OLD SAINT ANDREW'S 

AND THE SC SUPREME COURT

The Diocese of South Carolina is claiming that Old St. Andrew's was one of the parishes not included in the list of 28 (29) parishes that the SC supreme court recognized as under trust control of the Episcopal Church. Old St. Andrew's is in the West Ashley area of Charleston. It has the oldest church building in the state of SC. It is sometimes confused with the other St. Andrew's, the one in Mt. Pleasant, on the far side of downtown Charleston.

In their Frequently Asked Questions (find here ), DSC asked:

"Is it true that some parishes were able to keep their property? Which churches are they?"

"The congregations ruled to be free from that trust claim are: Christ the King Grace Church, Waccamaw; St. Matthew's Church, Dalington; St. Andrew's Church, Mt. Pleasant; St. Paul's Anglican Church, Conway; Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church, Georgetown; St. John's Church, Florence; Old St. Andrew's, Charleston and St. Matthias' Church, Summerton."

This is not correct. Old St. Andrew's was not one of the churches listed by the court as outside of the Episcopal Church trust.

The South Carolina Supreme Court issued its decision on August 2, 2017. Find it here . Former chief justice Jean Toal listed the eight parishes that remained outside of the trust control of TEC:

1-Christ the King, Waccamaw

2-St. Matthews, Darlington

3-St. Andrews Church-Mt. Pleasant Land Trust

4-St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Conway

5-The Episcopal Church of the Parish of Prince George Winyah, Georgetown

6-the parish of St. Andrew, Mt. Pleasant

7-St. John's Episcopal Church of Florence

8-St. Matthias Episcopal Church, Summerton

On the last page Toal says:  "However, we are in the minority, because a different majority of the Court---consisting of Chief Justice Beatty, Justice Hearn, and Acting Justice Pleicones---would reverse the trial court and transfer title of all but eight of the plaintiff' properties to the defendants."

Thus the SC supreme court plainly did not include Old St. Andrew's parish among the eight.

Another bit of confusion has been on the total number of parishes still under the trust control of the Episcopal Church. Is it 28 ot 29? On the list of parishes taking action, 28 were listed. However, "the Church of the Holy Cross" was listed once. In fact, there are two Holy Crosses, one in Sullivans Island and one in Stateburg. I believe the list inadvertantly omitted one of these. The actual total number should be 29.

So, how many parishes did the SC supreme court leave in the independent diocese? Six. The two others are really one, St. Andrew's of Mt. Pleasant. It is in another diocese, "The Diocese of the Carolinas" which, like DSC, is also in the Anglican Church in North America. Thus ACNA has (at least) two overlapping dioceses in the Lowcountry. In fact, Steve Wood, the rector of St. Andrew's is the bishop of the ACNA diocese of the Carolinas.

The six parishes that now legally make up DSC:

1-Christ the King/Grace, Pawleys Island

2-St. Matthew's, Darlington

3-St. Paul's, Conway

4-Prince George Winyah, Georgetown

5-St. John's, Florence

6-St. Matthias, Summerton

The state supreme court was explicit on this in its 2 August 2017 decision. It did not recognize Old St. Andrew's as one of the parishes outside of Episcopal Church trust control. This means it is on the list of the 29 parishes still under TEC control.