24 OCTOBER -
A LETTER TO THIS EDITOR
Several people wrote to me after yesterday's announcement of the court date. All of them followed the same line, frustration and exhaustion. We are all tired. We all want closure. We all want Judge Dickson to pick up the pace. We all dread having to endure more and more of this seemingly never-ending tragedy.
Here is a letter to this editor regarding the court date:
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Dear Dr. Caldwell:
Thank you so very much for keeping Episcopalians, especially in SC, up to date on the legal and ecclesiastical goings on locally. I am one of the many who depend on your updates to keep current with legal news about the Episcopal schism in SC.
On the afternoon of October 23, 2018, you reported the following quote from Judge Dickson's office: "Judge Dickson request that the pending motions in the above matter be scheduled for November 19, 2018. His honor intends to hear as many of the motions as possible until he gets tired of hearing them. These motions will be heard at the Orangeburg County Courthouse."
I was astounded when I read this part of the quote, "His Honor intends to hear as many of the motions as possible until he gets tired of hearing them." What does this mean?
The phrasing seems to mock the concerns of anyone who cares about this case and understands the great need to have this work of justice completed. If the remark was meant to draw a reaction, I have one to share. The implication that the judge is bored and has little energy to give appalls me. I wonder if the court will ever implement the SC Supreme Court's decision. Episcopalians, as well as members of the Lawrence church have all waited on this action to conclude for well over a year.
I am a member of a TECSC congregation that was excised from our former church home by narrow theological judgmentalism. Not only have we, human beings each and all, survived the schism, we are thriving as an active, loving Episcopal mission. Our congregation has grown from 20+/- faithful weekly worshipers in late October 2012 to well over 100 people on our rolls in October 2018. Of course, we are aware of the cloud of litigation that hangs over us, and we are aware that there is unfinished business to be done by others.
In the past six years, we have not preoccupied ourselves with the schism. Rather we immediately continued Eucharistic worship and servant ministries and set out "to do the work [God] has given us to do." We continue to move forward. We have been led by two theologically well-grounded priests-in-charge and many faithful supply priests during the past six years. Our lay leadership is exceptional. We are the body of Christ in this place. Not only that, in these six years, we have experienced fully the promise of II Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, there is new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come." Indeed, we are a new creation.
The SC Supreme Court gave its decision in August 2017. The U.S. Supreme Court did not take up the DSC appeal. Episcopalians and members of the Lawrence church all need closure.
As tired as the judge might be, the people of DSC and TECSC are also tired. We are ready for the cloud of ongoing litigation to be removed. We are ready for justice to be served. To read that the judge will stop hearing arguments presented to the court insinuates that he intends to stop before he has completed his task...I pray that is not so. I pray that he sees further arguing in the court will delay the inevitable. We need an ending, we need resolution of this travesty. Only the court can make that happen. Let it be so!
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A big "thank you" to this letter writer who has expressed well what I expect all of us are thinking. How many more "arguments" does Judge Dickson need? He has twenty-two papers in front of him already. Surely, the lawyers have said everything they have to say. And, who isn't "tired" of this mess? What about the thousands of people who passed tired a long time ago.
Readers, we all know this will come to an end one day, but God only knows when that will be. And, if we think we are tired of this tragedy, what must God feel? I am guessing disappointed, even brokenhearted. This did not have to happen, but it did happen by choices some people freely made. We all have to make choices in life and we all have to live with the consequences. Sometimes those consequences hurt innocent victims, in this case by the thousands.
Tell me what you think. We need to hear from you. My email address is above.
