mentioned in my recent Open Letter to the Diocese that we have heard from Archbishops, Presiding Bishops, and diocesan bishops from Kenya to Singapore, England to Egypt, Ireland to the Indian Ocean, Canada to Australia. They, represent the overwhelmingly vast majority of members of the Anglican Communion and they consider me as a faithful Anglican Bishop in good standing and they consider this diocese as part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Ah friends, this has got to comfort us as we await further guidance from God regarding future affiliation. And we need to continue conversation with the Provinces and Dioceses with whom we have missional relationships. Just yesterday I received emails from bishops in Egypt, North Africa and Ethiopia assuring us of their prayers. I thought my gosh if those in such hard pressed environments should take an interest and intercede on our behalf is humbling. I woke this morning to see an email from Ireland, from Bishop Clarke saying we are in his prayers. We are not alone. Greater are those with us than any who may be against us.

Nevertheless, this I assure you, there shall be lengthy and thorough conversation among the clergy of this diocese—our bishops, priests, and deacons—and our lay leaders before any decision will be presented before this Convention that would ask you to associate with any Province. I remind you of an historical fact—this diocese existed after the American Revolution for four years before it helped to fully form the Protestant Episcopal Church in these United States and before that organization was completed. It was a fifth year before this diocese ratified that relationship at our Diocesan Convention in 1790. So for now and the foreseeable future, having withdrawn from our association with TEC, we remain an extra-provincial Diocese within the larger Anglican Communion; buttressed by the knowledge we are recognized as a legitimate diocese by the vast majority of Anglicans around the world. Truly, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

What then in conclusion? Having turned the page, having gazed however briefly at the next chapter, the path begins to open up before us, “… let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the Founder and Perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” These resolutions you will soon have before you are first and foremost a way for you to affirm the action of disaffiliation which the Standing Committee has legally and canonically taken. Many of you have already decided in your heart and mind how you will vote. Others will need more time. But I invite you for just a moment to stand on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral at the heart of the bustling city with the needs of the world, or if you prefer stand at the corner of Meeting and Broad here in Charleston or outside the Walmart in Goose Creek or Moncks Corner, or sit in a vestry meeting after having been a Rotary luncheon in Florence and lean yourself into a throbbing and hurting world. Ask yourself how long do I want to spend my time, my energy and my soul in a resistance movement that has proven so fruitless. Is it not time to get on with a ministry of Jesus Christ to a broken world? So in keeping with your understanding of God’s Word, the historic teachings of Christ’s Church, and the leading of the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ call to make Disciples, it is time to take stock of what you think, and in harmony with your heart and conscience to act. May God guide us all.
 
“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.” Jude 24

Attorney A.S. Haley: Drops the Dime and Big Boot on TEC Presiding Bishop

Why read fiction or watch TV when modern history, like this, suitably and--at times--disgustingly entertains?  Well, perhaps the fiction and TV offers temporary relief from the spectacle called TEC and "Christian" leadership.  I think Ms. Schori would look good in black boots, black leather robes, along with her repressive whip in one hand and pistol in the other!  She's ontologically, epistemologically and ethically defaced her image into the Beast's. She's a modern antichrist, put biblically. She prates and speaks "pompous words" that only her ilk know.  The "elect" get it however, to her huffing and puffing chagrin. One can't make this stuff up. Mr. Haley, Esq., offers a good article.

http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2012/11/bandit-bishop-running-outlaw-gang-in.html?spref=fb

Bandit Bishop Running Outlaw Gang in South Carolina

KJS: She's head of the Church of England. If she can do it, why can't I?

Bandit Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, known far and wide in ECUSA for her lawlessness and contempt of the canons, has organized a new gang of outlaws in South Carolina. Together they are riding roughshod over the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, violating South Carolina law, and laying plans to steal the good name and corporate seal of the Diocese of South Carolina.

Or is that too plainspoken for some Episcopalians? Perhaps they would prefer an opening paragraph like this:

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (USA), the Most Reverend Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, has again taken steps without any canonical authority that will ensure future litigation with the Diocese of South Carolina and its Bishop, the Right Reverend Mark Lawrence. The steps involve a refusal to recognize the authority of either Bishop Lawrence or in his stead the Standing Committee of the Diocese, the calling of an unauthorized and unconstitutional "Special Convention" for next March, the misappropriation of the diocesan name and corporate seal, and the recognition and full support of a wholly uncanonical and ad hoc "Steering Committee" to exercise unspecified and unstructured authority pending the gathering of the illegal "Special Convention."

I do not think it is any improvement, frankly, to try to put what is happening into politer terms. All it does is mask the crudeness of the power play that is taking place with ever-increasing rapidity and ruthlessness. Since 815 is being anything but polite, why should the description of what they are doing be polite?

You can read the distasteful details in this article by the Rev. George Conger at Anglican Ink, and you can read even more sordid background (together with some very pointed questions) in this excellent survey of the situation by the concerned folk at the Anglican Communion Institute.

Surely these latest maneuvers mark a new nadir for the Bandit Bishop and her hired guns. What is especially tragic is that the pastoral needs of those who wish to "remain Episcopal" are being subordinated to her future litigation agenda, while the latter has practically zero chance of success. For the first time in her outlaw career, I believe the Bandit Bishop and her gang will have met their match in South Carolina.

