For Fond du Lac Episcopal Diocese churches wishing to perform same-sex relationship blessing ceremonies, Bishop Russell Jacobus’ decision is no … for now.

He told Saturday’s 138th Annual Diocesan Convention audience at the Holiday Inn Manitowoc that more study was needed “before we move forward into an era where the church would be re-interpreting … the historical and traditional view of marriage.”

After his address to delegates, Jacobus said only one church in the diocese, with 37 worshiping sites, had discussed and studied the issue with the kind of thoroughness he believes necessary without risking unnecessary divisiveness.

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A church rocked by divisions over beliefs came together in jubilation on Saturday as leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh consecrated the Rev. Dorsey McConnell as its first permanent bishop since 2008.

“The last four years have been trying, but it’s wonderful to have someone here now, especially a man like Bishop McConnell,” said Judith Waldorf, 62, of Shaler, who was among 400 people who filled Calvary Episcopal Church in East Liberty for the ceremony. “This is a wonderful day and I’m blessed to be here.”

Church leaders elected Mc-Connell, 58, to bishop in April. He previously served as rector of Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill, Mass. He succeeds the Right Rev. Kenneth L. Price Jr., who served as provisional bishop since 2009.

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Amid the gothic grandeur of the consecration of a new bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, a man in an overcoat and fedora suddenly held forth from the center aisle about a vision he said God had given him for a new bridge in Pittsburgh.

The speaker was the about-to-be-consecrated Bishop Dorsey Winter Marsden McConnell. The Yale-educated former actor, 58, teamed with diocesan youth to stage a parable about an engineer who couldn’t persuade anyone to build his “Bridge of the Angels” but used its model to save many families from a fire that broke out amid the great Pittsburgh flood of 1936….

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Despite their assertions to the contrary, this is clearly a group comprised of the primary leadership of the Forum. To attempt to claim the Forum is not responsible for these actions is disingenuous at best.

It is also clearly not a group representative of a large portion of the diocese. It is representative of a very narrow slice of what is a small group in a handful of parishes. They have nothing like the broad, concerned constituency they proclaim.

Most troubling is the assertion that they have released their names voluntarily, as a courtesy, to avoid the scandal of secrecy. That is precisely what these actions represent.

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The Episcopal Church (TEC) has made an attack against our Bishop and Diocese, in the midst of efforts for a negotiated settlement, which has fundamentally changed our common life. You may have heard or read about this over the last week but it is vital today that we all understand what has occurred and what it means as clearly as possible.
For many years the diocese of South Carolina has opposed the primary theological direction of the national Episcopal Church (TEC). As TEC leadership has moved away from the claim of Jesus’ uniqueness, the authority of Holy Scripture, the meaning of marriage and the nature of what it means to be human, we have had to be more steadfast in our defense of these truths, and more vocal and strong in our opposition to TEC’s disavowal of them.

In the past few years this conflict has escalated to the point where in 2011 charges were brought against Bishop Lawrence (and later voted down in Committee), and where the 2012 General Convention placed an unbiblical doctrine of humanity into the Canons of the Church. The doctrine, discipline and worship of TEC were all fundamentally changed in a fashion most of our clergy cannot and will not comply with. Bishop Lawrence and a majority of our deputation left the Convention before it concluded as a result.

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Example #1 in point: Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts has himself “abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church (USA)”, by an “open renunciation of the Discipline of the Church” — exactly as the DBB, on which he sits, has proclaimed that +Mark Lawrence has done. Bishop Shaw, as we know, defied both the marriage canons and the Book of Common Prayer rubrics by interpreting Resolution C056 (“Liturgies for Blessings”) adopted by General Convention in 2009 to allow him to authorize clergy in his Diocese to perform same-sex marriages, and then performed such a ceremony himself. According to Bishop Shaw, he and his suffragan bishops are the final authority on what the Canons and Resolutions of General Convention mean in their Diocese. So why is not Bishop Lawrence just as final an authority on the meaning of those same Canons in his Diocese, as well? And how can Bishop Shaw, having made that assertion (which in fact, is entirely correct), now seek to hold Bishop Lawrence liable for the latter’s own judgment of the meaning they are to have in his Diocese?

Talk about hypocrisy — but the members of the DBB (as well as David Booth Beers himself) are immersed in it up to their necks, day in and day out….

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When Bishop-elect Dorsey McConnell was chosen to lead an Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh still deeply wounded from a 2008 schism, he prepared to face anger, resentment and grief. He wasn’t prepared for the drivers.

