SOUTH CAROLINA: EPISCOPAL DIOCESE JOINS NETWORK

4/27/2004

Clergy and lay leadership in the Diocese of South Carolina voted to affiliate with the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes during the annual convention March 5-6 at the North Charleston Convention Center.

In his convention address, the Rt. Rev. Edward Salmon, Jr., Bishop of South Carolina, said the crisis the Episcopal Church has experienced since last summer is the result of improperly seeking to settle a profound theological issue through a popular vote and described the purpose of the network as a means to uphold orthodoxy and provide mutual support during a trying time.

"The network also provides a means for primates and others to support us more effectively in this struggle," Bishop Salmon said. "Its purpose is to provide a place of strength and witness within the American Church."

Bishop Salmon helped draft and signed the network charter and both the standing committee and diocesan council had previously approved diocesan affiliation. A few representatives spoke against approval.

"I believe this resolution would continue the divisiveness … because it would institutionalize a movement that not all parties agree with," said Andy Brack, a delegate from St. Stephen's Church, Charleston. Mr. Brack suggested that individual parishes, rather than the diocese as a whole, should be allowed to decide whether to affiliate.

The resolution passed on a show of hands with about two dozen of the 296 clergy and lay delegates voting against it.

In other business, convention approved a $2.3 million budget for the current year, a $200,000 increase over last year, but payment to the national church will decrease from $120,000 last year to a little more than $32,000 this year.