Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina, one of the last orthodox (small 'o') leaders of the Episcopal Organization, has been deposed on the supremely ironic charge of abandoning the church. The arch-heretic Ms. Katherine Jefferts Schori notified him of the action on Monday, a week before a scheduled meeting between the two. It had been hoped the meeting would find a way for the Diocese of South Carolina to remain in TEO while remaining true to traditional Christian teachings.
Read the details at T-19.
The sad thing is that the Episcopal Church doesn't even realize the cultural pandora's box they just opened with this. I have a lot of friends in South Carolina (Episcopal and otherwise), and I can guarantee you that all of them (even those who don't give a hoot about the Episcopal Church) are going to interpret this not so much as an inter-denominational squabble but as a Yankee vs. Southern thing.
ReplyDeleteThat is not going to play well either in matters of public opinion or in the South Carolina courts. This is what makes this entirely different than law suits within TEC over property and all. They have just raised the spectre of the Civil War, and that is a big No No in South Carolina of all places. This is bad...this is very, very bad.
Mainline Protestants are annoying but have the right to govern themselves. Bishop Lawrence chose to stay Episcopalian so I don't have much sympathy for him, even though of course I don't like the Episcopal Church.
ReplyDeleteYoung fogey- part of being Protestant is the ability to schism when you decide to do so. As a simple matter of historical Episcopalianism tEC doesn't really have a heirarchical leg to stand on (certain court cases notwithstanding), and the property belongs to the parish. South Carolina court precedent should mean nice, mainline spanking. I'm going to grab my popcorn and check in regularly on t19 :)
ReplyDeleteOf course he does have the option to make a stand against the continuing schism that is the "Reformation" and join the Anglican Ordinariate.
ReplyDelete