EPISCOPAL DIOCESE TO SELL HOLY TRINITY, OF CHARLESTON, PROPERTY

On yesterday, March 30, 2023, Bishop Woodliff-Stanley, of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, ANNOUNCED that the diocesan authorities had decided to sell the property of the Holy Trinity Church, in Charleston. HT was one of the eight local churches in contention the South Carolina Supreme Court finally ruled (Aug. 2022) belonged to the Episcopal diocese. The bishop gave two major reasons for the decision:  the area was already served by returning parishes. St James, of James Island, is a short distance down Folly Road. St John's, of Johns Island, is also not far, to the west. To the north, the diocese is likely to get back Good Shepherd, in West Ashley (still pending in the state supreme court). The second reason was that the state of the buildings at HT would require a great deal of investment for refurbishing, money better used elsewhere.

 

Everyone who knows the Charleston area knows that Holy Trinity stands on a major piece (1.96 acres) of highly desirable commercial real estate worth a small fortune. It is at 95 Folly Road, not far south of U.S. 17. Folly Road is the main artery running from 17 through James Island to Folly Beach. The church is in the area called South Windermere which developed as a suburb of downtown Charleston mainly after the Second World War. The completion of the James Island Connector, connecting James Island directly with downtown, in the 1990's produced an explosion of growth in the whole area south of U.S. 17.

Holy Trinity was a small parish of the old diocese. It was not an historic one. The earliest reference I have found to it dates from 1940 (register of tax exemption status). The church structure appears to be built in the 1950's and lacks any architectural sophistication. At the schism, the clergy and laity of HT adhered to the new Anglican diocese. Afterwards, the parish declined, from 204 baptized members in 2014 to 170 in 2021, and 96 confirmed communicants (2014) to 83 (2021). At the same time the budget drifted downwards from $226k to 212k.

Thus, slowly but surely, the Episcopal diocese is settling on the dispositions of the properties involved in the decade-long legal war. Yet, recall that three properties are still to be decided by the SC supreme court, Good Shepherd, of Charleston, Old Saint Andrew's, and Holy Cross (Stateburg). The court has been sitting on these issues for six months without a hint of resolution. Your guess on when they will move is as good as mine. Meanwhile, both dioceses are trying to move on into the future.  

 

MEMBERSHIP CHANGES IN THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 2014-2021

In their annual convention meeting earlier this month, the officials of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina made much about growing the diocese. This raises the question of whether the diocese has been expanding or shrinking in the past few years. To answer this, we must go to the diocese's own annual membership statistics from the local churches.

Although the schism occurred in 2012, it is best to start at 2014 because in that year the diocese adopted a new way of counting active members. Before it was "Communicants." In 2014, it became "Confirmed Communicants" and from then on. So, to be consistent, we should look at the figures from 2014 to the latest published set, 2021. Find the 2014 table HERE and the 2021 table HERE .

Overall, the numbers for the whole diocese show a clear decline in membership in the seven years of 2014 to 2021. "Baptized membership" went from 22,953 to 19,752, a fall of 14%. "Confirmed Communicants" dropped from 16,361 to 12,651, a decline of 23%.

But, what about the individual local churches? How did they fair?

A total of 42 local churches in ADSC submitted membership statistics in both 2014 and 2021. Of these, 25 (60%) showed declines while 4 (10%) grew and 13 (30%) remained the same or nearly so. Thus, the large majority of local parishes and missions in ADSC lost members in the seven years of 2014 to 2021.

 

Here are the rankings of the local churches of ADSC that lost members beginning with the largest percentage lost. The numbers are Confirmed Communicants:

---Good Shepherd, Charleston.  256-2014;  75-2021.  -71%.

---St. John's Chapel, Charleston.  30-2014;  11-2021.  -63%.

---Trinity, Myrtle Beach.  388-2014;  160-2021.  -59%.

---Christ Church, Mt. Pleasant.  775-2014;  325-2021.  -58%.

---St. John's, Charleston.  620-2014;  260-2021.  -58%.

---St. David's, Cheraw.  106-2014;  44-2021.  -58%.

---Epiphany, Eutawville.  100-2014;  44-2021.  -56%.

---Christ the King/Grace, Pawleys Island.  307-2014;  155-2021.  -50%.

---St. Luke's, Hilton Head.  664-2014;  355-2021.  -47%.

---St. Matthias', Summerton.  141-2014;  89-2021.  -37%.

---St. Philip's, Charleston.  2,135-2014;  1,395-2021.  -35%.

---Trinity, Pinopolis.  166-2014;  110-2021.  -33%.

---Holy Apostles, Barnwell.  95-2014;  69-2021.  -27%.

---Prince George Winyah, Georgetown.  625-2014;  477-2021.  -24%.

---Resurrection, Surfside.  360-2014;  275-2021.  -24%.

---St. John's, Florence.  395-2014;  325-2021.  -18%.

---Old St. Andrew's, Charleston.  509-2014;  422-2021.  -17%.

---St. Helena's, Beaufort.  964-2014;  798-2021.  -17%.

---Trinity, Edisto.  145-2014;  122-2021.  -16%.

---Holy Trinity, Charleston.  96-2014;  83-2021.  -14%.

---Holy Comforter, Sumter.  246-2014;  217-2021.  12%.

---St. Matthew's, Darlington.  141-2014;  125-2021.  -11%.

---St. Michael's, Charleston.  1,015-2014;  937-2021.  -8%.

Eight churches lost half or more of their active members. In raw numbers, rather than percentages, St. Philip's, of Charleston, lost the most, 740, followed by Christ Church, Mt. Pleasant (450), St. John's, of Charleston (360), St. Luke's, Hilton Head (309), St. Paul's, of Summerville (238), and Trinity, of Myrtle Beach (228).

Of the 42 parishes and missions reporting, 4 gained significant numbers. Church of the Cross in fast-growing Bluffton is now the largest parish in ADSC, bypassing St. Philip's, of Charleston. Church of the Cross rose from 1,520 to 1,604 Confirmed Communicants (+6%). Holy Trinity, of Grahamville, had the largest percentage gain, from 91 to 141 (+55%). The Well by the Sea, in Myrtle Beach rose from 106 to 126 (+19%) while Our Saviour, on Johns Island, reported 200 to 227 (+7%).

Meanwhile, 13 local churches stayed the same or nearly so in Confirmed Communicants between 2014 and 2021: Holy Cross, Sullivans Island (1,000/1,050);  St. James, Charleston (500/533);  Christ/St. Paul's (245/239);  St. Paul's, Conway (212/217);  Redeemer, Orangeburg (173/179);  All Saints, Florence (160/152);  St. Bartholomew's, Hartsville (125/120);  St. Matthew's, Ft. Motte (86/91);  Ascension, Hagood (48/45):  Resurrection, North Charleston (44/41);  St. Barnabas, Dillon (39/35);  St. Paul's, Orangeburg (19/18);  Grace, North Myrtle Beach (13/13).

The above figures are all for Confirmed Communicants. If we look at the broader baptized membership numbers, we would find the same general pattern. Likewise, if we go year-by-year, we would see a consistent downward trend.

Here are the conclusions we can draw from studying the diocese's published statistics for the local churches:

---The ADSC lost significant numbers of members in the seven year period after the schism, from 2014 to 2021.

---The only large/medium parish that is showing healthy growth is Church of the Cross.

---Most of the large parishes lost significant numbers of members, with several remaining about the same.

---The parish that used to be the largest, St. Philip's, of Charleston, lost a third of its members in the seven year period after the schism.

---The schism was not the overwhelmingly popular event the diocesan leaders claimed at the time of the schism. Well after the break occurred, nearly a quarter of the active members of the ADSC left the diocese in just seven years. The numbers of people leaving the diocese far exceeded the numbers of people coming in.

---ADSC's falling membership is in stark opposition to the demographic boom of coastal South Carolina. 

---At its recent rate of decline, the ADSC will soon start experiencing challenges of an existential nature. This year's budget is less that last year's. Adjusted for inflation, the ADSC annual budget has fallen significantly in the last decade.

---There is nothing on the horizon to indicate that the decline of the ADSC will turn around.

---One possible outcome of this crisis is the joining of the overlapping ACNA dioceses, The Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas and the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina.

---Judging from the ADSC's own statistics, one may say the schism has been a failure. The ADSC is in relentless decline.     

A LETTER TO THIS EDITOR, 22 MARCH 2023

In my last two blog posts, I brought up the issue of the ownership of the historic (pre-schism) diocese. Three and a half years ago, the federal court in Charleston declared that the Episcopal Church was hierarchical and that the Episcopal diocese was the only heir of the historic Diocese of South Carolina. Moreover, the judge issued a permanent Injunction explicitly barring the new breakaway association from using the names, symbols, and marks of the pre-schism diocese. In other words, the breakaway contingent could not legally claim in any way to be the continuation of the pre-schism Diocese of South Carolina. The new association had to be taken to court twice to enforce this decree and was found in contempt of court. Yet, after all this, at their annual convention this month, that association, now called the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, apparently remained in defiance of the Injunction.

Today we have a letter from one of this blog's readers who kept an eagle's eye on the various proceedings and documents posted from the convention. His thoughts are well worth considering:

Dear Ron:     I was curious of the Anglicans' convention and looked through the documents and found a lot of references to the historic Diocese of South Carolina. In one of the documents they used the names Diocese of South Carolina and Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina. They mentioned bishops of the historic diocese. They used words of the past bishops of the diocese. They mentioned the division of the diocese and the creation of the upper South Carolina diocese in 1922. They mentioned the articles of incorporation in the 70's. They really made a lot of references showing to the public that they are the historic diocese but, of course, avoided mentioning the Episcopal Church. At the time they mentioned the historic diocese as an independent entity. The cherry on the cake was the historic seal in their official documents. They just missed announcing their convention as the 233rd using "2023 convention" to ignore the reality that this was their 11th convention. They mentioned Edgar simply as bishop of their diocese instead of 2nd bishop.

So sad that they refused to accept reality. Is it not enough for the separatists that the court sided with them after overturning themselves several times and harming the diocese pretty badly? Yet, they want to keep saying that the diocese separated from the Episcopal Church in 2012. They are still announcing this on their website and Facebook page indirectly showing people that their diocese pre-existed 2012.

The Diocese of South Carolina has lost a lot in this and they should take action against this. We are Christians but what is legal is legal and has to stop even if that means going back to court to force the separatists to accept the reality that they are not historic at all, their current bishop is the second bishop, and their past convention was the 11th convention. They need to rewrite all of their constitutions and canons instead of keeping on editing and using the documents of the historic diocese.

Their bishop said "the war is over," but it looks in reality for them it is not over until they completely destroy the historic diocese so they can freely claim that they are the historic diocese.

Yours, Eric Smith

________________________________ 

Thanks, Eric, for sharing your thoughts with which that I am sure many people would agree.

The ball is now in the Episcopal diocese's court. What they will do remains to be seen but I would not hold my breath expecting much to come out of this apparently egregious violation of the federal Injunction. The climate in the war of the schism has changed drastically in the last year or so. The Episcopal diocesan officers seem to value above all peace and an end of the issues around the schism. They have given two clear signals which perhaps encouraged the Anglican diocese to persist in its allusions as the continuation of the old diocese. One came in the "Final Settlement" of last September that allowed the Anglican diocese co-rights to the archives of the pre-schism diocese. Since the Anglican diocese did not exist before 2012, it had no legitimate right to any control over any of the archives of the historic diocese. They are the exclusive property of the Episcopal diocese. By giving them co-rights in the disposition of the archives, the Episcopal diocese gave tacit recognition of the Anglicans' claims to the historic diocese. The second signal, and perhaps the most important, was the declaration that the litigation was over. The only way the Episcopal diocese has achieved any enforcement of the Injunction has been through the court. It had to go to court twice, not once but twice, to get the Anglicans to abide by the Injunction. If the Anglicans know they are not going to hauled into court again, they could choose to disregard the Injunction at will. The Injunction is good only if it is enforced; and the only way it has been enforced in the past is by court action.

However, we are being told that the two bishops have become chatty friends. Bp Edgar even likened they to the Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This is a poor analogy. While those two had polar opposite world views, they were both passionately committed to the same institution, the Court. Edgar and Woodliff-Stanley share no such unifying factor. In fact, the whole history of the schism has been the breakaways' demonization of the Episcopal Church. It has not gone away if the exiting cries of the occupants of the seven parishes returning to the Episcopal diocese last year were any indication. Let's not kid ourselves; the Anglican diocese looks on the Episcopal Church as the enemy and they act on such. Any such idea that the friendship between the two bishops is going to make any substantial change in the character of this schism is ill-founded and naive.

It is imperative for the Episcopal diocese that it protect its legal rights at this point. By refusing to accept that the Episcopal diocese is the one and only heir of the historic diocese, the Anglicans are rejecting the major conclusion of the settlement: exchange of the diocese for the bulk of the parishes. It seems to me the Anglicans have refused and still defiantly refuse to accept this trade off. They are still clinging to the notion that in reality they are heirs of the historic diocese. They are not; and the federal court has said so, three times now. If the Anglicans expect a good-will settlement of this nightmare schism, they must change their attitude about history. They do not own the old diocese; the Episcopal Church does. It is now incumbent on the Episcopal diocese to press this point.

THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE AND THE INJUNCTION

While I am not a lawyer and not offering legal advice here, I am of the opinion that the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina is apparently still in defiance of a federal court Injunction. What makes this most disappointing is that we are supposedly in a new era of good feelings between the two dioceses. Maybe the truth is we are not.

On September 19, 2019, the federal district court in Charleston, Judge Richard Gergel presiding, issued a JUDGMENT that the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina was the one and only legal heir of the historic Diocese of South Carolina owing to the principle of hierarchy that governed the Episcopal Church. At the same time, he issued an Injunction forbidding the separatist association from using the names, emblems, and marks of the historic diocese. The next day, the separatists adopted the name of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina. Otherwise, they were very slow in adhering to the Injunction, so slow that the Episcopal side complained to the judge and Gergel issued an enforcement of the Injunction on December 8, 2019. The Injunction remained in effect during the Anglican's appeal of Gergel's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals (the Anglicans withdrew this appeal as part of the "final settlement" announced in 2022). However, the Anglican side continued to drag its feet on following the Injunction, so that the Episcopal side went back to court listing twenty-seven violations. On October 27, 2020, Gergel found the ADSC in contempt of court a second time. He did not impose any punishment because, he said, the EDSC side had not asked for any. So, the Anglican diocese has now been under a federal court order for three and a half years not to claim to be in any way the pre-schism diocese. They have been held in contempt of court for violating this formal Injunction, not once but twice. Well, the ADSC held its annual meeting this month, and here we go again. It appears to me they are still in serious defiance of the federal court order.

In this meeting, the convention revised the Constitution of the ADSC while making numerous allusions to the historic diocese. Bear in mind that the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina has sole ownership of the names and symbols of the pre-schism diocese. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina did not exist before the schism, which occurred at noon on October 15, 2012. "The diocese" before that date was the Episcopal diocese.

In the first place, on the DRAFT COPY of the revisions to the diocesan constitution, apparently the seal of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina appears at the top of all nine pages. If this is true, it would be a direct violation of the Injunction which forbids the new diocese from using the historic seal. Now, it is also true that on the FINAL COPY , the seal was omitted on every page. This raises the question of why it appeared on any version of the ADSC constitution. (To my knowledge the ADSC has not adopted a seal.) 

Moreover, both the draft and final copies listed thirteen resolutions "passed" by conventions before 2012, going all the way back to 1872. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina did not exist before 2012. What they were referring to were resolutions passed by the historic diocese which was the Episcopal diocese. Under the Injunction they cannot claim to be the historic diocese. It seems to me these are thirteen violations of the federal court Injunction.

On a curious point, on page 6, we see this: "The Anglican diocese of South Carolina is incorporated..." It does not say when it was incorporated. If the ADSC were incorporated after Oct. 15, 2012, I missed it. Perhaps the ADSC diocesan office could remind us when the Anglican diocese was legally incorporated under state law. The Episcopal diocese was incorporated under state law in 1974. The ADSC did not exist at that time.

It seems to me that the breakaway diocese refuses to give up its claim to history in spite of courts. This attitude permeates the whole diocese. For instance, the occupants of every one of the seven parishes that returned to the Episcopal diocese last year left the properties but kept the old names of the parishes and simply tagged "Anglican" on them. This was a refusal to accept in good will the decisions of the courts. 

The disputes of the schism are moving ever closer to being settled. Essentially, the Episcopal side got the historic diocese (and its assets and properties) and the breakaway side got the bulk of the local churches. It is incumbent on the Episcopal diocese to protect its position at this point and going into the future. Its validity in this dispute rests on its historic identity. This must be protected against all violations.

So, what to do? I do not think anyone could envision the arrests of the Anglican bishop and chancellor, although I suspect some Episcopalians have harbored images of them being handcuffed and pressed into squad cars. That is not going to happen. Then, what about money damages? Being nice has not worked. If we have learned anything at all in this decade of litigation, it is that the Anglican lawyers skillfully played hardball. Maybe the Episcopal side could try that here. What about a million dollars for every violation of the Injunction this month? I count 22 violations in the draft and final copies of the ADSC Constitution. I think $22m would be a fair sum, don't you? That would get their attention. Since the Anglican side has apparently flagrantly disregarded the federal court Injunction for three and a half years, something needs to get their attention.

Apart from the Injunction, there is something else in the ADSC Constitution that should get our attention. The last page reminds us in no uncertain terms the aim of this schism, homophobia and anti-trans. This schism was to keep homosexuals and trans people from having the same human rights as everyone else. However, the rationales were based on false assumptions. In the first place it asserted that God made every person "male or female." This is non-Biblical. The Bible says repeatedly God made human beings "male and female." The word is "and" and not "or." Besides, there are humans born with no definable gender and there are others born with both sets of genitals. So it is demonstrably false to say that God made all humans male or female. 

A curious point about this part of the Constitution is that it has been revised since it was first established in the diocesan  Statement of Faith in 2015. The original Statement held that marriage is for lifetime. Some parishes balked at this and deleted that provision before ratifying the Statement (they would have lost many of their congregants if this were enforced). Note that the 2023 iteration of the Statement in the Constitution omits the provision of lifetime marriage. The point is that the Statement, the Constitution, indeed the schism were not about marriage. They were about homophobia.

This leads us back to the overall significance of this schism. It is an important part of the contemporary culture war. The Episcopal Church made a bold decision in the 1950's to join in the great democratic revolution that was just beginning to sweep America. Once in, TEC championed equality for and inclusion of racial minorities, women, homosexuals, and trans people among others. A minority in the Church rebelled against this reform movement. The breaking point came in the 1990's when it was clear that TEC had made a de facto settlement for homosexuals. A separatist movement began boiling up in the Diocese of South Carolina as a backlash against the national church's democratic trajectory. The break was thirty years in the making in SC, coming to a head in 2012. Hence, the Anglican diocesan constitution as in its latest version, of this year. 

What the Episcopal diocese got out of the schism was ownership of the historic diocese. Apparently, the separatists are not quite on board with this. The EDSC must find ways to bring this about.    

 "THE WAR IS OVER" (?)

Last week, Bishop Edgar declared to his diocesan convention, "The war is over," meaning the legal war with the Episcopal Church is over. Find his address here . If only this were true. The schismatics in SC declared war on the Episcopal Church on Jan. 4, 2013, more than ten years ago. They sued the church in a hand-picked state court. It has been a violent roller coaster ride ever since. Everyone, except perhaps the lawyers, are longing to get off this wild ride. Unfortunately, the war is not quite over.  

The two bishops did announce a "final settlement" last year but it was hardly final. In the first place, the settlement explicitly protected the ADSC betterments suit in circuit court. This suit is going forward and, if successful, (this was the court that overturned the SCSC decision of 2017) could possibly cost the Episcopal side millions of dollars. In the second place, there are three local churches that are still in legal contention. The Episcopal diocese has petitions before the state supreme court claiming Old Saint Andrew's and Holy Cross (Stateburg). The Anglican side has a petition before the court claiming Good Shepherd's independence from the Episcopal diocese. The SCSC has been sitting on these three petitions since last September without a hint of a response. Curious that the court had no trouble in responding quickly (four months) to petitions from the schismatic side granting them the bulk of the local churches that the court had awarded to the Episcopal side in 2017. The SCSC issued sweeping decisions in April and August of last year revoking their earlier ruling on twenty-one of the local churches. Of the twenty-nine local churches the SCSC recognized as property of the Episcopal diocese in 2017, the court moved all but eight over to the breakaway side. Now, they are dragging their feet on three parishes.

Bishop Edgar made much of his friendship with the Episcopal bishop Woodliff-Stanley. Apparently this amity is rather superficial. He said that she invited him to join her in writing an editorial decrying the rampant gun violence in America. Edgar declined saying he was not "political." The "Anglicans" are oriented to vertical religion---human beings have to be "saved." This is all that really matters. The Episcopalians are oriented to horizontal religion---human beings were created in the image of God to do his work in the world. Hence, apparently Edgar thinks gun control is irrelevant while Woodliff-Stanley thinks it is an expression of the Christian life. Thus, we have two very different views of the nature and purpose of religious institutions.   

Edgar raised an interesting point in his address that he did not explain. He said his diocese had "lost" $8m in "cash assets" in the final settlement. Pray, tell us more! Exactly what were the assets and how were they "lost"? Did that money go to the Episcopal diocese, as he implied?

Of course, the breakaways are continuing on in their old mindset of thinking of themselves as the continuation of the historic diocese. Edgar referred several times to the diocese before the schism of 2012. Actually, the federal court ruled in 2019 that the Episcopal diocese is the one and only heir of the historic diocese. In fact, he issued an Injunction forbidding the breakaways from claiming to be in any way the pre-schism diocese. Moreover, they have been held in contempt of court, not once but twice, for violating the Injunction. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina was created in 2012 at the schism. It did not exist before then; and its spokespeople had better be careful about alluding to the "Diocese of South Carolina" before 2012. That claim belongs to the Episcopal Diocese---and its has the federal court behind it. 

Edgar did point out that there is a great difference between the new Anglican and the old Episcopal dioceses. I think everyone would agree with that. 

The difference struck me clearly in Edgar's address. There was nothing there about the two great commandments, loving God and our neighbors. In fact, I did not see the word love at all. There was nothing there about making a better world for the people in need all around us. Instead, it was all about establishing "righteousness," whatever this means; he did not define the term; and "saving the lost." Again, he did not explain what this would mean in practical terms. It is clear that this new diocese has veered off far from the mainstream of historic Anglicanism toward a narrow quasi-fundamentalism. Unspoken in all of this was the homophobia and misogyny that were the actual reasons for being of the schism and the reactionary Anglican Church in North America that the ADSC is now part of. Using scripture as a screen, the schism is all about keeping gays and women from enjoying the same human rights that others have. The social reactionaries left a church that had been championing human rights for all people for more than a half-century. 

So, how has the breakaways' experiment been going? Judging from their own statistics, not very well. Between the schism of 2012 and the covid disruption of 2020-21, we can see decline across the board in the churches that broke away from the Episcopal diocese. Baptized membership fell from 23,455, in 2012, to 19, 597 in 2020, a loss of 16%. Communicants (active members) declined from 17,812, in 2012, to 11,337, in 2020, a fall of 36%. Average Sunday Attendance declined from 9,931 in 2012 to 8,215 in 2020 (pre-covid), a reduction of 17%. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina declined seriously in every measurable category in the few years after the schism. The trajectory is clear.

The war is over? It is true that most of the legal issues have been put to rest, but in other ways the war to be waged by the new Anglican diocese is far from over. Now, the biggest war it has is with the future. A denomination established on discrimination against homosexuals and forced submission of women to men is going against history in a big way. This is the age of the great democratic revolution. Young people will not be drawn to anachronisms in this day and age, and so this socially reactionary new church will have increasing challenges of an existential nature. This is the real war the ADSC now faces; and again, it is a war of its own making.  

 

NOTES,  1 MARCH 2023

Greetings, blog reader. It is Wednesday, the First of March, 2023. It is a new month and signs of spring are all around us who live in the deep south. I would send garden pictures but my garden is suffering from the effects of a hard winter. The severe cold snap last December killed or damaged many of the more cold sensitive plants. It will be a while for the survivors to recuperate. Nevertheless, many other plants are coming back to life and putting out their lovely colors. I intend to enjoy this new springtime.

I have no news of the schism to report today. We are still waiting on the SC Supreme Court to respond to the three requests before it. It has been five months since we heard a word from the high court in Columbia.

In the Anglican world, the homophobe/misogynist coalition has been in nuclear meltdown since the Church of England voted last month to approve of in-church blessings of persons in same-sex relationships (some people are saying the Church is not blessing the unions but blessing the people involved in them--a distinction without a difference). One has only to scan the anglican.ink website to see the numerous doomsday protests from around the world. One was truly appalling. It came from none other than Vladimir Putin. He ridiculed the C of E. This is Putin, arguably the most immoral political leader on the world stage today. Why would anyone pay any attention to what he would have to say on the judgments of other people?

Also in the chutzpah line up is Foley Beach. He is not even in the Anglican Communion. He shot off a letter under his name alone to declare that the Archbishop of Canterbury was no longer recognized as head of the Anglican Communion. Then there was the Archbishop of Uganda raining down criticism even though Uganda has one of the harshest set of laws in Africa persecuting homosexual citizens, including life in prison. 

Then, the Global South coalition issued a letter virtually declaring a schism in the Anglican Communion. It was signed by 10 of the 25 primates affiliated with the GS. Where were the other 15? This raises the issue of the strength of the schism movement pushed by GS and GAFCON. Last year, the socially reactionary movement at the Lambeth Conference gained only 125 signatures of the 600+ bishops in attendance. There are signs that the move to break up the Anglican Communion along social policy lines is not as strong as its proponents claim. 

Next month, GAFCON is holding a world conference at Kigali. Rwanda, from April 17 to 21. There is no doubt what the main topic of discussion will be. 

This month, the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina will hold its eleventh annual meeting, at Bluffton, March 10-11. They will have plenty of reason to rejoice. Since their last meeting, March 2022, they have made huge gains in the war of the schism. First, the SCSC awarded the ADSC 15 of the 29 parishes it had earlier recognized for the Episcopal diocese. Then the SCSC turned around and presented another 7 of the 29 to ADSC. By August of 2022, the EDSC was left with just 8 of the 29 the SCSC had awarded to EDSC on Aug. 2, 2017. One of these 8 the EDSC subsequently sold to the local schismatic congregation leaving EDSC with a net gain of 7 of the original 29. On top of this, the EDSC disposed of 4 other properties to the ADSC. In addition, apparently in the "final settlement" announced between the two dioceses last year, the EDSC has dropped claim to the dozen or so local church that did not enter the lawsuit and stayed with the separatist diocese. All in all, the ADSC had its best year ever since the division of 2012. They have every reason to party away in Bluffton. One has to hand it to them; they snatched a sort of victory from the jaws of defeat.

Changing gears to another story coming from South Carolina, did he do it? Did Alex Murdaugh murder his son and wife? This is the issue in the trial underway. The whole world seems to be watching this grizzly southern gothic story. 

I have watched only bits of the trial and certainly do not understand all the complicated, even bizarre, twists and turns. However, from what I have seen, it seems to me the circumstantial evidence is strong for conviction. The cell phone video showing him present at the crime scene just minutes before the murders is compelling. Moreover, I have seen no evidence at all of the presence of another person or persons who could have committed the killings.

However, I am not sure that the prosecution has proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt. All the defense need is to sway one of the twelve jurors to get Murdaugh off the hook. It was reported that a couple of the jurors were weeping during his testimony on the stand last week. 

In my opinion, the weakest point in the prosecution's presentation was failure to establish a plausible motive for the crime, not that they have to do this. Still, motive would go a long way to moving the jury. Why would the defendant murder, in cold blood, his son and wife? I, for one, am left baffled. I would imagine the jury is thinking the same. 

Watching some of the trial did make me a bit sad thinking about the schism. The judge presiding in Walterboro, Clifton Newman, has done an excellent job of being fair, reasonable, and thorough. He is closing off any grounds of appeal from shortcomings of the court. If only the church litigation had had such a judge the outcome could have been different. Instead, the plaintiffs (ADSC) chose the court in Dorchester County that turned out to rule so over the top on their side that the SC Supreme Court ridiculed the lower court. Then, another judge in the same circuit discarded the SC decision and replaced it with a new one which was actually a return to the first court ruling. What a mess. But that was not all. The SCSC went on to reverse itself, and not once but twice. So, to be charitable, the state courts in SC leave something to be desired. Thank God for Judge Newman for restoring a bit of faith in the SC courts. Peace.    

 

CHURCH OF ENGLAND APPROVES OF SAME-SEX BLESSINGS IN CHURCH

Thursday, 9 February, 6:35 a.m. CST.     The General Synod of the Church of England has just voted to approve of the bishops' report, Living in Love and Faith. The vote by house:

Bishops:  yes 36;  no 4;  abstain 2

Clergy:  yes 111;  no 85;  abstain 3

Laity:  yes 103;  no 92;  abstain 5

The motion on LLF was carried with one amendment.

This means that clergy of the Church will have the option of offering blessings in local churches for same-sex couples. However, LLF also holds that the church definition of marriage remains a union of one man and one woman. Gay couples may now have the right to blessings but not marriage in the Church of England. This was meant to be a compromise. 

The discussions leading up to the vote were a model of reason and civility. Nevertheless, the speakers rarely addressed the core issue involved in all of this, whether homosexual relations are inherently sinful. Still, the unspoken outcome of the vote is the Church's tacit rejection of homosexual acts as sin and adoption of the attitude of moral neutrality. The Church would not be approving of the blessings in church of arrangements it considered inherently sinful. This is the model that the American Episcopal Church provided.

Now that the C of E has silently moved to reject the position of the innate sinfulness of homosexual relations, it is only a matter of time before it adopts same-sex marriage in the church. This is the real significance of what the C of E has done today.

 

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

AND THE CULTURE WAR

The General Synod of the Church of England meets this week, February 6-9. The only issue on the agenda anyone is talking about is that of same-sex blessings in church.

The General Synod in 2021.

On January 18, 2023, bishops of the C of E issued a report resulting from a six-year study of the issue of the interface of same-sex marriage and the church. They said that marriage remains a union of a man and a woman but that same-sex couples can have "blessings" in the church. This seemed to be a typical Anglican perfectly reasonable "middle way" between polar opposite positions on the issue. 

The Synod is set to take up voting on the bishop's report. The General Synod is made up of three houses, Bishops, Clergy, and Laity, with 483 members in all. It is the central governing body of the Church of England which remains the established church in England. Everyone will be eagerly awaiting the voting in each house. (Same-sex marriages have been legal in England since 2014.)

The official agenda of the Synod lists the bishops' report as the last item on Wednesday. Find the report on Living in Love and Faith HERE. The Synod sessions are being livestreamed on Youtube.

While the bishops' report appears superficially as a reasonable compromise without taking sides, in reality it is not. Let me explain. 

The central part of the issue is whether homosexual relations are inherently sinful. Most traditional denominations, e.g. the Roman Catholic Church, condemn such as sinful. In the Church of England, the far edges on both sides, catholic and evangelical, agree that homosexual acts are in and of themselves sinful. If homosexual arrangements are inherently sinful, then they must not be blessed in church since this would be the Body of Christ condoning sin. Such a thing should be unthinkable. This is now, and has been all along, the explicit anti position.

On the contrary, those who support same-sex marriage in the church say that homosexual relations are not inherently sinful, but are morally neutral. This was the position of the pro-homosexual-rights coalition in the American church in the late 1980's and early 1990's when this issue arose there. The Episcopal Church did not openly debate the question of sin and homosexuality (just as the Church of England will not likely debate the issue now). The specific point of contention in the Episcopal Church was whether open and partnered homosexuals should be allowed ordination. It resolved the issue by de facto settlement. General Convention removed sexual orientation as an impediment to ordination and a church court ruled that no one could be denied Holy Orders on the basis of sexual orientation. By 1996, the American Episcopal Church had in effect settled the issue with the unspoken recognition of the moral neutrality of homosexuality. The pro faction won the fight. By the late 1990's, the Episcopal Church began moving to the blessing of same-sex unions in church. In 2003, the Church very visibly effectuated its stand for moral neutrality by affirming a partnered homosexual man as a bishop. Finally, in 2015, the Episcopal Church adopted same-sex marriages in church. So, in America, the question of whether homosexual acts were sinful was answered in the context of the progressive actions of the Church. The consensus opinion as of the early 1990's, if unspoken, was that they were not inherently sinful.

The anti factions today are making the same arguments (homosexuality=sin) as they made decades ago in America. Perhaps the best example of this is Archbishop Foley Beach's LETTER  in opposition to the bishop's report ("God does not bless sin..."). 

Thus, the English bishops' new report gives a tacit answer to the question of homosexuality and sin for the Church of England. By allowing blessings in church, albeit at the discretion of the clergy, is is giving a back-door endorsement to the position of moral neutrality and tacit rejection of the charge of sin. Once moral neutrality is established by consensus, even by silent understanding, the issue of sin is removed and the only logical way forward is to allow same-sex marriage in the church since there could be no logical moral opposition to homosexual unions. 

So, on considering the underlying issues, the C of E's adoption of the bishops' report will be a major win for the homosexual-rights movement since it would be adopting a stand of neutrality rather than condemnation as sin. If the General Synod approves the report, as it seems probable, this will be the turning point in the struggle for rights for all people in the C of E. In future, the impediment of same-sex marriage in church would have no moral substance. It would be cut off at the knees, just as it was in America. Given the famous English reason and logic, it would just be a matter of time before the C of E establishes same-sex marriage in church.

As for the Archbishop of Canterbury, it is time for him to show some leadership in England. He was appointed by the Supreme Governor of the Church of England to be the Church's spiritual head. Of all people, he should know that appeasement does not work. The anti-homosexual-rights equatorial African bishops' vehement opposition to any independent Anglican church in the world recognizing equality for and inclusion of homosexuals in the church will not soften from his weak gestures of conciliation to them. They have been leading a civil war in the Anglican Communion since their first victory at Bull Run in 1998. They will not give up their war against homosexuality now. The culture war is in full blown mode. Right now the prime battlefield is in England (the new Battle of Britain).

Anyway, the question at hand is not the Anglican Communion. It is whether the Church of England will approve of the bishops' new proposal to allow the blessings of same-sex unions in church while maintaining that a marriage ceremony in church can only be between a man and a woman. How the other 41 independent Anglican churches in the world respond to this is their business just as the C of E's decisions are its own business. This is the nature of the Anglican Communion. It is a loose confederation of 42 independent churches bonded together by the historic English prayer books.

So, the mother church of all Anglicanism is finally caught up in the great culture war of the contemporary world. It has no choice but to confront the issue of homosexuality now. The Church is, after all, a social institution. It must respond to the society around it and should do so in the best Christian way it can discern. Given the historic reasonableness of the English, not to mention the great moral courage they have shown time and again in history, I think we can trust the leaders of our ancestral faith to guide the national church into rightful settlements for all the people of its domain.

Find a news article about the upcoming Synod HERE.    

  

A TALK ON CHURCH ARCHITECTURE

Greetings, blog reader, on Friday, January 27, 2023. I still have no news to relay about the schism in SC. The SC Supreme Court has been sitting on the three petitions before them since last September. The justices must decide the dispositions of three parishes in question, Old St. Andrew's, Holy Cross (Stateburg), and Good Shepherd. So far not a peep from the court. Likewise, the two dioceses have released nothing new in the last couple of weeks about settlements. So, we have no choice but to bide our time and await announcements from Columbia and Charleston as they occur.

On another topic completely unrelated to the above, I recently gave a talk to my local historical society about the history of my local church, St. Luke's, of Jacksonville AL. I made a video of 56 minutes as part of that and I will share it with you in case you are interested in church architecture.

St. Luke's was designed by Richard Upjohn, the architect of Trinity Church, Wall St., NYC. It is from his 1852 pattern book, Upjohn's Rural Architecture. While not exactly by the pattern, it is remarkably close and has been very well preserved and maintained. The building was constructed in 1856, all of heart-of-pine. There were seven Upjohn churches built in Alabama before the Civil War, five still standing. St. Luke's is the truest and best kept of these.

So, if you care about church buildings at all, you might enjoy my little tour of St. Luke's.

 Find the video on Youtube here

NOTES,  19 JANUARY 2023

Greetings, blog reader. It is Thursday, January 19, 2023. Unfortunately, I have no news to report today. This is just to let you know I am still here and waiting on announcements concerning the state of the schism in South Carolina. The South Carolina Supreme Court, which made a mess of the case in 2022, is now sitting on three petitions before it which have been there since September: EDSC's petitions on Old St. Andrew's and Holy Cross and the ACNA congregation of Good Shepherd, Charleston. These are asking for a rehearing or reversal. So far, no word from the SCSC. Your guess on when we will hear from them is as good as mine.

Apparently, negotiations are ongoing between the two dioceses on disposal of mission properties. The EDSC has turned over deeds to three to the local ACNA congregations: St. John's mission, Charleston, St. Andrew's mission, Charleston, and St. Alban's, Blackville. By my count, this is five properties that the EDSC has turned over or is about to turn over to the separatists: St. Matthew's, of Ft. Motte, the rectory of Cheraw, and these three missions. My guess is arrangements are being made for other properties. 

So, with both the SCSC and the diocesan settlements, we have no choice but to bide out time and await news announcements.

In case you missed the news yesterday, the bishops of the Church of England are recommending the blessings of same-sex unions in church but are not recommending same-sex weddings in church. This is a major breakthrough even though it is illogical. If homosexual unions are good enough to be blessed in church, they are good enough to be solemnized in church. The English are typically reasonable and logical people, so I expect it is just a matter of time before common sense prevails and same-sex marriages are allowed in the Church of England. Same-sex marriages have been legal in Britain since 2014. Find the ENS article about yesterday's news HERE .

My brother and sister, who live in Bay St. Louis MS, were fishing on the sea wall of the bay a few days ago when this heron decided to join them. He got within arm's length. After it posed for the picture, they rewarded it with bait shrimp which it caught in mid-air. They did not catch any fish but they enjoyed their friend's visit. So, we should be like the heron, patiently biding our time in the expectation that this will pay off, perhaps in unexpected ways.  Like the heron, we should make the best of the time that God has given to us for our lives. Peace.

 

 

DISORDER IN THE HOUSE

Embarrassing, childish, shameful, damaging, dangerous, choose your own word here. What we saw transpire in Congress this week was unnerving for the country. It was chaos in the House; and it portended a tumultuous next two years. The radical fringe is in control. It will be a wild ride.

Extra troublesome to me is that the two most rambunctious people of this devolution into near-anarchy were elected by landslides in the districts near and dear to me. Rep. Mike Rogers represents my Congressional district in Alabama and has for many years.

In a pique of anger, he lunged at Matt Gaetz (on live worldwide television) and had to be muzzled and dragged away by a friend from NC. It will be hard to forgive this sorry display of behavior. Mike Rogers is an embarrassment to the good people of eastern Alabama and he should resign immediately. I would tell him so but his social media sites have crashed.

Speaking of embarrassment, what about that loose cannon Matt Gaetz? Unfortunately, he represents my hometown, Pensacola.

Apparently, he thoroughly enjoyed hogging the spotlight for days on end as he led a very public and humiliating denunciation of McCarthy, only to support him in the end. No doubt he reveled in all the attention. He and his twenty or so kindergarten classmates discovered they could control the classroom and they did. Since they have proven the point, can we expect any different behavior in the future? I doubt it.

The good citizens of the Third Congressional district of Alabama and the First District of Florida deserve better than this. Let's hope they remember what happened this week when they go to the polls in the next election (Nov. 2024).

    

 SC SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN STATE ABORTION LAW

On yesterday, 5 January 2023, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the state law that banned abortions after six weeks. The vote was 3-2 with Justices Hearn, Beatty, and Few in the majority and Justices James and Kittredge in the minority. The majority opinion in the 147-page paper was written by Justice Kaye Hearn, the only woman on the bench, who channeled the late great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Essentially, the majority reasoned that the state law violated the right of privacy. The minority argued that privacy did not extend to a woman's reproductive rights [come on guys, if reproduction is not private, what is?]. 

Banning abortion after six weeks effectively removes the right to abortion since many women do not even know they are pregnant in that time period, let alone make arrangements to terminate. It is a matter of common sense.

With this, the SCSC struck a significant blow against the anti-abortion crusade across the south where state legislatures have rushed to end women's rights to control their own bodies. This is a large part of the culture was in contemporary America. This decision should have influence on other states. No doubt the socially and culturally reactionary SC state legislature will enact a new anti-abortion law but it will not be quite as draconian. We shall see.

Now, since the SCSC found sound reason and competency to rule sensibly on the abortion issue, let us hope they can keep up the good work and wind up the church case. They have been at it since 2015, seven and a half years! Along the way, they issued three different, and contradictory decisions (2017, April 2022, August 2022). If they are not embarrassed about this, they should be. Moreover, they have had three petitions before them for the past four months without a peep from the justices. Finality, please! 

Find HERE a news article about yesterday's decision.

 

THE YEAR 2022 IN REVIEW

The year 2022 saw the beginning of the end of the legal disputes arising from the Episcopal Church schism of 2012 in South Carolina. On the whole, the separatists made significant gains in the year while the historic diocese made important concessions in order to move to resolution of the long-running crisis. 

The year started on an uncertain note in the wake of the South Carolina Supreme Court hearing of December 8, 2021 that had left nothing resolved in spite of the fact that the SCSC had issued a majority opinion in 2017 and the circuit court had overturned this in 2020 and substituted a diametrically opposed opinion. The justices seemed at a loss on how to resolve the disputes of the schism. All this indecision was only to magnify throughout the year as the SCSC lurched back and forth and finally refused to make a final settlement before the year's end.

On April 20, the SCSC issued a "final" and absolute order addressing the 29 the parishes that the court had assigned to TEC in 2017. It gave 15 of them their own property while handing 14 over to TEC. With this, the court shifted the 29-7 division of 2017 to 14-22. The SCSC sent a Remittitur to the circuit court for implementation.

Then, on May 8, 8 of the 14 that had been assigned to TEC filed appeals to the SCSC. The SCSC denied one appeal, Christ Church of Mt. Pleasant.

On August 17, the SCSC discarded its "final" order of 20 April and declared that 7 of the 8 appellants (of the 14 assigned to TEC) owned their own property. The TEC side filed appeals claiming the rights to 2 of these, Old St. Andrew's, and Holy Cross, of Stateburg. Good Shepherd, of Charleston, appealed for a rehearing. These petitions were filed by September 1. As of today, there has been no response from SCSC to any of these three.

Meanwhile, in other significant developments in the schism:

---Camp St. Christopher returned to the Episcopal diocese on Oct. 1

---The Episcopal diocese announced the sale of St. Matthew's, of Ft. Motte, to the local separatist congregation.

---The new Anglican Diocese of South Carolina announced a Jerusalem Fund to raise $1m for the separatist congregations relocating after the restorations of their parishes to the Episcopal diocese.

---The departing congregation "Christ Church Anglican" announced, on Dec. 20, that a donor had given $3.2m for the purchase of a parcel of land in north Mt. Pleasant.

---The two bishops announced in April the opening of a process of negotiations for the resolutions of legal issues. The Episcopal side made major concessions such as the surrender of any claim to the diocesan headquarters, on Coming St.

What will 2023 bring for the schism? God only knows. The SCSC has done absolutely nothing on the issues before it in the past four months. It is anyone's guess when and how they will act next. Moreover, the talks between the two sides are secret. The Anglican side has a habit of leaking news but the Episcopal side remains silent. Presumably, we will know the terms of settlement whenever the officials on the two sides decide on finality. If 2023 is like 2022, it will be a beneficial one for the separatists and a hard one for the historic diocese. Meanwhile, peace does seem off on the horizon, if still in the fog.

PEOPLE OF THE YEAR

Person of the year

Volodymyr Zelensky. No contest. No one in the world has done as much to defend the moral values of civilization against the dark forces that would destroy it. In this story of David and Goliath, every decent person in the world is rooting for the brave little man with the great heart. He is fighting for his country; he is fighting for all of us.

American of the Year

Liz Cheney. A rising star in conservative circles, this daughter of the former vice-president had a bright future in the Republican Party. The insurrection of January 6 shook her to her core and changed her life. She arose to defend the Constitution and the democratic republic against the president and party which would overthrow it. She became the leading light and face of the House committee to investigate the insurrection and she held nothing back even as it cost her reelection and probably her future in the Republican party. She is heroic because she put her country over her party and over her own political future. Every right-thinking American owes her respect and admiration.

People of the year, in the schism

The four clergy people who volunteered to take on the hard work of rebuilding parishes that had been decimated by a decade of schism and years before that of anti-Episcopal propaganda. They could have said "No" when the call came to them. They did not. Instead, they responded and took on the daunting tasks of reconstructions of the old parishes. I, for one, am lost in admiration for these heroes of the schism:

---The Rev. Calhoun Walpole, the first clergy person to answer the call and to lead the restoration of St. John's, on Johns Island.

---The Rev. Michael Bye, who agreed to lead both St. David's, of Cheraw and St. Bartholomew's, of Hartsville. He deserves double gratitude.

---The Rev. Furman Buchanan, who left a major parish in the upstate to take on the restoration of another major parish, Christ Church, of Mt. Pleasant. The former occupants left the place with a lot of anger and bitterness not to mention anti-Episcopal broadsides. Buchanan has his work cut out for him.

---The Rev. Taylor Smith, who took on the rebuilding of St. James, on James Island, like Christ Church, a major parish in suburban Charleston and one that had been decimated by years of hostility to the Episcopal Church. 

Booby Prize of the year, in the schism

The South Carolina Supreme Court. They have issued three decisions on the schism, each one contradicting the one before. In 2017, a majority of justices awarded 29 of the 36 parishes in the lawsuit to TEC. In April of this year they revoked this and declared that only 14 of the 36 had adhered to the Dennis Canon. Then, in August they revoked the April decision and declared that actually only 8 of the 36 had adopted the Dennis Canon. For the last four months they have fallen silent. All of this does make one wonder about the competency of the justices, or perhaps their political leanings. 

The problem is they are trying to settle a religious dispute by state laws and this leads them to splitting hairs on interpretation which is ultimately subjective and changeable. In fact, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution mandates separation of church and state. The justices ought to bear this in mind.

Most tiresome individual

Elon Musk. Enough about him already. Does anyone care if he is the first or second richest man in the world or, that he is driving Twitter into the ground? The news is giving way too much coverage to this tiresome man.

Most tiresome couple

Harry and Meghan. People who are born into privilege and incredible wealth and benefit greatly from it then want us to pity them as innocent victims of mean people around them make me sick. The world has many real problems at the moment. Enough of this whining about how hard life is for the (spoiled and narcissistic) rich and famous. Gimme a break.

Most tiresome scary clown

Donald Trump. Just when one thinks he cannot possibly get more ridiculous and absurd, he does. For only $99 he hawked digital trading cards of his face superimposed on super heroes. He was serious. They sold out immediately. Even his closest friends cringed. As his star fades and people tire of his antics, he seems to get more extreme in his quest for attention. He will not leave the stage quietly, not this man who tried to overthrow our constitutional government and to disrupt the peaceful transition of power. Will someone please get the hook?

Anyway, back to earth. My best wishes to you for the year ahead, 2023. My intention is to continue observing and commenting on the schism in SC in the new year, plus throwing in other thoughts I have on other subjects. We have all been at this schism for a long time now. We should all hope fervently that we can see it out, and sooner rather than later. 

Finally, always remember, friend, that we were all called for the living of this hour. This is the time that God has given to us. Peace. 

 

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS, 2022

                                 from Hagia Sophia, Constantinople

Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas this year, 2022,

Ron Caldwell

I will return next week with end-of-year reflections.

DIOCESE OF SC CONVEYING TWO PROPERTIES TO SCHISMATICS

The self-styled Anglican Diocese of South Carolina has announced that one property has already been conveyed from the Episcopal diocese to a local breakaway congregation and another is about to be. 

The property that has been sold to the separatist congregation of "St. David's Anglican" church is the rectory of St. David's parish. Find the announcement of that HERE . The Anglican diocesan "Development Fund," aka the "Jerusalem Fund" kicked in $25,000 which, combined with contributions from the congregation allowed the new congregation to buy the Episcopal Church property of the old rectory. The breakaway congregation then sold the house to the Rev. Varnadore, the clergyman of the group. Neither the sale price from the Episcopal diocese nor the sale price from the congregation was disclosed.

The property in process of being sold to a breakaway congregation is St. Matthew's Church, of Ft. Motte. According to the new ADSC newsletter, the sale price is $275,000. The deadline for the sale is January 27, 2023. The congregation still needs $100,000 to meet the goal. One donor has promised $20,000 if someone else will match this. The congregation has set up a "Save Our Church" fund.

The SC Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that both St. David's, of Cheraw, and St. Matthew's, of Ft. Motte, are property of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. Moreover, one should not forget that the federal court has ruled that the Episcopal diocese is the one and only heir of the historic diocese and has placed an Injunction on the breakaways from claiming in any way to be the historic diocese.

Yet, the breakaways are still having trouble processing the reality of the day. The new diocese, set up at the schism in 2012, inserted the word "Anglican" before the title that legally belongs to the Episcopal diocese. Technically it changed its name but left no doubt about its attitude. The same is true of all the parishes that have been returned to the Episcopal diocese. In every case, the breakaway congregation has relocated under the old name of the church with the word "Anglican" attached. As with the diocese, they have refused to embrace the legal reality and still pretend to be the essence of the old entities. One can only wonder about the good faith of their negotiations for a final settlement.

So, when the breakaways at St. Matthew's talk about "Save Our Church" they are refusing to accept that the church building is property of the Episcopal diocese. It is not "our" church until the Episcopal diocese hands it over. Likewise, when the separatist congregation of St. David's talks about "allowing parish to retain property" it is the same. The parish property belongs to the Episcopal Church, not the breakaway group. 

In his remarks on these property issues, the Rev. Lewis, said, "for generations, the people of this Diocese..." How many "generations" can fit into ten years? The Rev. Lewis knows very well that there is a federal court Injunction forbidding the new "Anglican" diocese from claiming to be the historic Diocese of SC. In fact, the "Anglican" diocese has already been held in contempt of court TWICE for infractions of the Injunction. They are slow learners.

The two dioceses have indicated they are engaged in ongoing negotiations for a final settlement of all issues in dispute between them. No details have been released other than the few that were actually publicized by the schismatic side. 

If the sales of these two properties are any indication, the people of the Episcopal diocese might get prepared for some dramatic deals that may well be more controversial than what has been announced so far. 

One has no choice but to wait on the announcements of the settlements from the diocesan offices.