The Episcopal Church (USA) may still be politically powerful in some quarters, but not in South Carolina, especially following that State's Supreme Court decision in the All Saints Waccamaw case. It took ten years for the latter litigation to wend its way through the lower courts up to the Supreme Court, and no civil court in the State is going to want to pay attention to any of the Church's defeated arguments again.

The Dennis Canon is as dead as a doornail in South Carolina, and so are any thoughts of an implied trust on diocesan property based on other Church canons and past relations. Only an express trust will be recognized in South Carolina, and such a trust requires the Diocese's written consent to its imposition. No such consent exists, or has ever existed at any time in the past.

Moreover, the Diocese of South Carolina is organized as a corporation under South Carolina law. That fact guarantees its own independent, legal identity in the State's courts and before all of its executive and legislative bodies, officers and agencies. For the Bandit Bishop and her minions to try to appropriate that identity for their own nefarious purposes is fully akin to what would be called "identity theft" in any other context.

Why in the world, then, would the "remain Episcopal" group, consisting of some twelve parishes in the Diocese, want to get off on such a wrong foot under South Carolina law? The answer is plain, no matter how much they may try to disavow it, and play the innocent: they are wholly subservient to their captain, and that captain is Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Chief Outlaw of the Episcopal Church (USA).

It is only with her recognition, aid and support that these others could go down such a lawless path of their own. Inspired by her example, they have impersonated the Diocesan office in two emails, misused the corporate seal, and pretended to be who they are not under South Carolina law. This is, of course, all pursuant to, and in order to further yet again, 815's Grand Strategy for dealing with dissident dioceses, as spelled out by 815 itself and discussed in this earlier post.

As the ACI article carefully explains, the Bandit Bishop's outlaw strategy in South Carolina is not just invented from day to day; it is self-contradictory, and will result in embarrassment in the courts. On the one hand, 815 is acting as though the Diocese has not left, but has only had all of its positions suddenly become vacant -- and it is going about the process of filling them with new people.

But on the other hand, the actions in South Carolina being taken by the Presiding Bishop are canonical only if there is no longer a Diocese there, but only patches of raw territory waiting to be organized as a new diocese. So which is it?

Hint: they don't know, and they are not going to say. They are improvising, as I say, and they will keep on improvising until they have run out of tunes to try. Meanwhile, the object is to cause maximum annoyance and expense to the legitimate Diocese. Under current South Carolina law, this cannot end well.

Within ECUSA, the attitude is mostly "she has to do this -- Bishop Lawrence has given her no choice." But what does that really say? Think about it for a moment.

Has Bishop Lawrence forced the Bandit Bishop to act like a bandit? Has he forced her to violate the Church's own canons, and to encourage others to violate South Carolina law? Is that what Episcopalians are all about? To gain a short-term end by the use of illegal means? Is that the example which Christ set for us to follow?

I scarcely recognize the Church that I am in any more. Its leadership is not Christian, as their repeated lawless actions demonstrate. And the pew-sitters, officers, deacons, priests and bishops who allow them to run amok with impunity are not just enablers, but run the risk of becoming, in the moral sense at least, abetters and unindicted co-conspirators for an unlawful enterprise.

Trying to bring the Chief Outlaw to discipline before her own tribunals at this point would be too little, too late. The time to do that is long past -- it should have been right when she committed five violations of the same canon in putting the first notches in her belt. Just as it failed to discipline Bishops Pike and Spong before her, the Church is now showing its impotence, iniquity and increasing irrelevance by failing to call its current leader to account.

This is the season of stewardship, when all Christians are reminded of their duty to use wisely and well the resources with which God has favored them. It is not just folly anymore, but positively wicked, to continue to support such lawlessness from any level -- including that of the Anglican Communion. (Are you listening, ABCD Welby?)

So where should disgusted Episcopalians turn? First, to Holy Scripture -- Ephesians 6:10-20 would be a good place to start. Next, spread the word about what is happening. The story tells itself -- but it needs to be told. Those in South Carolina and neighboring States should be writing letters to their local papers; those elsewhere can write letters of support to Bishop Lawrence and his Diocese. They need to hear that not all of the Episcopal Church has abandoned them!

Send letters wherever you think they might do some good. ECUSA does not operate in a vacuum; it pretends to be a constituent member of the Anglican Communion. Write the ABC and the new ABCD. ECUSA's corporate operations are under the jurisdiction of New York's Attorney General, who intervened once before, after the scandal of Ellen Cooke. Finally, ECUSA is a 501 (c) (3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code, and must stay within the limits specified for such organizations. Many of its member dioceses use its charitable exemption under an "umbrella" arrangement allowed by the IRS, but that can last only for so long as ECUSA uses its funds and assets for qualified charitable purposes. Without any meaningful oversight of its litigation expenses, it is difficult to see how the amounts it is deploying to punish departing dioceses and parishes could pass muster under applicable standards.

And while you are at it, please include in your prayers the Diocese of South Carolina and her faithful Bishop.