Anglican Mainstream

by Jeffrey Walton, IRD

The story of Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York is widely known: the parish decided in 2007 to leave the Episcopal Church, offering to pay $150,000 to the Diocese of Central New York for the small 130-year-old property. Rather than negotiate a payment from the departing Anglicans, the diocese opted to sell the building for only $50,000 to an Islamic group, which converted the church building into an Islamic awareness center. According to the Rev. Tony Seel, the Diocese even added a legal caveat to the sale stating that the new owners of the property could never re-sell the building to the original congregation.

[...]  “I’ve had two principles throughout this,” Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told NPR earlier this year when speaking about Episcopal property battles. “One, that the church receive a reasonable approximation of fair market value for assets that are disposed of; and, second, that we not be in the business of setting up competitors that want to either destroy or replace the Episcopal Church.”

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori doesn't play by the rules. Specifically, she and her Council of Advice decided that the Bishop of South Carolina had renounced his orders as a bishop without following the canons, or laws, of the church. For example, the church's canons state that in order to renounce your orders, one must do so "in writing." The Bishop of South Carolina never wrote the Presiding Bishop, or any one for that matter, claiming to renounce his orders. This is just one example of the current state of lawlessness in The Episcopal Church. Canon Phil Ashey reflects on these recent events in this week's Anglican Perspective.

by George Conger, Anglican Ink

Mark Lawrence rejects charges of renunciation of his ministry

From Titusonenine

Episcopal News Service reports:  Citing Title III, Canon 12, Section 7 of the Constitutions and Canons of The Episcopal Church, and following thorough discussion with the Council of Advice, with their advice and consent, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has accepted the renunciation of the ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church of Mark Lawrence as made in his public address on November 17 and she has released him from his orders in this Church.

The Presiding Bishop made the announcement December 5. The Presiding Bishop informed Lawrence by phone, email and mail on December 5. Following that, the House of Bishops was notified.

According to the documents, Lawrence “is therefore removed from the Ordained Ministry of this Church and released from the obligations of all Ministerial offices, and is deprived of the right to exercise the gifts and spiritual authority as a Minister of God’s Word and Sacraments conferred on him in Ordinations. This action is taken for causes that do not affect his moral character.”

Read here

Read comments on Titusonenine.  Note that even 'progressives' acknowledge that this is wrong.

Read open letter from The Rev. Prof. Christopher Seitz, The Rev. Dr. Philip Turner and The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner here

Read also some of the comments from Kendall Harmon's blog, including this one by Pageantmaster (an Englishman) :

If I were an Episcopal Church Bishop receiving this letter as an addressee, which thankfully I am not qualified to be, and therefore do not have to swear allegience to a particular interpretation of TEC’s constitution as Goodwin Proctor shall feel like making it up from time to time, I think I would not be very pleased with Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori. Consider:

1. She has a dreadful record of wasting Episcopal Church resources, mostly on the dreadful firm of Goodwin Proctor and its partner acting as her Chancellor.

2. She has made the Episcopal Church into a by-word for arbitrary and reckless behaviour and persecution around the world and in doing so has now purported to depose hundreds of priests and dozens of bishops, including Bishop Henry Scriven of the Church of England, to the extent that her actions are regularly quoted in England as an example we do not want to follow, and we treat her purported depositions which put Madame Defarge in the shade with contempt, including her presumption against Bishop Henry Scriven and her latest escapades against Bishop Lawrence.

3. Her latest little escapade has backfired massively, because she triggered by her latest attack on South Carolina an automatic dissociation of the entire diocese, and this is no tiny diocese like Nevada from which desert place she hails as its bishop and Dean of a divinity school which exists only as her ‘Truth’ in the Walter Mitty world in which she lives.

4. South Carolina is a huge loss to TEC – virtually its only consistently growing diocese, at 29,444 members. 

5. Between 2010 and 2011, TEC lost 28,861 members. In one fell swoop, the Presiding Bishop managed to ensure a similar loss in 2012. Got to keep up her average, I suppose. Now in Episcopal Church terms, South Carolina is one of the largest dioceses, and is equivalent to the Presiding Bishop losing a small Anglican Communion province, being larger than the Scottish Episcopal Church, or the Province of South East Asia, or the Southern Cone.

Let me just repeat that figure, twenty-nine thousand Epsiscopalians in a diocese have been alienated by the sole actions of the Presiding Bishop. That is a breathtaking record of failure by this Presiding Bishop, all of which comes down to her personal mendacity and total incompetence. It need not have happened but so determined is this vicious zealot that it seems not to matter to her. If I were a TEC bishop, I would be appalled.

