On July 18th Bishop Mark Lawrence responded to the 2009 General Convention in a letter which concluded as follows:
There is an increasingly aggressive displacement within this Church of the gospel of Jesus Christ’s transforming power by the “new” gospel of indiscriminate inclusivity which seeks to subsume all in its wake. It is marked by an increased evangelistic zeal and mission that hints at imperialistic plans to spread throughout the Communion. This calls for a bold response. It is of the utmost importance that we find more than just a place to stand. Indeed, it is imperative that we find a place to thrive; a place that is faithful, relational and structural””and so we shall!
Later on July 28th I wrote a blog post asking for prayer for the Diocese of South Carolina and its leadership. A follow up on that meeting appeared here.
I now wish to update those posts and sincerely request your prayers for the Diocese of South Carolina for the upcoming week.
This past Wednesday, August 5th, the same group of people who met with Bishop Lawrence met again (you can find the list of names through the links already provided). Although not quite as long as the first meeting, it went for the whole day (roughly 10:30-6:30). Both of these meetings were to help Bishop Lawrence to prepare for the special clergy day this coming Thursday, August 13th, when he will be given the very challenging task of articulating to the clergy his sense of where the diocese is called to be and live in response to recent developments in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
I think all of us have a tendency to mistake our place in history, and such things are only properly seen in retrospect (hence my sense of the importance of history and reason for a 19th century post today). But by any reasonable measure this is an important time in this diocese, for her bishop, for her people and for her future. The spiritual warfare is intense. Speaking for myself, the sense of anxiety and expectation in the phone calls and emails that are streaming in is quite high, and I am sure that is true for many other diocesan members as well. While there is a large degree of theological consensus in the diocese, we are now talking about the issue of strategy, and it is in that area where reasserters have had significant differences over the last 7-10 years.
We need your prayers, especially for the Bishop, Mark Lawrence, and for the Standing Committee under the leadership of the Rev. Jeff Miller. Pray that the truth may be spoken in love and that as a diocese we will come together in the direction the Lord wants us to go in. Many thanks–KSH.
Very interesting times, Dr. Harmon. DioSC isn’t DioSJ or DioFW…you are a mammoth diocese that will not be easy for 815 to grapple with, and their resources are already strained. I’m sure the Bolsheviks at TGC will want to loose the dogs on you, but the reality is they don’t have much to else unleash on a scrappy foe like DioSC. I suspect you alone could cause them to double or treble their legal expenses at a time when the blood is already flowing at HQ.
Prayers for you and your faithful diocese.
Prayers rising for the Diocese of South Carolina, for her bishop and for all her clergy, that they may come together in faith, love and charity, hearts and minds open, and that you, O Lord, will be in their midst to guide and succor them and shine your light on the way that you would have them take. Have mercy on them, O Lord,and on all of us. Amen.
“…it will not be done lightly, and it will be done in a Godly, spiritual manner, with all due consideration for Scriptural guidance.”
My experience is that this is how such decisions have been made everywhere in the church. Stay or leave, whatever the outcome of the discernment process, those whose spiritual and biblical sensitivities are offended by TEC’s leadership are godly people who make all their decisions by prayer and scriptural guidance.
It was interesting in the parish I attend how going through prescribed discernment process called 40 Days of Discernment was a time of real spiritual growth and understanding for those who engaged the process….for those who did not participate but stood outside throwing bricks while we struggled with what to do, they seem to continue to by stuck in a cesspool of anger…and again, not having anything to do with the outcome, but a failure engage and pary and study with the rest of us.
The process is essential to understanding and living under the Lordship of Christ.
Certainly, I’ll be happy to join in the intercessions for the Diocese of SC and its leaders. I’ve already been praying for you/them, and will step it up now, as requested.
Whatever “bold response” SC makes will be difficult to carry out, and it will surely have far-reaching consequences and wide ramifications throughout not only TEC but the wider Anglican world. Obviously, as an outspoken supporter of the FCA movement, my hope is that SC will decide to cast its lot with the ACNA. I recently left the similarly conservative Diocese of Albany because it was dragging its feet and I grew impatient. But I’m well aware that my own preferences might not be the will of God for SC. And may his will prevail.
David Handy+
I have a great deal of confidence in Bishop Mark Lawrence and I know that his leadership will be guided by the Holy Spirit at every turn. My prayers are with you all. I am in Maine and will not be able to be present in body but will be present in prayer and spirit on August 13th. Peace to hearts of all involved in this critical time in our life together.
