Tuesday, September 28, 2010

SOUTH CAROLINA: Bishop says diocese engaged in 'battle' for Anglicanism's soul


From ELO-

Comparing his dispute with the Episcopal Church to a military battle, Diocese of South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence has told the diocese that it is "engaged in a worldwide struggle for the soul of Anglicanism in the 21st century."

Lawrence's comments came Sept. 23 in response to a request made the day before by members of an Episcopal Church advocacy group that the church's leadership "investigate" a series of actions which they say "are accelerating the process of alienation and disassociation" of the diocese from the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Forum of South Carolina Sept. 22 sent a five-page letter to the Executive Council and the House of Bishops that lists a series of what are called "recent actions and inactions on the part of the diocesan leadership and leaders in parishes and missions within the diocese."

For instance, the letter said, the diocese has "taken no disciplinary measures or legal action" against the leaders of St. Andrew's Church, Mt. Pleasant, since they claimed in March to have led the parish out of the Episcopal Church, or attempted to stop other parishes that appear to be moving in the same direction.

In addition, the letter said, Lawrence has charged that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is intruding on the diocese's "sovereign" nature by asking questions about the diocese's intention regarding such parishes. The group also expresses concern about Lawrence's treatment of what it calls a group of "loyal Episcopalians" who have formed St. Mark's Chapel in Port Royal.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_124768_ENG_HTM.htm

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