There They Go Again ...

It has been obvious for quite some time that the Episcopal Church (USA) has wanted to pick a fight with Bishop Lawrence and his Diocese of South Carolina, one of the larger and more successful in the Church. But success in winning new communicants has never counted for much ever since the advent of the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori to head up ECUSA. No, what counts far more in her book is subordination to her metropolitical delusions of grandeur.

So it was entirely predictable that the Bandit Bishop would make the first move, acting through her new Disciplinary Board for Bishops (the existence of which the Diocese of South Carolina does not recognize). From an announcement recently posted on the Diocese's Website:

On Monday, October 15, 2012, Bishop Mark J. Lawrence, the 14th Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina was notified by the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, that on September 18, 2012 the Disciplinary Board for Bishops had certified his abandonment of The Episcopal Church. This action by The Episcopal Church triggered two pre-existing corporate resolutions of the Diocese, which simultaneously disaffiliated the Diocese from The Episcopal Church and called a Special Convention. That Convention will be held at St. Philip’s Church, Charleston, on Saturday, November 17, 2012.

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. A timeline of these events and their associated documents may be found below.

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. The Diocese has not received a signed copy of the certification and also remains uninformed of the identity of those making these charges.

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.

Be sure to go to the Diocese's Website to follow the links to all the documents provided. I shall have much, much more to say about this needless confrontation, and the resulting self-inflicted tragedy (where ECUSA under its Presiding Bishop is literally shooting itself in its collective foot), in the days to follow.