Read more here

by David Virtue and Mary Ann Mueller, VOL

Since The Episcopal General Convention passed A049 at last July's General Convention in Indianapolis, the trickle of Episcopal dioceses that have authorized Same Sex Blessings has now become a veritable flood. According to Virtueonline's exhaustive research, 69 domestic dioceses have decided to fully embrace and allow for the provisional Same Sex Blessing ceremony to be celebrated within their borders.

Virtueonline called each diocese or churches within the diocese to ascertain if SSB was permissible; checking diocesan and congregational websites for their posted information on SSB; and researching the Internet for published stories about Episcopal bishops who have announced their intensions – for or against – concerning a pastoral response for partnered same-gender relationships.

VOL learned those dioceses giving a nod to SSB include: Arizona, Arkansas, Bethlehem, California, Central New York, Central Pennsylvania, Chicago, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, East Tennessee, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Oregon, Easton, El Camino Real, TEC Fort Worth, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indianapolis, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Long Island, Los Angeles, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newark, North Carolina, Northern California, Northern Michigan, Northwestern Pennsylvania, Ohio, Olympia, Oregon, Pennsylvania, TEC Quincy, Rio Grande, Rochester, San Diego, TEC San Joaquin, Southeast Florida, Southern Ohio, Southern Virginia, Southwestern Virginia, Spokane, Texas, Upper South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington DC, West Missouri, West Tennessee, Western Michigan, Western New York, Western North Carolina, and Wyoming.

Read here

By George Conger, Anglican Ink

A gathering of national church loyalists has learned that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is backing their move to claim the mantle of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

The presiding bishop's attorney told the 15 Nov 2012 meeting of TEC loyalists the national church had been preparing for the fight with Bishop Lawrence and the majority faction in the diocese for some time. However assertions made at the meeting that the former Bishop of East Tennessee will be intervening on behalf of the presiding bishop supplant Bishop Mark Lawrence were unfounded.

The Rt. Rev. Charles vonRosenberg told Anglican Inkhis officiating at public worship as a priest in the jurisdiction of the Diocese of South Carolina was permitted under a license he held by Bishop Mark Lawrence, while his actions as a bishop were of a pastoral nature. The retired bishop said the had been given “no special or particular authority” to exercise episcopal office in South Carolina.

Questions over the presiding bishop’s actions have arisen in light of statements made by Mr. Tom Tisdale, a lawyer Bishop Jefferts Schori given at a 15 Nov 2012 “clergy day” held at St Mark’s Episcopal Church in Charleston. An open letter to the bishops of the Episcopal Church detailing her alleged violations of the canons prepared by the Anglican Communion Institute has also prompted questions.

Read here

From The Anglican Communion Institute

• Three years ago, the Presiding Bishop began an extraordinary and unconstitutional intervention in the internal affairs of the Diocese of South Carolina. She hired a South Carolina lawyer, Thomas Tisdale, who held himself out as “South Carolina counsel for The Episcopal Church” and appeared to be gathering evidence for a disciplinary case against Bishop Lawrence. That is not our judgment in hindsight; it was Bishop Lawrence’s understanding at the time: “the Presiding Bishop’s Chancellor, if not the Presiding Bishop herself, is seeking to build a case against the Ecclesiastical Authorities of the Diocese.”
• Mr. Tisdale indicated he intended to scrutinize the internal administration of the Diocese on an ongoing basis for the Presiding Bishop, including reviewing recent ordinations, the actions of the Standing Committee, convention resolutions and especially the property arrangements of the Diocese’s parishes.
• The Presiding Bishop advised the Executive Council at the outset of Mr. Tisdale’s activities in the Diocese that she had hired him so that those who wish “to stay Episcopalians there have some representation on behalf of the larger church.” She thereby lent her office and legal counsel to the small number of internal dissenters, numbering no more than 10-15%, who opposed Bishop Lawrence and the Diocese. This group subsequently made four or possibly five presentations to various bodies within TEC seeking to have Bishop Lawrence investigated for abandonment and action taken against the Diocese. Their fifth attempt was successful, but only at the cost of the entire Diocese.

Read here

By George Conger, Anglican Ink

8 violations of the canons alleged

By George Conger, Anglican Ink

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has declared the ecclesiastical authority of the Diocese of South Carolina vacant and has backed a faction within the diocese that is seeking to fill the “vacuum” created by the suspension of Bishop Mark Lawrence.

