Today, [Marine Sargeant Dana] King has no visible scars from his time in combat. But his injuries are as real as any veteran hit by shrapnel. Instead of losing a limb, King lost functions in his brain that help him remember things, control his emotions and sometimes talk clearly.

He covers it up well. He said most people around him don’t know he’s suffering from the effects of a traumatic brain injury ”“ don’t know the invisible battle with his disability that he wages every day.

And King is far from alone. Since 2000, more than 270,000 troops have been diagnosed with concussions and other traumatic head injuries. Experts say the numbers are likely much higher. A Rand Corp. study in 2008 put the number of brain-injured troops at more than 320,000, and that was two years before a massive surge in improvised explosive device attacks in Afghanistan.

Read it all from the front page of the local paper.

Alix Generous just turned 21. If she wanted to, she could buy a beer.

Instead, the College of Charleston junior has been a bit busy. In just the past year or so, she has presented her own coral reef research to the United Nations in India, studied neuropathic pain at MUSC and is now examining childhood epilepsy at a prestigious Boston medical school.

And on Saturday, she presented a TED talk in Albuquerque, N.M. The event featured physicists and educators, CEOs and techies, writers, a doctor, a folk healer ”” and her. She discussed the need to tap people’s unique minds to solve the world’s complex problems.

She discussed it by way of personal experience.

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The Diocese of the Southeast of the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in North America, unanimously approved a resolution of support for the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and Bishop Mark Lawrence as they face legal challenges and other harassment from The Episcopal Church following their disassociation last year from The Episcopal Church.

The resolution, introduced by the Rev. Charles A. Collins, Jr., Vicar of the Church of the Atonement in Mount Pleasant who also serves as the Ecumenical Representative for the Rt. Rev. Alphonza Gadsden, Sr., noted that the Diocese of South Carolina had sought to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints despite changes to the teaching of Scripture and the Church as well as the support that they have received from Anglicans in the Global South, including the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans Primates Council. “We’re pleased to support Bishop Lawrence and the Diocese of South Carolina as they stand on the foundation of Scripture,” said Bishop Gadsden, who had met with other Anglican bishops at Camp St. Christopher earlier in the week to discuss ways that they could engage in ministry together.

Tracing its roots back to 1875, the Diocese of the Southeast comprises more than 30 parishes and missions in South Carolina and Georgia and also covers the state of Florida. Following the approval of the resolution, the text of which follows, prayers were offered for the Diocese of South Carolina and Bishop Lawrence.

The Text of the resolution is as follows:

A Resolution of Support
Whereas, the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and the Diocese of the Southeast of the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in North America share a common heritage as Christians, as Anglicans, and as residents of this land in which God’s Providence has placed us; and,

Whereas, the Diocese of South Carolina has sought to “…earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3 [ESV]) despite severe opposition and interference from The Episcopal Church as that latter body has revised Catholic teaching; and,

Whereas, on 17 October 2012 the Disciplinary Board for Bishops of The Episcopal Church certified to the Presiding Bishop of that body that the Rt. Rev’d Mark Joseph Lawrence, D.D., had abandoned The Episcopal Church despite his earnest efforts to preserve both his Diocese’s relationship to that body and its faithfulness to Scripture and Catholic teaching; and,

Whereas, those actions triggered two pre-existing resolutions disaffiliating the Diocese of South Carolina from The Episcopal Church and called for a special convention of that Diocese; and,

Whereas, that special convention was held at St. Philip’s Church in Charleston on 17 November 2012 and at that convention the overwhelming majority of the Diocese of South Carolina affirmed their support for this disaffiliation and Bishop Lawrence; and,

Whereas, the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans Primates Council has affirmed its support of the Diocese of South Carolina and Bishop Lawrence; and,

Whereas, The Episcopal Church has continued to seek legal action against the Diocese of South Carolina;

Now Therefore, we, the Forty-first Synod of the Diocese of the Southeast meeting at St. John’s Church in Charleston do hereby give thanks to Almighty God for the faithful witness and testimony of the Diocese of South Carolina and Bishop Mark Lawrence, affirm our support of our bothers and sisters in Christ, and do now lift them up before Almighty God in prayer and heartfelt affection.

“If you aren’t seeing God at work in your life, you aren’t far enough out on the limb yet…” [Mark Lawrence said].

