While the CoE debate was in some ways a proxy fight between TEC and AC-NA, conservatives still within the denomination received a jarring message when Lawrence announced an emergency postponement of the diocese’s annual convention, stating that “the Presiding Bishop’s Chancellor, if not the Presiding Bishop herself, is seeking to build a case against the Ecclesiastical Authorities of the Diocese (Bishop and Standing Committee) and some of our parishes.”
According to Lawrence, the Chancellor of the diocese was informed in December of 2009 that a local attorney had been retained by the Chancellor of the Presiding Bishop to represent The Episcopal Church in some “local matters.”
The following month, a series of letters requesting documents from diocesan records were sent to the South Carolina chancellor. Requested records included lists of all persons ordained since October 24, 2009, all parish bylaws and amendments since 2006; all Standing Committee Minutes since the episcopacy of former South Carolina Bishop Salmon; parish charters, parish founding documents, parish deeds, parish mortgages, documents evidencing parish participation in diocesan programs and others.
Lawrence indicated the collection of information by the Presiding Bishop’s office was unprecedented, and vigorously asserted that he was the only bishop with canonical jurisdiction. In the Episcopal Church, the Presiding Bishop acts as a “first among equals,” not unlike the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Outside of actions by the General Convention, she does not hold authority over diocesan bishops as an Archbishop would.
I think the implied threats against the Diocese of South Carolina are proof positive of TEC’s intent……a “preemptive strike,” which I am sure that no one will do anything to try to prevent from happening.
This IRD article by staffer Jeff Walton also covers TEC’s attempts to keep the General Synod of the CoE from backing the new ACNA. It doesn’t contain much new information, but Walton rightly summarizes the drift of the ominous attempt to undermine +Lawrence and the Standing Committee in SC as “lashing out” against conservative leaders remaining in TEC. A “preemptive strike” indeed, as Cennydd aptly described it.
And such an unprovoked attack is seemingly the ecclesiastical equivalent of an act of war. Apparently, the lawless PB and her unscrupulous chancellor, David B. Beers, believe the old adage, [i]All’s fair in love and war,[/i] especially perhaps in a church civil war.
DAvid Handy+