The loyalist “Transitional Committee” has also declared the South Carolina Standing Committee to be vacant and has formed a “steering committee” to act in its place.

On 11 Nov 2012, the steering committee announced that it had taken charge of the diocese. “We write to assure you that The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina is continuing,” they said, noting they had formed a “steering committee of faithful Episcopalians” to “reorganize our continuing Diocese over the next few months. This committee will serve as the broad-based group in the Diocese that communicates with the Presiding Bishop during this period when the Diocese has no functioning ecclesiastical authority.”

Read here

By Justin Welby, Virtueonline

The following reflections were delivered by the Bishop of Durham to the March 2012 House of Bishops Meeting in Camp Allen, Navasota, Texas.

Looking at this group, I feel like a rather mangy lion in a den of rather formidable Daniels. Thank you for your welcome, especially for the privilege of speaking. A Nigerian saying, guests are like fish, they rot after 3 days, and I have been here five. Bishops of Durham come in three sorts. First there were the saints and evangelists, who were around more or less until the late 9th century.

Secondly, for roughly the next 700 years or so were the cousins of the King or those bourgeois upstarts like Wolsey whose principal job was to facilitate hitting the King's enemies over the head with large blunt instruments, or failing the arrival of a convenient enemy, anyone else. And then there were the scholars, from the Reformation, or at least the Restoration, onwards. From time to time you get throwbacks, like Michael Ramsey, who was a saint, as well as a scholar. In me, you also have a throwback, but unfortunately to the second period.

In this reflection I want to start with what I have seen. The structure of the meeting, with its well integrated retreat and business sessions, was excellent, and the mediations in the mornings were exceptional and personally nourishing. I found integrity and openness on issues, graciousness under pressure, and towards others who have not been gracious, catholicity, complexity and inclusion.

I have found some myths demythologised. For example the myth that TEC is only liberal, monochrome in its theological stand, and the myth that all minorities of view are oppressed. There is rather the sense of a complex body of wide views and many nationalities addressing issues with what I have personally found inspiring honesty and courage, doubtless also with faults and sins, but always looking to see where the sins are happening. The processes are deeply moving even where I disagreed, which I did on a number of obvious issues, but the honesty of approach was convincing, the buy into and practice of Indaba superb. In summary, there has been a sense of calm confidence and expectation, and of facing the vast challenge of the next 10-15 years. You have a better pension plan too.

Read here

Enthronement sermon by the Bishop of Durham can be read here

His Presidential Address at the Diocesan Synod Meeting 26 May 2012 can be read here (pdf)

Letter to clergy on Women Bishops Measure can be read here (pdf)

Follow Bishop Justin on Twitter

 The Saturday Interview with Giles Fraser, Guardian

Letter to Post & Courier from The Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison (Hat Tip: Barbara Gauthier)

This diocese and Bishop Mark Lawrence have worked strenuously to stay in the Episcopal Church while maintaining the historic faith and doctrine as this church has received it. With all its claims to inclusion, the increasingly intolerant Episcopal Church has excluded this diocese from its fold. Bishop Lawrence has now been accused of abandoning the church by those who themselves have:

1) abandoned the historic independence and sovereignty of dioceses by an unprecedented and illegal invasion of dioceses by the presiding bishop.

 2) abandoned the teaching of the Anglican Communion in violation of Lambeth Resolution 1:10 which maintains marriage as the context for sexual expression.

3) abandoned the constitution of the church by passing canons that invade the sovereignty of dioceses and replace the historic canonical rights and protections for clergy and laity.

4) abandoned the rights of bishops by illegally deposing Bishops John David Schofield, John Iker, Edward McBurney, William Wantland, William Cox, and Robert Duncan.

5) abandoned the Christian faith by failure in their duty to correct and discipline those bishops who have denied the very oaths they made at their consecrations.

6) abandoned responsibility for Christian leadership in the example of the Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori’s explicit favor towards Marcus Borg (“he has opened the scripture for me”) who reduces Jesus Christ to a “shaman,” a mere man like Abraham, Moses or Mohammed.

Bishop Mark Lawrence and this diocese have not abandoned the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church leadership has abandoned not only this bishop and this diocese but its own heritage and the Christian faith itself.

