BISHOP LAWRENCE'S LATEST LETTER

Bishop Lawrence issued a letter to the Diocese of South Carolina on June 14. It was just posted online yesterday, June 17, with an unexplained three day delay. Find it here .

(An aside on titles.

Mark J. Lawrence calls himself, and his followers call him, "bishop." Whether he officially holds Holy Orders as a bishop is at least doubtful. He left the Episcopal Church on Oct. 15, 2012, by discarding his ordination vow to obey the discipline of the Episcopal Church. He publicly announced his departure from TEC at the special convention of Nov. 17, 2012. Lawrence continued, and still continues, to claim that that he did not renounce the office of bishop. However, one cannot leave the Episcopal Church and take the authority conferred by the Church with him or herself. That would be like a cardinal of the RC church resigning from the church and continue going about claiming to be a cardinal. Nevertheless, as a courtesy, I will continue to refer to him as Bishop Lawrence since this is what he and his followers claim.

"Diocese of South Carolina." Recently the DSC moved to a new website and apparently removed every reference to being the Episcopal Diocese... or the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of... . I cannot find anywhere on the website a use of these words. It may be there and just hiding. So, the entity has taken to calling itself simply the Diocese of South Carolina. Perhaps this has to do with the federal lawsuit where the Episcopal Church bishop is suing Lawrence for calling himself the Episcopal bishop. If so, it is irrelevant since the suit goes back to the schism when the secessionists insisted they were the Episcopal diocese. They claimed they left the Episcopal Church and took the Episcopal church with them, an absurd claim.)

Now, back to the letter.

It continues the same talking points DSC set up on Monday right after the SCOTUS denial of cert.

Let's look at some of Lawrence's phrases:

---"The U.S. Supreme Court's denial is not an affirmation of the South Carolina Supreme Court's August 2 opinion..."

Wait a minute. SCOTUS's denial of cert meant that the SCSC decision is final and cannot be appealed or changed. If that is not at least tacit "affirmation," what would be?

---"It leaves us, however, back in the Dorchester County Court with a conflicted and fractured ruling."

In fact, the SCSC ruled 3-2 that 29 parishes and Camp St. Christopher remain under the trust control of the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church diocese. This is not "conflicted" or "fractured" except in the minds of people who do not like the decision. Yes, there were separate opinions of the five justices, but there was no question about the majority decision. Moreover, on the question of the effectiveness of the Dennis Canon in South Carolina, four of the five justices agreed that it went into effect. Only Jean Toal disagreed with everyone else.

Moreover, the SCSC remitted the decision to the Dorchester County circuit court for enforcement. TEC has gone to court to ask the judge for orders carrying out the SCSC decision including a Special Master to oversee the transfer of the properties. We are now awaiting a response from the judge.

DSC has a separate suit in the circuit court against TEC demanding money payments under the "Betterments Statute" but this has absolutely nothing to do with who controls the properties. Th e property issue has been resolved in the SCSC decision.

---"Quite simply, regardless of what you may have read or heard elsewhere, this case is not over."

He did not specify "case." Which case? The property issue of the 29 parishes and Camp is definitely over. The SCSC ruled they belong to the Episcopal Church. Perhaps he is referring to the two other cases that are active, the one in the circuit court about "Betterments" and the one in federal court where TEC is suing for possession of the entity of the pre-schism diocese. Those two cases are not over. But, neither of the cases has anything to do with the parish properties. The property issue is over. It is cruel of DSC leaders to lead people into believing DSC will keep the 29 local churches and TEC will not regain them. 

Otherwise, Lawrence's letter had a different tone than all of ones issued before Aug. 2, 2017. Those were much more confident, often referring to God's will. Interesting to note that Lawrence never mentions God's will in the June 14 letter. To my knowledge, DSC has not referred to God's will, at least in terms of litigation, since the SCSC decision.

From what I have heard about what happened in DSC churches yesterday, it seems the DSC clergy commonly believe the talking point that they will not lose the churches or if they do it will be so far off it won't matter. This is what they are spreading among their congregations. Of course, people may believe what they like. One can believe the moon is made of cheese, and a lot of people may agree with you. This does not matter. The truth matters. As the ancient Greeks taught us (e.g. Oedipus Rex), it is better to know the truth even if it hurts because truth leads to higher wisdom.

To be sure, Lawrence did not tell his people explicitly they would keep the buildings, but I think one could easily believe that from what he did say. This is the myth running about in DSC these days. It is regrettable.