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

South Carolina Diocese Expelled From Episcopal Church

http://religiousintelligence.org/churchnewspaper/?p=28657

 

South Carolina expelled from the Episcopal Church

 

Posted by George Conger on Thursday, October 18th, 2012 and filed under International news, News.

 

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

 

The Diocese of South Carolina has been pushed out of the Episcopal Church of the USA. The involuntary secession of the 39,000-member diocese comes as charges have been brought against its bishop, the Rt Rev Mark Lawrence for allegedly “abandoning” the communion of the Episcopal Church.


On 17 October 2012 a statement printed on the Diocese’s Website said that two days earlier Bishop Lawrence had been notified by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori that on 18 September 2012 “the Disciplinary Board for Bishops had certified his abandonment of The Episcopal Church.”


The diocese reported that Bishop Lawrence was “notified of these actions taken by the Episcopal Church between two meetings, one held on October 3 and one to be held on October 22, which Bishop Andrew Waldo of the Upper Diocese of South Carolina and Bishop Lawrence had set up with the Presiding Bishop to find a peaceful alternative to the growing issues between The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of South Carolina. The meetings were to explore ‘creative solutions’ for resolving these issues to avoid further turmoil in the Diocese and in The Episcopal Church.”


The diocese noted that “two of the three charges had previously been determined by a majority vote of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops in November 2011 not to constitute abandonment,” however protections against double jeopardy are not given to defendants in Episcopal ecclesiastical proceedings.

The diocese added that it had not been served with a “signed copy of the certification and also remains uninformed of the identity of those making these charges.”

It stated: “We feel a deep sense of sadness but a renewed sense of God’s providence that The Episcopal Church has chosen to act against this Diocese and its Bishop during a good faith attempt peacefully to resolve our differences. These actions make it clear The Episcopal Church no longer desires to be affiliated with the Diocese of South Carolina.”


South Carolina’s diocesan constitution and canons do not recognize the authority of the disciplinary canons inaugurated by the national Church in 2009, and it is unlikely the bishop will make a formal response to the charges — thereby recognizing their jurisdiction over him.


However, the diocesan convention has adopted defence measures against the contingency of a theologically motivated attack by liberal clique currently controlling the Church’s offices in New York and adopted resolutions to protect its independence.


The diocese is also protected by South Carolina law. The state’s Supreme Court has struck down the national Church’s property rules, the “Dennis Canon”, holding they have no legal effect in the state. While the national Church has set aside a $3million war chest to fund litigation, canon law experts tell The Church of England Newspaper it is unlikely to prevail in a fight to seize church property.


The diocese noted “this action by The Episcopal Church triggered two pre-existing corporate resolutions of the Diocese, which simultaneously disaffiliated the Diocese from The Episcopal Church.” A special convention has been called for 17 November 2012 in Charleston to discuss a way forward for the diocese.
 

TEC Bp. Lawrence, Diocese of SC: Message to Clergy

Bishop Mark Lawrence,
TEC Bishop of Diocese of South
Carolina

http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/45083/

 

A Message to the Clergy of the Diocese of South Carolina from Bishop Mark Lawrence

 

Posted by Kendall Harmon

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We announced last month on August 20th that the Standing Committee and I were in agreement on a course of action regarding the future of the Diocese of South Carolina and the challenges many of us face because of decisions by the recent General Convention of the Episcopal Church. However, for many reasons it was then and is now, imprudent to reveal that course of action. Things are progressing—we have not stopped or dropped the ball. Please know that I understand the level of anxiety and concern of many in the diocese. Nevertheless I must ask you all for your continued patience and prayers as we seek to deal wisely and carefully with a fluid situation that requires great discernment and sensitivity on a regular basis. I will communicate to you the details at the very earliest moment such a communication is prudent.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

--(The Rt. Rev.) Mark J. Lawrence is Bishop of South Carolina