THANKSGIVING

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, 2018. A few days ago, the Episcopal Church in South Carolina enjoyed a festive annual meeting. Two days ago, circuit court judge Edgar Dickson held a hearing on the church case. This is a good moment to stop and assess where we stand now and why we should give thanks. 

STATE COURT. On Monday, November 19, Judge Dickson listened to the two sides' lawyers present their arguments concerning the South Carolina Supreme Court decision of August 2, 2017. The judge said he was considering at the moment only one of the six motions/petitions before him, the one in which the breakaway diocese (DSC) is asking the judge to set aside the SCSC decision and rule anew on the issue of the properties, the 29 parishes and Camp St. Christopher. In response, lawyers for the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church in South Carolina argued that the circuit court has no choice but to implement the SCSC decision. The circuit court does not have the discretion of retrying a case settled in the SCSC. 

The overall message coming from Judge Dickson was that the SCSC decision is not clear and he is challenged to interpret what the opinions mean. Respectfully, I do not understand the judge's view at all. In fact, the SCSC decision is as clear as it can be.

The decision is online here . I am presenting below its last two pages. The unnumbered pages are 76 and 77. This is the end of former chief justice Jean Toal's contribution. Before the hearing, Toal assigned herself to be in charge of this case. It was obvious in the hearing of Sept. 23, 2015 that she was very much in control of the case and the whole courtroom. Her goal, as we learned later, was to validate and universalize her 2009 All Saints decision, which she has written herself. That ruling had come down in favor of the local parish in leaving the Episcopal diocese and in keeping its property, in spite of the Dennis Canon. In the Aug. 2 decision, Toal's was the last and longest opinion. Since she was in the minority, she could not write the majority opinion. Pleicones did that. Thus, Toal gave her opinion of the issues first and then on the last few pages summarized the court's majority conclusions. Here are the last two pages (click on image for enlargement):

In Footnote 72, Toal summarizes perfectly clearly the decisions of the court. The key sentence is this:

"However, we [Toal and Kittredge] 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 plaintiffs' properties to the defendants."

This sentence is the decision in a nutshell.

This is the explicit order of the Court. It is a 3-2 majority decision. It is is no way unclear; and I do not see how Judge Dickson, or anyone else, could reasonably see this sentence as unclear.

Toal went on to list specifically the three orders of the Court as 1), 2) and 3). Read what these say. Toal is as plain as anyone could be. The wording here is crucial. It is not an opinion. It is a statement of fact as to the majority decisions of the Court: the 8 local church organizations that did not accede to the Dennis Canon keep their titles; the 28 parishes that did accede to the Dennis Canon are under trust control of the Episcopal Church which under the trust has become the title holder; and Camp St. Christopher is held by the trustees of the Church diocese. I simply do not see how anyone can read these three points and say the SCSC decision is not clear. In fact, it could not be any clearer. The majority ruled explicitly. Just because the majorities are different on the three items, this in no way invalidates or clouds any of the results. So, the idea that five different opinions did not result in a clear cut majority ruling by the Court is easily shown to be nonsense. There are three findings, and all three are by 3-2 majority.

I am not a lawyer, but if I could make my plea to Judge Dickson it would be to reread the last two pages of the SCSC decision. They clear up this entire case.

Be sure to read Steve Skardon's excellent analysis of Monday's hearing. Find it here . It is the best summary of the hearing available online.

FEDERAL COURT. As far as I know, nothing has happened on the federal scene lately. Judge Richard Gergel, of the U.S. District Court, in Charleston, has scheduled a trial in March of 2019. I can only assume the two sets of lawyers are in the "discovery" phase gathering all their materials in preparation.

One should recall that, technically, mediation is still open between the two sides. There were three sessions of mediation from October 2017 to January of 2018. As far as we know, these resulted in nothing. However, mediation is still open and it is possible sessions may resume. Since the meetings are private, the public may not be aware of them at the time. The original idea of the mediation was to settle all of the legal issues between the two sides. It is still possible this could happen although I see no sign of it. Given the history of this case, I really do not expect a compromise settlement. I expect this war will stay in the courts until the last shot is fired.

Speaking of end, the question I get most frequently is, How much longer? When will this end? Well, God only knows. I certainly do not know. I do know people all around are exhausted and disappointed, and hurt. The pain is all too evident on both sides. The schism has been a highly emotional event. Everyone involved has been on a wild roller coaster ride up and down and around. Every emotion that comes with this is valid. I say embrace them. Clasp the hurt, disappointment, fear, suspicion, even anger. It is unhealthy to deny these and try to ignore them. They will come out one way or another. Better to own them and let them out. Cry if you have to. Pound the table. Rage at the wall. If you have a garden, as I, go out and pull weeds if nothing else. Go to the golf course and play the 18 holes. Read a good escapist book (I like John Grisham). You can think of some good therapy. We would do well to let out our feelings in constructive ways.

Besides, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Just look at all the blessings we have in life. Look around you. They are everywhere. Personally, I am blessed beyond measure. I have a wonderful wife of 52 years who learned long ago how to cope with me. I have beautiful twin daughters whom I love dearly, and a son-in-law of whom I am proud. I have a teenage granddaughter for whom I would not trade gold (typical teenager---glued to her phone). I have irreplaceable brothers and a sister, a nice home, and a beautiful garden. I have a great church family. I was able to have my dream career. I could go on. What about you? Look around and count your blessings. Be thankful.

If you are feeling a little down this holiday, you are not alone. A lot of people feel stress at these times of the year, especially people who live alone. Holidays can be hard. My suggestion is to do something for someone else. It does not have to be elaborate. It could be small and simple. Bake a pan of cookies and take them to your next door neighbor, or to the local fire or police department. Believe me, fire and police personnel have big appetites. Rake the leaves in your neighbor's yard. Call a friend on the phone just to say hello. Put your mind to it. Doing for others is also doing for ourselves.

Remember there are two great commandments, love God and love neighbor. The operative word is love. If we follow that, we cannot fail.

The schism will be over one day. We cannot know when. We cannot know how. When it is over we must be able to say we did the right thing and for the right reasons. I happen to think the Episcopal Church is in the right. It has fought the good fight for human rights for seventy years now. People who had been persecuted, neglected, marginalized have found freedom, equality, and inclusion in the loving arms of the Church. 

It just so happened that one of the few breaking points in this movement came in eastern South Carolina. The leaders of the Episcopal Church there resolved to leave the Church rather than accept the extension of equality for and inclusion of homosexual people. They willingly chose to break this part of Christ's body. I do not question their motives. They thought they were doing the right thing. I happen to disagree with what they did. I think their choices of policies and procedures were all wrong. And, I think the outcomes of those bad choices are evident all around in the ruins of the old diocese. The schism has been a tragedy and disaster in so many ways for both sides. What was meant to be a great construction turned out to be a great destruction. Everyone lost (except the lawyers). Look at the stats: DSC has lost nearly half its communicants and a third of its budget in the decade of Bishop Mark Lawrence. Is this what the people of the diocese wanted when they elected Lawrence, twice, in 2006-07? I don't think so.

This is not a perfect world. It is made up of imperfect people but is overseen by a perfect divine force. This is our first and last consolation, and for that we must give the greatest thanks of all. Our last refrain is, and should always be, Thanks be to God!