Following Bishop Mark Lawrence’s consecration in January, he, the Cathedral Vestry, and I have been working to develop a schedule for my long-delayed sabbatical and also my transition to retirement, originally envisaged to take place within twelve to eighteen months of Bishop’s Salmon’s own retirement.
The Diocese provides periods of sabbatical leave for every seven years of clergy service, which in the fourteen years of my Deanship, not least because of the delay in Bishop Salmon’s retirement, I have not until now felt able to undertake. By scheduling such a leave for the last three months of this year and the first three months of 2009, my hope is to facilitate as seamless as possible a transition to the call of my successor. Bishop Lawrence has enthusiastically agreed to work closely with the Cathedral Vestry and Chapter in seeking God’s vision for the Cathedral during his episcopate as well as the most vocationally qualified person to become Sixth Dean of South Carolina and next Rector of the Cathedral Parish.
This fine priest has worked very hard and very faithfully. His stamina and consistency put any clergyman I’ve ever known to shame.
Beyond a tough act to follow.
Interesting to learn that South Carolina didn’t establish its pro-cathedral until 1963. I had always assumed that most eastern dioceses had a cathedral prior to the Great Depression (some structures, of course, were begun during the 1920s but never completed).
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
The Dean is a scholar and a gentleman and a truly excellent
priest in the best Anglican tradition.
Some of you know I am a member of Rev’d. McKeachie’s old parish in Baltimore, although I have not met him personally, certainly know him through association and his writings.
I wish him the best on his retirement, and only wish that we had another 100 just like him!
Randall Stewart
Maybe the cathedral needs a canon-theologian in residence: one with a wide range of strengths and skills.
#2 Georgia still does not have a catherdral. We started off with missionary bishops from England.