“I had to get used to driving here because people are so polite,” said the bishop-elect, who hails from Boston. “I’ve been unnerved by the kindness of people in traffic. They let you turn left in front of them. I love this city.”

The question is whether the diocese will turn left. Pittsburgh has been among the most theologically conservative dioceses in an increasingly liberal denomination. That culminated in a 2008 split in which its last tenured bishop led a majority of parishes and clergy out of the Episcopal Church in a dispute over biblical theology and gay ordination. But some conservatives believed schism was wrong and remain in the Episcopal diocese, which is still fairly conservative by Episcopal standards. It has 9,000 members in 33 parishes.

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The Rev. Gregory Kronz of St. Luke’s Church on Hilton Head Island supports Lawrence. He said the bishop did not push the church away; rather the church has strayed from its own laws.

“There’s continual fast-and-loose playing with canons with the national church,” Kronz said. “In my mind, if anyone has changed, it’s the Episcopal Church.”

The media focus on policies regarding transgender or homosexual people, but the issue is the national church has adopted changes that violate biblical laws, according to the Rev. Jeff Miller of the Parish Church of St. Helena in Beaufort.

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The US Episcopal Church’s disciplinary board for bishops has ruled that the Bishop of South Carolina, the Rt Revd Mark Lawrence, has “abandoned the Episcopal Church”.

The ruling means that Bishop Lawrence – who has been engaged in a long-running battle with the Episcopal Church in the US, particularly over the issue of openly gay clergy – is “not permitted to perform any acts as an ordained person”, an official statement said.

The diocese of South Carolina said in response that the ruling had “triggered” a resolution which “disaffiliated” it from the Episcopal Church….

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“The Episcopal Church took unnecessary and illegitimate action against us which triggered our own previously agreed upon actions and caused us to withdraw to protect ourselves and our Gospel witness,” said [Kendall] Harmon.

The Rev. Canon Jim Lewis, spokesman for the diocese, explained to The Christian Post that there “is no explicitly described process in the national canons of the Church” regarding the process of dismissal for a diocese.

“Our Diocesan canons give the Bishop the absolute authority to interpret the canons. At the express written request of the Standing Committee, our bishop was asked to answer that question,” said Lewis. “His determination ruled that the Board of Directors of the Diocese does indeed have the authority to make that decision on behalf of the Diocese.”

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Anglicans have been worshiping in South Carolina since its establishment as a British Colony. From the beginning, they have defended and upheld the doctrine, discipline and worship of the faithful generations who came before them. That freedom is now under direct assault.

As a founding Diocese of the Episcopal Church, we have taken steps in recent years to defend our freedom of worship and order of gathering. On Monday of this week (October 15), the Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence (14th Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina) was informed by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church that a disciplinary board had certified that he was guilty of abandonment of the communion of the church ”“ that he had, in effect, by his words and actions, left the church. We believe that these actions of the Episcopal Church are both invalid under the Constitution of the Episcopal Church of this Diocese and violations of rights and freedoms which all Americans hold dear. We emphatically reject them, as well as the attempted restriction upon the ministry of our Bishop.

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The 12 lay communicants include: Robert R. Black, Margaret A. Carpenter, Charles G. Carpenter, Frances L. Elmore, Eleanor Horres, John Kwist, Margaret S. Kwist, Barbara G. Mann, David W. Mann, Warren M. Mersereau, Dolores J. Miller, Robert B. Pinkerton, M. Jaquelin Simons, Mrs. Benjamin Bosworth Smith, John L. Wilder and Virginia C. Wilder. The clergy who were named are the Rev. Colton M. Smith and the Rev. Roger W. Smith.

This was disclosed yesterday and is posted here for people’s awareness as well as for people’s prayers–KSH.

Dear St. Jude’s Parish Family,

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 Bishop Lawrence’s abandonment of The Episcopal Church. The charges against Bishop Lawrence were initiated by twelve laypersons and two clergy within the Diocese whose identity remains unknown to the Bishop. [Careful blog readers will know that these names are now public but they were not when this was written–KSH]

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.

