September 1, 2017
Dear Friends,
Today the Diocese filed two motions with the South Carolina Supreme Court;
- A Motion to Recuse, addressing the participation of Justice Kaye Hearn, and
- A Motion for Rehearing, asking the court to reconsider multiple important issues in the current ruling.
The respective motions and the expert opinions can be found here:
The press release filed today is available here.
We continue to believe what we have asserted from the beginning. With the freedom of association comes the freedom of disassociation. In the pursuit of the constitutionally protected right to the free exercise of our religious beliefs we disassociated from the Episcopal Church. It should not be the case that this protected right causes the loss of our property when it would not do so if we were not a religious organization.
It is incomprehensible that a parish like St. Philip’s in Charleston, that was worshipping here 100 years before TEC even existed, can have that place of worship taken from them and given to an unincorporated New York association who contributed nothing to its building or preservation. This is a principle worth fighting for.
In Christ’s service,
–The Rev. Jim Lewis is Caon to the Ordinary, Diocese of South Carolina