Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope that you and your families had a blessed 4th of July weekend and that each of you is making Sabbath space and time always to give thanks to God for the many blessings we receive. I pray also that, in your reflections, you are also giving prayerful intention to God’s call to you as a disciple of Christ.
Across the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, we continue striving to build up God’s Church and to fulfill our calling to become mature disciples of Jesus Christ, as articulated in our Strategic Visioning Process. That process is now being engaged by 23 of our 61 congregations, 7 of which are aligning alternate strategic planning initiatives with our stated trajectory to “Make, equip and send mature disciples in order to serve Christ not only with our lips but in our lives.” This is a substantial increase in strategic visioning and planning across the diocese, a trend we expect to continue over the coming year.
Can someone in the TEC/DUSC loop explain to me how the Rector of Christ Church Greenville has written a pastoral letter to his congregation explaning the report on SSBs when the bishop says the report won’t be finished until November or December. I assume the answer is that the report is a foregone conclusion. I also assume there might be a smidgen of tension between Waldo and Fr. McLeod?
David, As best I can remember, Fr. MacLeod wrote the letter to express his displeasure over the report. I think this was discussed over at Stand Firm a while back and the basic conclusion that I remember being discussed there was that there has indeed been a decision made (even if Bishop Waldo wants to think there is more work to be done) and Fr. Macleod is expressing his dissenting view that such *ceremonies* are not going to be allowed in his parish. You can look thru the Stand Firm archives if you so desire but that is what I remember.