This action by The Episcopal Church triggered two pre-existing corporate resolutions of the Diocese, which simultaneously disaffiliated the Diocese of South Carolina from The Episcopal Church and called a Special Diocesan Convention. That Diocesan Convention will be held at St. Philip’s Church, Charleston, on Saturday, November 17, 2012. St. Jude’s’ convention delegates and I will attend the Special Convention.
St. Jude’s held a Parish Meeting on August 1, 2012 where we discussed the real possbibility that The Episcopal Church would initiate disciplinary action against Bishop Lawrence and that, in respone, the Diocese of South Carolina would disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church. That scenario has now come to pass.

Tomorrow, (Friday, October 19, 2012) I will attend a meeting of the clergy at St. Paul’s, Summerville, where the impact of these actions on St. Jude’s and all the churches in the Diocese will be discussed. I will then meet with the Vestry on Monday evening.

These events will continue to unfold in the days ahead and the Vestry and I will keep you informed as they do.

Bishop Lawrence is the finest, godliest man I have ever had the privilege to serve under. I am sad that The Episcopal Church has chosen to act against our Diocese and Bishop Lawrence during a good faith attempt to resolve differences in a peaceful way. But, I am also hopeful and confident that the Lord will provide for St. Jude’s and the Diocese as we move forward.

Yours in Christ,

–(The Rev.) Bob Horowitz is rector of Saint Jude’s Church, Walterboro, South Carolina

You may read it all here.

October 17, 2012

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On Monday, October 15, 2012, Bishop Lawrence was notified by the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, that on September 18, 2012 the Disciplinary Board for Bishops had certified his abandonment of The Episcopal Church. This action triggered two pre-existing corporate resolutions of the Diocese made on November 1, 2011 and October 2, 2012, 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.

The clergy of the Diocese are consequently called to gather for a special Clergy Day this Friday, October 19th at St. Paul’s, Summerville. Our meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. and conclude by 4:00 p.m. The clergy of the Diocese are asked to RSVP electronically…

Our time will be spent discussing the significance of the actions taken by the Episcopal Church, our response as a Diocese and the plans for the immediate future. You may read related documents [on the diocesan website].

In Christ,

–(The Rev. Canon) Jim Lewis, Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina

The split with one of the oldest dioceses in the nation came this week after the conservative leader of the diocese, Bishop Mark Lawrence, was notified by the national church’s Disciplinary Board for Bishops that he is considered to have abandoned the national church. A board considered similar issues a year ago and concluded he had not.

But in an Oct. 15 letter from Katherine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the national church, Lawrence was informed that he is considered to have abandoned the church and is barred from performing any “Episcopal, ministerial or canonical arts” while the full House of Bishops investigates.

The standing committee which governs the local diocese, passed a resolution earlier this month saying it would disaffiliate with the national church if the church took action “asserting or claiming any supervisory, disciplinary, or other alleged hierarchical authority over this diocese, its leaders or its members.”

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But what it [the National decision to move against the Bishop and Diocese] obviously is, I think, is foolish. Wiser people would have let the bishop and diocese well enough alone, in the hope of holding on to them (and whatever money they give) and in the hope of saving a huge amount of money in legal fees which are unlikely to be recouped. And perhaps in the charitable assumption that the body’s work will still be advanced even with the institutional anomalies. But there is something in the progressive mind that cannot tolerate dissent ”” how dare they resist the dawn of the New Day? ”” and something in the mind of most bureaucrats of whatever position that cannot tolerate others not following the rules.

People often refer to a certain kind of person rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. That’s not the problem here. The problem is that the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop and her fellows have rushed to the bridge and seized the wheel, and are yelling “Mine! Mine!” and decking anyone who comes close, even though fish are swimming past the windows. But at least they’ve forced the bishop and his diocese to get into the lifeboats.

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The Diocese of South Carolina announced on Wednesday (Oct. 17) that it has disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church, escalating a long-running skirmish and setting the stage to become the fifth diocese to secede from the denomination.

South Carolina said the split was triggered by disciplinary action taken against Bishop Mark Lawrence, its conservative leader. The diocese passed a resolution on Oct. 2 stating that it would immediately secede should the Episcopal Church “discipline, impair, restrict, place on administrative leave, charge, derecognize” or otherwise inhibit the diocese or its leaders.

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The videos of the oral arguments yesterday in the two church property cases before the Texas Supreme Court are now archived. The first, The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, et al. v. The Episcopal Church (No. 11-0265), may be watched here; the second, Robert Masterson, et al., v. Diocese of Northwest Texas, et al. (No. 11-0332), is at this link.

