NOTES, 22 NOVEMBER 2021
Greetings, blog reader, on Monday, November 22, 2021. My best wishes to you. It is time to take stock and check in on the issues we have been following for some time now. This is Thanksgiving week, always a busy time; and with Christmas bearing down, it is too easy to get lost in all the hullabaloo of holiday doings. It is good to stop, take a pause, and look at the world around us.
This is a bitter-sweet time. Part of the bitter is that today, November 22, is the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in 1963. All people who were alive on that day will never forget where they were when they learned the news. I was a junior at Florida State U. and was enjoying a beautiful, sunny day as I walked to French class after lunch. In the hallway outside the door I saw a group of students huddled around a small transistor radio. Someone whispered that the President had been shot. What I remember now is the quietness of it all. Everyone was in shock. No one wanted to talk. A few minutes later came the report of the death. We all dispersed in total silence and drifted about that beautiful campus as lost sheep. At 5 o'clock, I went to the Episcopal chapel where a standing room crowd read the Great Litany. Again, the eerie silence of it all stands out in my mind today. It was as if we were all too disoriented by the clashing belief and disbelief that the unthinkable event had actually happened.
Part of our anguish at the time was the incredulity that a lone gunman, a nobody, could possibly have done this most consequential crime. A few years ago, I was on one of my cross-country train rides when the train stopped in Dallas for awhile on its way to Los Angeles. Dealey Plaza, as it turned out, was only a stone's throw from the station; and so I explored the area. I was amazed at how much smaller the plaza was in person than in the pictures and what a perfect spot Oswald had chosen. Any competent marksman could have done the same thing from that window.
COVID. Although in many ways conditions of life are improving, we must not forget we are still very much in a pandemic, the worst in a century. In fact, statistically, in America it has bypassed the last one, the great flu pandemic of 1918-19. In the world, some 5.1 million people have died from COVID-19. The United States continues to have the highest number of cases and of deaths. Nearly 800,000 Americans have died in this plague (600,000 died in the flu pandemic). In South Carolina and Alabama, nearly one in five people have contracted the virus. In SC, 14,096 people have died in this pandemic, in AL, 16,073. While the last surge topped out in September, there are worrying signs that a fourth surge may be starting as winter sets in. Meanwhile, most Americans have been vaccinated and now have access to booster shots. While daily life is gradually moving back to "normal," COVID-19 is still very much with us and we must not let down our guards.
THE ADVENT. Life is gradually moving back to "normal" too at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham. The hootenanny band is being moved out of the nave and services are returning to what one would call traditional Episcopal prayer book worship. The parish is continuing the process of finding a new dean to replace the Rev. Pearson, who, incidentally, is busy setting up a new (non-Episcopal) church, now meeting in a synagogue. According to his own word, about 100 people left the Advent to follow him. The Advent claims some 3,000 members.
SCHISM. All attention is now focused on the hearing set for December 8, 2021, in the South Carolina Supreme Court. Although the public will not be allowed in the courtroom, everyone can watch the proceeding on the court's live-stream.
We know that, as per state law, a fifth acting justice has been assigned to take the place of recused Justice Kaye Hearn. However, the court will not put the name of the AJ on its website because the assignment is subject to change. Of course, we will all know the identity of the AJ when the camera turns on for the live-stream, just two weeks from Wednesday. The AJ is certain to be an experienced judge prominent in the state court system.
Of the five justices to decide this case, two were part of the 2015 hearing and 2017 written decision: Donald Beatty (now chief justice) and John Kittredge. Beatty voted with the majority on the Episcopal side while Kittredge voted with the minority on the secessionist side. Three of the five justices had nothing to do with the earlier litigation: John Few, George James, and the AJ.
This hearing is on the Episcopal appeal of Judge Edgar Dickson's 2020 Order recognizing local ownership of the 29 parishes in question and the Camp. The core of Dickson's opinion was that the parishes had not acceded to the Dennis Canon. This was a reversal of the 2017 SCSC decision when four of the five justices had ruled that the parishes had acceded to the Canon. Beatty and Kittredge were among the four.
