Diocese of South Carolina Calls Time Out from the Episcopal Church

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
10/25/2009

It came as no surprise that a special convention of the diocese of South Carolina voted overwhelmingly in four resolutions to distance itself from certain bodies of The Episcopal Church.

Some 300 Episcopalians gathered at Christ Church in Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston, and approved four of five resolutions, one of which declared General Convention Resolutions D025 and C056 "as null and void." This special convention was restricted to congregational delegations. Visitors and the news media were barred from attending.

The voting margins were expectedly large supporting the diocesan bishop, the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence by 85+ percent in all four resolutions that include:

• upholding the substance of the “doctrine, discipline and worship” of the Episcopal Church to mean that which is expressed in the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Creeds, the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral and the theology of the historic prayer books;”

• “That this diocese authorize the bishop and standing committee to begin withdrawing from all bodies of the Episcopal Church that have assented to actions contrary to Holy Scripture, the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this church has received them, the resolutions of the Lambeth Conference which have expressed the mind of the Communion, The Book of Common Prayer and our Constitution and Canons, until such bodies show a willingness to repent of such actions … and that the Diocese of South Carolina declares that the most recent example of this behavior, in the passage of Resolutions DO25 and CO56, to be null and void, having no effect in this Diocese, and in violation of our diocesan canon (XXXVI sec.1).”

• “That this diocese … will work in partnership with such Dioceses as are willing to form missional relationships providing gatherings for bishops, clergy and laity for the express purpose of evangelism, encouragement, education and mission … and that the parishes of this diocese are encouraged to enter into their own missional relationships with orthodox congregations isolated across North America and to pursue effective initiatives which are lay-led and supported.”

• “That the Diocese of South Carolina endorses the [Ridley Cambridge Draft] of the proposed Anglican Covenant, as it presently stands, in all four sections, as an expression of our full commitment to mutual submission and accountability in communion, grounded in a common faith.”

Bishop Lawrence acknowledged that the resolutions while seeming tepid to some, to others the feel of haste, even imprudence.

In his address to the delegates (see below) some might say that what took place renders him disloyal to The Episcopal Church. He, in turn, attacked what he called the Episcopal Church’s “indiscriminate inclusivity.”

“The landscape around us in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion is changing almost daily,” he said. “This week alone has brought remarkable and gracious news from the Vatican, but it will give us little relief but that of hope that one day all who hold the faith of the apostles shall be one. Meanwhile these four principles need to guide us; otherwise we will be tossed about by every windy gust of news or tidal wave crashing on the shore.”

“This false teaching that I have called the gospel of indiscriminate inclusivity has challenged the doctrine of the Trinity, the Uniqueness and Universality of Christ, the authority of Scripture, our understanding of baptism, and now, that last refuge of order, our Constitution & Canons,” he said. “Like an invasive vine, like kudzu in an old growth forest, it has decked the Episcopal Church with decorative destruction. It has invaded and now is systematically dismantling the fundamental teachings of our Church and our Christian heritage.”

Lawrence slammed The Episcopal Church citing its apostasies as the cause of its declining statistics.

“The General Convention is not the answer to the problems of the Episcopal Church. The General Convention has become the problem. It has replaced a balanced piety in this Church with the politics of one-dimensional activism. Every three years when the Episcopal Church train pulls into the station of General Convention more traditional, catholic and evangelical Episcopalians get off the train and do not return. Do you know that in 1968 this Church had 3,600,000 members? In 2008 we had just barely over 2,000,000. It is even less than that now.”

But Lawrence, who is a Communion Partner bishop, (a group of orthodox bishops committed to staying in The Episcopal Church) may find that his attempt to find a third way of non negotiation with the national church could backfire.

Just days earlier his Standing Committee got what can only be described as a threatening letter from Bonnie Anderson President of the House of Deputies.

She urged the carrot of “commitment” with the stick of conformity. “While what your Convention will consider is a resolution and not a constitutional amendment, the principle is the same. A diocese is, of course, free to express its disagreement with an action of General Convention and to work to change it but it may not declare it to be null and void and of no effect in the diocese.” She went on to say that for the diocese to declare GC2009 Resolutions D025 and C056 “null and void” is itself a nullity.

“Actions of General Convention are binding on dioceses regardless of whether their bishops and deputies voted for or against them, agree with them or even participated in General Convention,” she wrote.

“It is my prayer,” she wrote, “that Resolutions 1-4 are not steps being proposed to move the Diocese away from The Episcopal Church and towards efforts by others to create an alternate Anglican structure in our midst.”

Among orthodox priests still committed to staying in The Episcopal Church, some have been critical of Lawrence’s desire to withdraw from some governing bodies of the church. The Rev. Philip Wainwright President of the Evangelical Episcopal Assembly and an Episcopal priest in the reconstructed Diocese of Pittsburgh criticized Lawrence for not attending Province IV meetings of fellow bishops saying his non attendance will diminish his ability to make a stand for orthodoxy in that province and the wider Episcopal Church.

Wainwright admitted recently that he was staying in TEC, because there is no Plan B. "Many have thought they were the only ones left. It is true we are a floundering church, a church struggling over decisive issues. I was called to remain faithful. It seems clear to me that leaving exacerbates and waters down the voice of orthodoxy."

Lawrence and his diocese have chosen to stay but the story is far from over.

There are growing disagreements within the diocese. St. Andrew's Parish in Mt. Pleasant has begun a 40 Days of Discernment program to decide whether it will separate from the Episcopal Church and, by extension, from the diocese. If that happens Lawrence has said parishes may leave by cutting a deal over property. Clearly this could have a snowball effect with other prominent parishes deciding to leave.

Earlier in mid-September, the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina said the diocese “teeters on the edge of schism” from the Episcopal Church. With this diocesan action it might have pushed itself right over the edge. The ball is now firmly in the court of the national church.

The full text of Bishop Lawrence’s speech can be accessed here. http://www.dioceseofsc.org/lawrence_mark_convention_address_10_24_09.pdf

END