The two cases involved similar issues of property law: under the “neutral principles” approach, how do courts resolve intra-church disputes over who has control of the entity holding title to the real property? In both of the cases, the entities holding the legal title are corporations; and in both cases, the Episcopal Church (USA) — or the diocese (in the Masterson case) — claim the right to decide just who may occupy the offices in those corporations….

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While the Rev. Dorsey McConnell is getting to know the windy roads and unusual landscape of Western Pennsylvania, he said he’s learned, “if you make a wrong turn, you don’t regret it.”

McConnell’s path to religion has had similar detours, all which led to his role as bishop-elect of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.

McConnell will be consecrated on Saturday in Calvary Episcopal Church in East Liberty. The diocese has 36 active congregations in 11 counties.

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The Diocese of South Carolina’s standing committee has, in turn, announced its decision to withdraw the diocese from the Episcopal Church. The diocese has called a special convention for Nov. 17 to vote on changes to its Constitution and Canons to reflect this withdrawal from the Episcopal Church. Those who disagree with the withdrawal will have the opportunity to propose reaffiliation with the Episcopal Church.

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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.

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Two factions that divided the Episcopal church in Pittsburgh four years ago as part of a national schism have agreed to work together to support a ministry for homeless veterans and others in need.

An accord between the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh clears the way for Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship to take title to all property at its Uptown location and to seek a more favorable financing of its debt.

The Episcopal Diocese considers the ministry of paramount importance, spokesman Rich Creehan said.

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Read it all and then take the time to go through the numbers here and also a summation there.

(From last night) The Rev. Robert C. Wright will be ordained as the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta in a ceremony Saturday at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College.

The ceremony, which begins at 10:30 a.m., will be held at the chapel, 830 Westview Dr. S.W.

Wright, 48, a Howard University and Virginia Theological Seminary graduate, will become the first African-American bishop to lead the diocese, which is among the largest in the world. The Atlanta diocese, which covers middle and north Georgia, has 96 parishes and 56,000 members.

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This last point brings us to the crux of our disagreement with Bishop Whalon: does TEC’s Constitution create a “metropolitical authority” superior to the diocesan bishop? Bishop Whalon thinks it does. Without citing or alluding to a single provision of the Constitution, he merely asserts: “the metropolitical authority”¦ resides in the General Convention”¦.The General Convention is at the top of our hierarchy.” We disagree. And it is important to emphasize that our disagreement with this conclusion is based fundamentally on an undeniable legal fact: nowhere does TEC’s Constitution state what Bishop Whalon asserts.

“Metropolitical authority” is a very precise and technical ecclesiological term. “Top of the hierarchy” is a very colloquial allusion to a legal concept that is widely used and readily identified in constitutions and legal documents. The legal term most often used to express this concept is “supremacy,” as in the English Act of Supremacy by which the Church of England separated from Rome and the oath of supremacy that all Church of England bishops continue to swear to this day. There are also other terms that are recognized legally as expressing this concept, but none of them is used in TEC’s Constitution. If there were any constitutional article stating that the General Convention is the supreme or highest or metropolitical authority in the church, we can be quite confident that Bishop Whalon would have quoted it rather than relying on mere colloquial assertion.

Again it is important to stress the context of this debate: a legal brief to a civil court. Given the constraints of the First Amendment, secular courts of law can draw conclusions about church polity only when those conclusions are stated plainly in recognizable legal language in the church’s governing instruments””in other words “on the face of it.”

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The first constitution of the church, ratified in 1789, reflects these foundational principles. Parishes were led jointly by rectors and vestries: clergy overseeing worship and education, and elected laypeople managing finances and property, as well as calling new rectors. The tradition of colonial conventions led to state conventions, which were what we now call dioceses, presided by the bishop but that have power to determine the life of the diocese. The annual diocesan convention oversees finances, elects a bishop when necessary and a standing committee and other governing bodies (depending on the dioceses) to exercise jurisdiction.

So far these were not very different than the features of English church life. It was the creation of a “general convention” endued with specific powers that marked the American Episcopal revolution. In short, while the Church of England and most of the churches that came from it have an archbishop who serves as the metropolitical authority, that authority resides in the General Convention.

Thus on the face of it, the seven bishops [signed an amicus curiæ brief submitted to the Texas Supreme Court] are right. In The Episcopal Church, the classic church hierarchy of deacon ”” priest ”” diocesan ”” archbishop ends at the diocesan level. But this is to misunderstand what a hierarchy is.

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