South Carolina Church severs Episcopal ties

BY DAVE MUNDAY

Of The Post and Courier Staff

PAWLEYS ISLAND--One of the biggest Episcopal churches in South Carolina voted itself out of the denomination Thursday night.

The 1,000-member congregation of All Saints Episcopal Church of Pawleys Island called a special meeting to sever ties with the Episcopal Church and amend its charter to delete references to the denomination and the Diocese of South Carolina.

The motion to amend the charter passed 464-42 and the one to sever ties 468-38. Of 507 voting members present, two stood to voice objections. What’s the rush said Guerry Green. We need to keep trying.

The denominations approval of an openly gay bishop last summer might have been the last straw, but the separation had been coming for a long time.

We’ve been feeling for years like the liberal side of the Episcopal Church USA has hijacked the church we know and love, Russ Campbell, a vestry member, said before the vote. S.C. Bishop Ed Salmon, also a vocal critic of the Episcopal Church, has been urging members to stay put while awaiting intervention from the primates of the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of which the Episcopal Church is a member.

All Saints wants to work outside the national church. We want to work within the national church, to try to reform, Chancellor Ned Zeigler of Florence, the diocesan attorney, said before the vote.

Were all working for the same thing. It’s hard to understand why we don’t just work together.

All Saints had to leave the Episcopal Church because many parishioners were

threatening to leave otherwise, Campbell said.

We are already seeing the potential for the erosion for what has been a strong and vibrant church here by not standing up for what we believe, he said. We certainly don’t want to leave the Diocese of South Carolina, which we consider not to be representative of the Episcopal Church. But how do you reconcile going along with this revisionist theology and political correctness, which is based on culture and not on Scripture?

The diocese plans to continue a three-year legal battle to regain control of the property, Zeigler said.

The canons of the Episcopal Church say that members hold the property in trust of the denomination. In other words, members can choose to leave, but they can’t take the property with them.

A judge already has ruled that the church’s deed, which is older than the denomination, invalidates the denominations claims on the property. The diocese has appealed that ruling.

Salmon recently said he will replace the leadership at All Saints, but getting a new vestry into the building may require another court order.

We’re still functioning, and we have possession of the property, Campbell said. We have a court order that says neither the diocese nor the denomination has control of the property.

Theres also the problem of who would pay the bills on the multimillion-dollar, 50-acre property if Salmon deposes the vestry, which would likely cause most of the members to leave.

That would present a plethora of interesting questions, said the church’s

rector, the Rev. Tim Surratt, who is also a target for replacement. If a small minority wishes to remain, how could they pay the bills?

The local church, rather than the diocese, pays a priest’s salary, he said.

All Saints has already had two priests leave the Episcopal Church and remain at All Saints. The Rev. Chuck Murphy resigned in 2000 after becoming a bishop of Rwanda. A year later, his successor, the Rev. Thad Barnum, also became a bishop of Rwanda.

All Saints is headquarters of the Anglican Mission in America under Murphy’s leadership. The network includes about 60 congregations who have left the Episcopal Church and affiliated with the leaders of Rwanda and South East Asia.

AMIA was preceded by a movement at All Saints called First Promise. The charter document in 1997 rejected the authority of the Episcopal Church USA where it contradicts the traditional gospel and vowed to set up alternative Anglican networks where necessary.

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