Wander into any of Charleston’s downtown parishes on a Sunday morning and you will hear some of the finest Anglican choral music on either side of the Atlantic. The Bishop of London, preaching at last year’s Mere Anglicanism conference, at St. Phillip’s Church in Charleston, praised the choir for one of the finest renditions of Sir Hubert Parry’s “I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me” that he (or I, for that matter) had ever heard. (If you aren’t familiar with that piece, you can listen to it here, although you will have to settle for the choir of Westminster Abbey performing it at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.)<\/p>\n
More importantly, if you visit most of the Diocese of South Carolina’s parishes on a Sunday you will hear the Word of God exposited faithfully and well. And therein lies the problem, at least as far as the Episcopal Church is concerned. Anglicans\/Episcopalians in South Carolina want the Word of God preached whole and entire, and unadulterated (no pun intended). Consequently, they aren’t on board with some of the new things the Episcopal Church has been promoting lately. As the Episcopal Church’s departure from biblical and historic Christian belief and practice has increased, the Diocese has sought to differentiate itself from the innovations of the Episcopal Church, while still remaining in it.<\/p>\n
But it appears that some local malcontents, in concert with the Episcopal Church’s leadership, decided that they were tired of the Diocese of South Carolina not getting with the program; all of which led to this week’s news<\/p>\n