It’s a theme Lawrence has stuck by and modeled since, the Rev. Canon Jim Lewis says.

“As our bishop, he has consistently modeled a kind of faith that is prepared, when called to do so, to step out of the boat and trust in God’s loving provision,” Lewis says. “Consequently we continue, I believe, to see God at work among us in amazing ways.”

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“What a great clergy day,” said the Very Rev. David Thurlow, Rector of St. Matthias in Summerton, SC at the end of the gathering of clergy of the Diocese of South Carolina on September 12, 2013. Over 85 clergy of the Diocese gathered at St. Paul’s in Summerville for the once-yearly event.

“The legal update was clear and understandable,” said Thurlow, “the questions asked and answered were insightful and helpful. Alan Runyan’s personal testimony and witness to God’s work was incredible and powerful. Bishop Lawrence did great in setting before us an updated picture of where we are and giving us vision, hope and encouragement as we journey on together. All in all the day could not have been better!”

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With the anniversary of 9/11 days away, high school and middle school students mostly too young to remember the terrorist attacks gathered on the aircraft carrier Yorktown and met one woman who will never forget.

Melodie Homer is the widow of LeRoy Homer, co-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93, one of four the planes hijacked and crashed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.

“For many of us who experienced that day, the word ”˜closure’ doesn’t really exist,” said Homer, who now lives in North Carolina with her children.

Read it all from this past’s weekend’s local paper.

Over the last year, La Iglesia de San Juan (the Hispanic ministry of the Diocese of South Carolina) has been in transition. This summer the church changed direction in its witness to the Hispanic people of Sea Islands. Instead of the traditional “open our doors and they will come” model, worship and pastoral care are now taken to the people where they live. Each Sunday evening the “Church on the Move” can be found at one of the many work camps on Johns Island.

The ministry is a mission church of the Diocese of South Carolina under Bishop Lawrence. It was supported for most of its existence by St. John’s Church and other churches in the Charleston area. In its current form the people involved in leadership are from many churches including a number of parishes in the Diocese and Presbyterian churches as well. The list of volunteers from other denominations is growing.

Our goal is simply to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in Spanish, to the people of the Sea Islands.

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Two Episcopal bishops will hold Sunday services this fall at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, a new worship community in Summerville.

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“It’s much like a divorce,” said the Rev. J.T. Jeffords, minister at St. Paul’s Church in Conway, which was formerly St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. “Everyone is affected.”

“In these situations, even if you win, you lose,” said Dan Ennis, dean of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts and one of the leaders of the group of Episcopalians who left St. Paul’s last year and has now formed the community of St. Anne’s.

Read it all.

Read it all.

Listen to it all if you so desire (give the audio approximately 30 seconds at the beginning to right itself [wait until the prayer is concluded and then about a five count beyond, after “Hello”).

Each Sunday, Ashley Ridge Church collects about $200 to $300 in its Change for a Dollar buckets.

Then, church members email requests or suggestions for how to use the money that week.

Church leaders pick someone, and then watch what happens.

Take a young man who recently suffered a seizure disorder but lacked the resources to see a neurologist. He had visited the Medical Outreach Clinic of Summerville but needed more specialized care than it could provide.

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Boeing Co. has picked a site in North Charleston for a new factory that will design and make engine inlet components for the 737 MAX, its first major investment in the region not tied to the 787 jetliner.

The aerospace giant plans to build the previously announced propulsion design and assembly plant in Palmetto Commerce Park, between Ladson and Ashley Phosphate roads.

The 48-acre site is next door to Boeing’s two-year-old Interiors Responsibility Center, which makes bins, partitions and other parts for the 787 Dreamliner.

Read it all.

The prospect of a U.S. military strike on Syria is putting pressure on political fault lines, and the tremors are being felt in South Carolina.

National security hawks like U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham see a lawless world in need of American leadership and, when the cause is just, its soldiers and bombs.

The Republican Party’s emergent libertarian wing, however, represented most prominently at the moment by Sen. Rand Paul, a possible presidential candidate, emphasizes the cost of foreign wars and their effect on U.S. public relations abroad.

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Marino Casem, who coached at Alcorn State in Mississippi, once summed it up: “In the East, college football is a cultural attraction. On the West Coast, it’s a tourist attraction. In the Midwest, it is cannibalism. But in the South, it’s religion.”

