3. Episcopal turmoil
Slowly, deliberately, steadily, the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina has been pulling away from the Episcopal Church for reasons theological, administrative and cultural.
Unhappy with what the diocese’s leadership calls the inclusive and liberal drift of the church, local officials have voted to disengage, aligning instead with conservative Anglicans in the U.S. and abroad.
But for a few parishes in the coastal region of the state, the diocese wasn’t doing enough.
In March, St. Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant voted to sever ties with the diocese and the Episcopal Church and join the Anglican Church in North America.
RE: “The others were St. Luke’s Church on Hilton Head Island, Trinity Episcopal Church in Myrtle Beach and St. John’s Church on Johns Island.”
Hey — what entity did these three join? Just curious . . .
Me too. What entity did these parishes join????? I think this maybe a mistake on the part of the newspaper as I am not aware of any more parishes that have left. I do know of a parish whose rector left and took some parishioners with him. However, the parish is beginning to grow again under new leadership.
St. Andrew’s is now listed as ACNA, but the other three churches are not, and their websites do not indicate any change. There are now 56 ACNA churches listed in South Carolina. Despite that “competition”, the Diocese of SC ranked number ONE for 2002 through 2009 with Members up 13.9 percent, ASA up 3.3 percent, and Plate & Pledge (adjusted for inflation) up 10.1 percent. It was the ONLY TEC diocese to produce gains in ALL three measures. Statmann
I can’t for the life of me see why anyone in the Diocese of South Carolina would bolt the diocese. I’m in ACNA but if I lived in +Lawrence’s diocese, I’d still be in the Episcopal Church. I would follow the lead of my bishop, the standing committee, and the diocesan convention and stay or leave as they chose.
evan: My hunch is that a parish might leave in order to exchange uncertainty for certainty. Leave now with your property or wait and run the risk that 815 may be able to remove Bishop Lawrence. Then what? Statmann
Statman,
Given the SC Supreme Court’s ruling on parish property, I think parishes in the Diocese of SC are pretty safe from 815, at least more so than anyplace else in the country.