The prayers of the people of the Gathering, our church plant in the Diocese of Western Anglicans, will be for Bp Mark and the clergy and laypeople of the Diocese of South Carolina.
I very much hope that your voices will not be lost within the Church. There is division and strife in abundance already. Stay and witness would be my urging. We can do more good for more souls by standing firm than by bailing out.
Lent & Beyond offers prayers for South Carolina [url=http://anglicanprayer.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/south-carolina-menu/]here[/url].
(cross-post from SFIF post Aug. 6 link to Steve Wood’s blog post)
…prayers for +Lawrence, all clergy, deans, vestry, parishioners, to soon come to one mind, the right mind, in the true unity of the true Holy Spirit, so He may come down with fire and great power and shake DioSC, TEO, Lambeth, and the entire Anglican Communion with a mighty earthquake of revival!
Acts 16:6-10 is a great Scriptural example showing that even the giants in the faith, here Paul and Silas, stepped out as seemed good to them and yet were led by the Spirit to change their plans as He channeled and guided them into His will and plan. May the Holy Spirit likewise fill, lead and embolden all your hearts in DioSC and cause a new earthquake that breaks any fetters and opens any prison doors wide to effective action and service! Who knows, you might even convert a few of the jailers and their households!
Thank you for these encouraging and generous responses. I especially appreciated David Handy’s comment in number 4: “I’m well aware that my own preferences might not be the will of God for SC.’
Each of us must be firmly convinced in his or her own mind (Romans 14) in this time, but there is a call to tentativeness about the wisdom and rightness of our own choices, and a call to generosity toward the choices of others. A time of judgment and exile brings much spiritual confusion and seeing clearly the way is quite a challenge.
God’s will be done.
May God richly bless you and all involved with his love, his mercy and the clarity of His word. I am so pleased that my diocese has dared to be bold, faithful and careful all at the same time.
I have not taken DioSC off of my daily prayer list in the past 2 years and they will stay there until God tells me otherwise.
Kendall (#10),
You’re welcome. I agree that tentativeness about matters of ecclesial strategy in such a complicated, confusing time as this is appropriate, and equally important is the generosity of spirit you spoke of toward those orthodox Anglicans who make other choices than we’ve made.
David Handy+
The Diocese of SC always has my prayers as does all its leaders, lay and ordained, and especially the Bishop and Standing Committee.
Even though I live in Georgia and North Carolina, I have prayed and shall continue to pray for the Diocese of SC. But it might also be helpful for the Chancellor of the Diocese (and the chancellors of well-funded parishes) to review the several compelling arguments made by Christ Church Savannah, and then to look at applicable statutes and caselaw in SC to determine what legal positions are likely to succeed in any contest with 815.
In addition, givers to the Diocese and its parishes should establish and fund a foundation that will fund the Diocese’s probable litigation. Otherwise, there is a not insignificant risk that 815 will try to seize the Diocese’s accounts in the even of conflict.
Third, the Diocese should sell or attempt to sell, at a fair market value, to said foundation some real estate that could be used as an ACNA (or APA) church. Thie Presiding Bishop has said that any sale must be a fair market value, but that the agreement of sale must contain a provision than no non-TEC clergy may conduct services without the approval of the (TEC) Bishop, and in any event must not “encourage” parishes to leave TEC. But that is just her, and TEC just ain’t THAT hierarchical… yet. So as I am aware there is nothing in the Canons or Constitution that supports her position. But, unless the Diocese acts quickly, there is likely to be in the fairly near future.
But I have more faith in the Trinity than I have in the American legal system, the only virtue of which is that it provides (or used to provide) a comfortable living for otherwise unemployable liberal arts majors, and I shall therefore redouble my prayers, and look forward to making some, small, contributions to any foundation established to support traditionalists who are now in the Diocese.
Dear Kendall:
I would like to recommend a book to you that I read this summer.
It is April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik. It is A
classic illustration of how real leadership on both sides resisted the
passions of the times for A greater good. My prayers are continually
with all of you. I also pray that we on the orthodox side will stand
together, because we will need to more than ever.
Your brother in Christ, Alex
St David’s Church of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (ACNA) will be lifting up the bishops, clergy and people of the Diocese of SC tomorrow in worship. I call on parishes in our diocese to do likewise.