–From the front page of Sunday’s local paper

U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck has ruled for the second time in recent months that legal issues arising from the Episcopal schism in eastern South Carolina belong in state court, not federal court.

Houck dismissed a federal lawsuit late Friday brought by Bishop Charles vonRosenberg, the bishop of parishes remaining with the national Episcopal Church.

The bishop had asked Houck to block Bishop Mark Lawrence, the spiritual head of churches that left the national church, from using the name and symbols of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

But Houck ruled the issues “are more appropriately before, and will more comprehensively be resolved, in South Carolina state court.”

Read it all.

In a statement released after the decision was handed down, Bishop vonRosenberg said he was “disappointed at the recent legal developments,” but added “we recognized that our journey involves many, many more steps than only this one.”

“We are involved for the long haul,” he said, noting the mission of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina “most definitely will not be defined by court decisions and legal processes but, rather, by the call and direction of our Lord”.

Bishop Mark Lawrence’s team said they were pleased by the ruling and the consolidation of the dispute between the national church and the diocese into a single forum.

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“It was hard to know where to start after my last album. The song Blessings started as a diary entry and God blew us away by using it in the lives of so many around the world. And as I began to write for my new project “God of Every Story”, I went back to that deep place of vulnerability before the Lord, and honesty — with myself. The path God has led our family down is not one I would have chosen for myself. It has been much harder than I had envisioned, yet it has required deeper faith than I ever thought myself capable of. And that’s what God of every story is really about: It’s trusting that the same God who orchestrates the rising and the setting of the sun each day pays the same attention to every detail of my life. It’s believing that at the end of the day, we will look back on this amazing God story that is my life and view it as a beautiful sunset, where the blues and reds, the laughter and tears, all meld together to show the faithfulness of God in a way that makes us stand in applause.”

“God of Every Story” is a collection of songs about where God’s love and grace intersect with our real life situations. It’s about God working all things together for good and love always winning. It’s a celebration of God’s faithfulness, even when we don’t always understand His plan this side of heaven. Yet we praise Him because He is the keeper of the stars, the One who holds all things together and always, always, deserves our worship.

Read it all (note there is an excerpt from one of her new songs if you wish to listen) and you can find a Godtube interview to watch there.

South Carolina has, once again, landed near the top of a new list of fattest states.

But here’s a silver lining: Other Southern states have shown ways to improve childhood obesity in just a few years.

“The signs of progress that we’re seeing around the country are very, very encouraging,” said Dwayne Proctor, director of childhood obesity programs at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Read it all from the local paper.

Some areas were hit by the deluge harder than others, but few were spared. This time last year the Greenville area had seen about 21 inches of rain. This year more than 47 inches have fallen so far at the airport, where it’s measured.

At the other end of the state, not far from Myrtle Beach, Darel Watts said it’s been a struggle at Sugarfoot Organic Farms in Conway.

“Planting was late, and then when we would have a window, it just rained after that and drowned seedlings,” he said. “And once we got things growing it was hard to cultivate, and then we got disease.”

“My mom has been on this property since she was 16, and she’s 71, and she said it’s the wettest she’s ever seen,” Watts said. “When there’s a drought, I can irrigate, but I can’t wring it dry.”

Read it all from the local paper (emphasis mine).

Listen here if you wish.

This award is given each year to an academic book that exemplifies the ethos and mission of the Journal of Africana Religions, an interdisciplinary journal that publishes scholarship on African and African diasporic religious traditions. Albert J. Raboteau, for whom the prize is named, is author of the classic Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South, a book that has made a lasting impact in the field of Africana religions. To become eligible for the award, books must be nominated by an academic publisher, and a prestigious five-member committee is responsible for assessing these nominations and determining a winner. The selection, thus, is international in scope and highly competitive.

Brown’s book examines perceptions of the natural world revealed by the religious ideas and practices of Africa’s Kongo region and among African-descended communities in South Carolina from the colonial period into the twentieth century. Brown is an Associate Professor in the History department and the Africana Studies department at the University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale. African-Atlantic Cultures is his first book.

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The Rev. vonRosenberg presently heads the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, the name given to those Episcopalians in the Diocese who want to remain with the national church. VonRosenberg has sued Lawrence over usage of the title of bishop, arguing that Lawrence renounced this title when he opted to leave The Episcopal Church in January.

