From The Living Church-
Not long after appearing in a soft-spoken and impressive video about Lenten discipline, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori took issue with the Bishop of South Carolina on the proper response to any congregation that distances itself from the Episcopal Church.
For those readers joining this melodrama mid-story, here is a quick summary: Thomas Tisdale, Jr., a former chancellor of the Diocese of South Carolina, has asked the current chancellor for reams of documents regarding four congregations in various states of disaffection with the Episcopal Church. The Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence is trying to address the pastoral needs of these congregations without threatening to sue them.
As the Presiding Bishop described Bishop Lawrence’s actions, her tone departed from the proposed discipline of Lent. “He’s telling the world that he is offended that I think it’s important that people who want to stay Episcopalians there have some representation on behalf of the larger church,” she said in remarks to the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council on Feb. 19.
This description should surprise anyone who has read Bishop Lawrence’s public letter in response to the former chancellor’s fishing expedition.
Bishop Lawrence did raise questions about the appropriateness of a hostile legal probe occurring within his diocese, and noted that he has not heard from the Presiding Bishop regarding this probe.
But he also explained the deeper motivation of his decision to delay the diocese’s convention for three weeks: “This is not a time for precipitous action; nor is it a time for congregations or members to strike out in unilateral directions destructive to the common life and witness God has called us to make in the world and the Church.”
More here-
http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/2/25/editorial-lent-and-lawsuits
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