David Wilson+
Praying for the Dio, +Lawrence, Kendall, and all the people of the lower half of the state. Discerning the will of God is serious work.[blockquote]”May the light of His presence be your guide
May He guard you and uphold you;
May His Spirit be ever by your side.”[/blockquote]
From John Rutter, “A Clare Benediction”
U.P.
By sheer coincidence this was a biblical reference from my devotional book today. May it become SC’s for this week too, Good Lord:
Prayer for Spiritual Strength
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Prayers for SC, for the bishop, priests, deacons, and laity. May His will be known to you all and may you find the strength, wisdom, and love of each other to carry out His will. Amen
Prayers ascending (with emphasis on Thursday).
Our prayers join yours.
[blockquote]Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:6-13[/blockquote]
When I pray, asking for God’s guidance, I generally find it very helpful to read the Scriptures and [wait for it] engage in a listening process so that I can live into my faith. I find that God still speaks through His Word if only I take the time to listen to what He is saying. Then it becomes a matter of being obedient or disobedient to God. Do I regard the opinion of men higher than I regard God’s opinion of me?
What does this passage of Scripture tell us?
More than half of praying is listening with an open and obedient heart, being prepared to do as our Lord and King commands.
I am only a layperson. I have no academic credentials to boast of. I am not a gifted theologian or philosopher [obvious to any who are familiar with my writing here at T19]. I am not even a particularly good Christian or good man. The only thing that recommends me is Jesus Christ living within me. He has placed His Spirit within my soul and has been changing me. He has placed faith inside me and a desire, a yearning, a “lust†if you will, to love Him and to obey Him. My flesh stumbles with this constantly…I suppose, I die daily; yet, I continue because it is no longer I that live, but Christ in me.
I will pray for you, not in the strength of any supposed righteousness of my own, but in that righteousness that my Lord Jesus has given me. I will pray for you earnestly, because the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.
May the way be made plain before you. May the eyes of your hearts be “enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”
What fellowship has light with darkness?
Until such time as 815 prevails upon the issue of whether the hierarchy of TEC is in the Diocesan Bishop or in GC, I do not understand why those in a diocese with a solid, orthodox, Communion Partner bishop foment for secession….but then, there is Ft. Sumter. That however didn’t work out so well either. GC clearly showed there is still sanity in 1/3 of the Church. That’s something to hang on to.
Lead.
My priest noted today that I was silent during the Nicene Creed. As I was last Sunday. I replied: “We are here for Common Prayer. The Creed starts off…’WE believe….’. This Church has demonstrated that it no longer believes in “for us and our salvation…”, and “I believe in the holy catholic Church.’ since we take no advice from anyone other than the American cause du jour. We are more like liturgical Buddhists who meditate on our own values. I can’t repeat in Common Prayer those beliefs that are clearly denied by this Church. I believe in these things. But WE do not.”.
Well said Sick and Tired. Well said indeed.
Remember Lot’s wife.
RE: “GC clearly showed there is still sanity in 1/3 of the Church.”
Where? When? Can you point out some stats? The votes on key heterodox resolutions were overwhelming in both houses.
#30- the votes on the key resolutions passed by a 2/3rds majority in both the HOD and the HOB and thus the generalization that there is a third of the Church with some sense of sanity.
DT is right, Sarah. Take some comfort that the revisionists are only drilling holes in their 2/3 of the rowboat.
Doubting Thomas:
In the HOD, D025 passed by 72% on a roll call vote [which means that since “divided” orders are counted as “nos” actually far more than 72% voted *for* C056.]
In the HOD, C056 passed by almost exactly the same numbers.
In the HOB, C056 passed by a vote of 104 to 30 — 28% voted against it, and that number includes suffragan and assisting bishops. The vote, when one counts only diocesans as representing dioceses, comes to 29 diocesan bishops voting correctly on D025 and C056, approximately 26%
That includes out of country diocesan bishops as well.
I think 25% — rather than 33% — might be characterized as “sane.”
RE: “Take some comfort that the revisionists are only drilling holes in their 2/3 of the rowboat.”
Or 3/4. ; > )
OK Sarah, math was never my strong suit. Frankly, I was surprised that the opposition was as much as it was. As our bishop noted, “they listened respectfully and then did exactly as they pleased”. When looking at the HOB, I was amazed at the number of retired bishop who attended and voted, almost all in favor of D025 and C056. The PB and minions had all bases well covered.
Don’t get greedy, Sarah, they’re letting you mossbacks have that quarter. What more do you want?