After hearing about an hour of arguments, Houck stated that he should have a decision as to the fate of the suit sometime in the next seven to ten days.

Joy Hunter, director of Communications for the Diocese of South Carolina, told The Christian Post that Lawrence argued for the suit to be dismissed. “In his Motion, Bishop Lawrence asked that Judge Houck either dismiss the federal lawsuit, or stay it until the pending state court litigation is resolved,” said Hunter.

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As student Gerald Addison read the story last fall preparing for an assignment, however, his mind churned with questions unanswered in the text.

So, he tracked down [Lt. Col. Kevin] Jarrard.

“I needed more insight into events and people. And most of all, I needed to know Kevin Jarrard better,” Addison recalls. “I realized there was probably more to be learned about the Marine who was so intent on helping a child survive in a place where he could not be sure he himself would survive.”

Jarrard responded. The student and Marine commander struck up a friendship, trading emails and phone calls during the eight-week course last year. Now, they will meet in person when Jarrard comes to campus.

Read it all from the Faith and Values section of the local paper.

For the second time in recent months, U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck is weighing whether issues arising from the acrimonious Episcopal schism in eastern South Carolina belong in federal court.

As two bishops sat with their attorneys on either side of his Charleston courtroom, Houck heard about an hour of arguments Thursday on one bishop’s request for an injunction against the other.

Charles vonRosenberg, the bishop of parishes remaining with the national Episcopal Church, wants the court to block Mark Lawrence, the bishop of churches that left last year, from using the name and the symbols of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

Read it all.

“His comments only further reflect his desire to reach out to all Catholics and individuals who are marginalized,” said [Marcus] Cox, a history professor and associate dean at The Citadel. “His unassuming leadership style and his message of love and tolerance gives him the ability to connect with individuals seeking a place in the Catholic church.”

Francis might have struck a more conciliatory tone for some, but he surely did not suggest that noncelibate gays and lesbians should escape the church’s judgment, said Warren Redman-Gress, executive director of Alliance for Full Acceptance, a Charleston-based gay-rights advocacy group.

“Pope Francis’ recent ”˜Who am I to judge?’ remark regarding gay clergy has been called an ”˜outstretched hand’ and a shift toward greater understanding,” wrote Redman-Gress in an email. “I don’t believe it is either. When a person, even a pope, uses the ”˜who am I to judge?’ phrase, he is saying, ”˜I won’t judge because I am a sinner as well; I am going to leave the judgment of that person’s sexual orientation to God.’ ”

But this implies that a sexually active gay person nevertheless is subject to God’s reckoning (and, by extention, the church’s), Redman-Gress wrote.

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Read it all.

Our vision at St. Helena’s is to be like the Church at Antioch as described in the Book of Acts. The fellowship of believers at Antioch was where the disciples were first called Christians. Antioch was a culturally, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse church where all were welcome to seek the Lord. This church was also the first to be proactive in prayerfully sending out evangelists to proclaim the Gospel of the risen Christ. You will see our vision encapsulated on many of our publications by the words Proclaim, Equip, Pray, Send & Go.

–The vision statement for Saint Helena’s, Beaufort, S.C.

[Heyward] Tumbleston’s companion was shot dead by an enemy patrol when they entered a clearing they thought was isolated. Tumbleston was recaptured and taken back to Camp 5 where he was kept inside a tiny box. “I lived in that thing for two months,” he said. “Whenever I got out, I couldn’t walk.”

Today, the calendar marks the 60-year end of the Korean War when an armistice brought a close to hostilities but not a true peace. Some 483 servicemen from South Carolina were killed in the three years of fighting that claimed more than 54,000 American lives, including nearly 8,000 never accounted for.

Tumbleston, 82, of Mount Pleasant ”” “Gene” to his friends ”” doesn’t plan to do any form of celebrating, figuring the war is long over and barely remembered, except when there’s the occasional saber-rattling from the North. It’s a feeling veterans’ advocates say is common.

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Tourism officials in both Carolinas are working to get visitors down roads less traveled this summer.

A $2.5 million spring advertising campaign touting “Undiscovered South Carolina,” is already showing positive results, and Duane Parrish, director of the state’s tourism department.

Read it all.