It is ironic that the Episcopal Church is one of the most rapidly shrinking denominations but is now throwing overboard one of its very few growing dioceses

THE Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison

12th Bishop of South Carolina (Retired)
 

By Jeffrey Walton, IRD

From Titusonenine

Dear Bishop Mark,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Several of the Global South Primates met recently as we gathered in Singapore for the Installation of Rt. Rev. Rennis Ponniah as the new Bishop of Singapore.

We were saddened, but not surprised, by the news of your inhibition and possible deposition by the TEC. We all want to assure you and the Diocese of South Carolina of our continuing prayers and support. We thank God for your stand for the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! We are proud that you are willing to suffer for the faith once delivered to the saints.

Please be assured that we are with you, and that our Lord is also proud of you and our brothers and sisters in the Diocese of South Carolina. May the Lord bless you!

Yours in Christ,

+ Mouneer Egypt

+ Ian Mauritius

CC The Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh (All Nigeria),The Most Rev. Bolly Lapok (South East Asia), The Most Rev. Stephen Than (Myanmar), The Most Rev. Henri Isingoma (Congo), The Most Rev. Hector Zavala (Southern Cone), The Most Rev. Dr. Eliud Wabukala (Kenya), The Most Rev. Daniel Deng (Sudan)

By Adam Parker, Post & Courier (Hat Tip: Virtueonline)

In recent years, the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, under the leadership of Bishop Mark J. Lawrence, has distanced itself from the Episcopal Church. Diocese officials say the Church has "walked apart" from the rest of global Anglicanism, that its liberal leanings and "indiscriminate inclusivity" has compromised the integrity of the institution and ridiculed the gospel.

The issues are complex and often confusing. Here, The Post and Courier reduces them to seven essential questions, offering answers derived from many interviews and years of reporting on this story.

1.What does 'abandonment' mean?

Upon his consecration, a bishop pledges to uphold the constitution and canons of the Church. Failing to follow the rules sometimes is the result of oversight or mistake, but when it's "an open renunciation of the Discipline of the Church," he is said to have abandoned his episcopal duties.

What happens to a bishop accused of abandonment? There are three basic possibilities: He will be restricted from performing any acts as an ordained person, then dismissed from the church. He can resolve the problem and be restored to his position. Or he can opt to leave the church on his own.

2.Can a diocese leave the Episcopal Church?

Read here

From AAC

Many have waited for months and months for the other shoe to fall in the South Carolina versus Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori saga. The Episcopal Presiding Bishop has tried repeatedly to undo Bishop Mark Lawrence, diocesan of South Carolina, and she has failed. All the while Bishop Lawrence has taken the high road, some would say too high a road, and cooperated with her requests/demands to some degree. He has met with and was planning on meeting again with a few seated TEC bishops who were allegedly trying to mediate the "difficulty."

Bishop Lawrence's approach has been one of moderate and measured resistance to the Presiding Bishop, the House of Bishops and the General Convention, as they have tried to force ever more revisionist and onerous rules and canons down the throat of the believers still left in the Episcopal Church. His very measured approach has been seen by some, however, as a lack of awareness of the real danger that TEC poses to him and the diocese. The diocese did apparently put into place some legislation that had a trigger, a trigger which Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori has knowingly or unknowingly now pulled. Her actions against him and the diocese set into motion an automatic separation of bishop and diocese from TEC, somewhat in the manner of a doomsday machine. His approach in the face of the giant church-crushing legal machine that TEC has become seems predicated on a belief that he will have some place to flee to for refuge. Is that true? Is it also true that the previous property ruling of the South Carolina Supreme Court will protect him and the diocese somehow? All of this remains to be seen and tested, and Jefferts Schori will assuredly test it. She does not mean to let Mark Lawrence escape her grasp.

Read here

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.

Read here

Read also:  Episcopal Church Abandons Bishop and Diocese (pdf)

Read also:  New Level of Repression Signaled by Charges against +Lawrence by A S Haley, Stand Firm

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Publishers Weekly

Gene Robinson, Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, catapulted from obscurity to the center of the culture wars in 2003 when he became the first openly gay bishop in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion. Hundreds of parishes left the Episcopal Church in protest. Now set to retire in January 2013, Robinson has a new book from Knopf, God Believes in Love: Straight Talk about Gay Marriage (Sept.). Debuting in a charged election season, God Believes in Love brings high expectations. Knopf has lined up a seven-city tour and an initial printing of 50,000. It could also get a boost from the October PBS premiere of Love Free or Die, a documentary of Robinson’s life and career.