The five justices now will have to decide between the SCSC decision of 2017 and Dickson's Order of 2020. The SCSC majority ruled that the Dennis Canon was in effect and the Episcopal Church became the owner of the properties. Dickson ruled that the Dennis Canon was ineffective and the local congregations were the owners of the properties. So, the five justices will decide whether the supreme court's decision should stand or the circuit court's order should be final. If they decide for the circuit court, they will be revoking their own decision which became the law. If they allow a lower court to reverse a supreme court decision they will upend the entire judicial system of the state of South Carolina. However much they may dress this up in legalese, this would undermine forever the authority and integrity of the state supreme court. The stakes for jurisprudence in SC could not be higher.
If I have learned anything keeping this blog, it is not to make predictions. However, I do wonder if the recent election of a bishop coadjutor in the secessionist diocese of SC might hint at the future. If the breakaways were sure they were going to prevail in court, would not they plan for the future as a viable, independent organization? By electing a man from the overlapping and rival diocese in ACNA over two of their own internal candidates, the schismatics of the old diocese may be signaling a merger with their rivals/friends. By joining another reactionary diocese, they would lose their particular identity as the continuing majority of the old Diocese of South Carolina (something they were forced to recant by the federal court in 2019). So, I wonder if the "Anglican" lawyers know something the rest of us do not know, that they have lost this case. If they do lose, they will wind up with six parishes and nothing of the pre-schism diocese. In this case it would make perfect sense to merge with another like-minded group.
It would be foolish at this point to jump to any conclusions. The justices may find some way (although I cannot imagine it) to meld their 2017 decision with Dickson and wind up giving the local properties to the schismatics. If they do, nothing really changes from the present status quo. The local congregations in question will go on as part of an ACNA diocese and the Episcopal diocese will go on as is.
If, however, the justices overrule Dickson and order the enforcement of their court's 2017 decision, a great deal will change. Presumably the SCSC would send down another order of implementation to the circuit court. The actual transfer of the properties back to the Episcopal Church would be under the control of the circuit court. This could be dragged out for a long time. Judge Dickson has shown his true colors. It could be years before the Episcopal bishop could reappear in any one of the 29 parishes. So, even if the SCSC rules in favor of the Episcopal Church, the actual end of the schism may still be a long time off. The breakaways have made it abundantly clear they will pursue deny and delay to the bitter end. They have scornfully rejected every offer of compromise and settlement by mediation.
In my opinion, when all is said and done, the church case is a test of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The first part of this requires the separation of church and state. Throughout all the years, this has become a bedrock principle of American democracy. Under this, the civic state, including its courts, must not intrude on the rights of a religious body to govern itself. In this case, the hierarchical Episcopal Church set its own rules regarding property. No court has the right under the First Amendment to reject this. No court can tell the Episcopal Church that its canon laws on property cannot apply because they violate state law. Church law and state law must remain separate.
It seems to me that the First Amendment was the heart of the SCSC decision of 2017 and that Dickson's order was in direct defiance of it. If the state supreme court said interference in church governance was protected by the First Amendment in 2017, I do not see how they could say it is not protected in 2021. The First Amendment has not changed. The issues in this case have not changed. What has changed is the circuit court's interpretation of the case. This is the matter before the SC Supreme Court now.
Let us not get overwhelmed by all the natural and man-made woes clouding over us. God created all things and set the universe in order. Seasons come and seasons go, year in and year out, forever, regardless of whatever else may be going on in our lives. The rhythms of nature remind us that there is a much bigger picture to life in a creation much greater than ourselves.
Autumn is also a bitter-sweet time, especially to gardeners as myself. Sweet because we revel in the brilliant colors of the plants. Bitter because we know the cold winds and long nights of winter are not far behind. Today, let us be positive and revel in the beauty of the day. Go for a ride down a country road, go for a long walk, sit on your porch or balcony, or at least sit at your window and look at the wonders of nature all around us in this glorious autumn season. Breathe in the cool and dry air of the fall and rejoice that summer's heat and humidity have finally gone.
Here are some pictures of my garden in the past few days:
