MEDIATION APPARENTLY ENDS
Be sure to read Steve Skardon's posting of today. Find it here . Although, owing to the gag order of mediation we cannot be absolutely sure, all signs indicate the mediation has ended. There were three meetings that apparently accomplished nothing. The last one (Jan. 12) ended without a date to meet again. By deduction, I think the following are probably true:
1. TEC wanted to implement the SCSC decision of Aug. 2, 2017. DSC stalled.
2. DSC used the mediation to play for time. During the mediation, the federal case was on "stay." This delayed the federal case by at least four months. No doubt the original trial date in March will have to be moved back for months.
3. If this is true, which I suspect it is, the question is: Why did DSC stall for time? The only logical explanation is to rally as many people in the 29 parishes as possible to leave the buildings as ongoing congregations. The DSC leaders know well they have lost the 29 parish properties and Camp St. Christopher. This leaves them 6 parishes. They have little future unless they can extract viable congregations from the large parishes as churches in exile.
(Mark Lawrence's old church in Bakersfield successfully did this. After years of a rising hostility to TEC, the vast majority of St. Paul's left as an "Anglican" congregation, first met in a Lutheran church, then built a new facility of their own as Trinity Anglican Church on the western side of Bakersfield. Lawrence's son Joseph is the assistant rector there. See here .)
Can the Bakersfield model be translated to South Carolina? Probably not; and for a host of reasons not the least of which is that there is no available space in peninsular Charleston.
4. DSC is obviously using every delaying tactic it can find to put off the implementation of the SCSC Aug. 2 decision. It introduced a new lawsuit in the circuit court against the Church diocese and asked the court to put it too on stay pending their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (the circuit court judge has not yer responded; TEC has asked for dismissal). Thus, DSC lawyers have used two delaying tactics, one in federal court, one in circuit court. How much more evidence do we need that the DSC leaders are dragging this out as long as possible? Do they not know, or care, about the pain all this is inflicting on people, and the very ones they claim to represent?
The hard, cold fact is that the SC supreme court has ordered 29 parishes back to TEC. This will happen. It is just a matter of time.
There is the problem. It may take much more time. On January 18, 2018, the Church diocese's lawyers filed "Notice of Motion and Motion for Pro Hac Vice Admission" with the circuit court. This was to admit David Booth Beers and Mary Kostel into the litigation, again. They had represented TEC in the circuit court trial of July 2014.
Yet, amid the smoldering ruins all around them, Bishop Lawrence and his inner circle found reason to celebrate. It was for the tenth anniversary of his consecration as bishop (Jan. 26, 2008). Find it here . They presented him with a "banner...filled with superlatives." His devotees showered him with praise. In reality, in the ten years, the diocese lost 44% of its members and a third of its budget (more considering inflation), not to mention its membership in the Anglican Communion. It is losing communicants steadily, no doubt many from terminal "lawsuit fatigue." It has wasted millions of dollars of its people's money in a futile attempt to change history. Along the way, DSC became a fundamentalist-oriented sect on the fringe of the Anglican world. This is reason to celebrate?
So, where do matters stand now in the schism? The SC supreme court decision will be carried out but DSC is delaying this just as long as possible. They have three avenues left: the circuit court suit, the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the federal court trial. It appears they will use every tactic to drag these out as long as possible. The last one, the federal, can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals delaying matters even more.
Bottom line: Today, I see no reason to be optimistic that the end of the litigation will happen anytime soon. The people who made this scandal seem resolved to carry it to total exhaustion. Sadly, there is much more pain to come before that day arrives.
1. TEC wanted to implement the SCSC decision of Aug. 2, 2017. DSC stalled.
2. DSC used the mediation to play for time. During the mediation, the federal case was on "stay." This delayed the federal case by at least four months. No doubt the original trial date in March will have to be moved back for months.
3. If this is true, which I suspect it is, the question is: Why did DSC stall for time? The only logical explanation is to rally as many people in the 29 parishes as possible to leave the buildings as ongoing congregations. The DSC leaders know well they have lost the 29 parish properties and Camp St. Christopher. This leaves them 6 parishes. They have little future unless they can extract viable congregations from the large parishes as churches in exile.
(Mark Lawrence's old church in Bakersfield successfully did this. After years of a rising hostility to TEC, the vast majority of St. Paul's left as an "Anglican" congregation, first met in a Lutheran church, then built a new facility of their own as Trinity Anglican Church on the western side of Bakersfield. Lawrence's son Joseph is the assistant rector there. See here .)
Can the Bakersfield model be translated to South Carolina? Probably not; and for a host of reasons not the least of which is that there is no available space in peninsular Charleston.
4. DSC is obviously using every delaying tactic it can find to put off the implementation of the SCSC Aug. 2 decision. It introduced a new lawsuit in the circuit court against the Church diocese and asked the court to put it too on stay pending their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (the circuit court judge has not yer responded; TEC has asked for dismissal). Thus, DSC lawyers have used two delaying tactics, one in federal court, one in circuit court. How much more evidence do we need that the DSC leaders are dragging this out as long as possible? Do they not know, or care, about the pain all this is inflicting on people, and the very ones they claim to represent?
The hard, cold fact is that the SC supreme court has ordered 29 parishes back to TEC. This will happen. It is just a matter of time.
There is the problem. It may take much more time. On January 18, 2018, the Church diocese's lawyers filed "Notice of Motion and Motion for Pro Hac Vice Admission" with the circuit court. This was to admit David Booth Beers and Mary Kostel into the litigation, again. They had represented TEC in the circuit court trial of July 2014.
Yet, amid the smoldering ruins all around them, Bishop Lawrence and his inner circle found reason to celebrate. It was for the tenth anniversary of his consecration as bishop (Jan. 26, 2008). Find it here . They presented him with a "banner...filled with superlatives." His devotees showered him with praise. In reality, in the ten years, the diocese lost 44% of its members and a third of its budget (more considering inflation), not to mention its membership in the Anglican Communion. It is losing communicants steadily, no doubt many from terminal "lawsuit fatigue." It has wasted millions of dollars of its people's money in a futile attempt to change history. Along the way, DSC became a fundamentalist-oriented sect on the fringe of the Anglican world. This is reason to celebrate?
So, where do matters stand now in the schism? The SC supreme court decision will be carried out but DSC is delaying this just as long as possible. They have three avenues left: the circuit court suit, the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the federal court trial. It appears they will use every tactic to drag these out as long as possible. The last one, the federal, can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals delaying matters even more.
Bottom line: Today, I see no reason to be optimistic that the end of the litigation will happen anytime soon. The people who made this scandal seem resolved to carry it to total exhaustion. Sadly, there is much more pain to come before that day arrives.
