MISINFORMATION CONTINUES
It took a federal court Injunction and two contempt of court findings to make the officials of the breakaway contingent stop claiming to be the historic diocese of South Carolina. So, it strikes me that today's e-newsletter from the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina continues on in the traditional vein of misinformation coming out of that organization. Several points caught my eye in today's letter.
In the first place, the letter states that Mark Lawrence was consecrated bishop on January 26, 2008. It is true that he was consecrated a bishop at that time. However, the clear implication is that Lawrence was made bishop of the present Anglican diocese of SC. This is wrong.
In 2008, Lawrence was consecrated bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, aka the Diocese of South Carolina. This diocese was, and still is, part and parcel of the Episcopal Church. He verbally and publicly renounced his association with the Episcopal Church in November of 2012 and on Dec. 5, 2012, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church issued a formal Release and Removal to Lawrence removing him as bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina. The majority of the clergy and laity of the DSC left the Episcopal Church in October and November of 2012. They formed a new diocese that is now called the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina. Is is entirely and wholly separate from the Diocese of South Carolina which continues on in the Episcopal Church. If the majority of the people who left the Diocese of South Carolina recognized Lawrence as their bishop, they did so on their own, not from the authority of any higher institution. After ADSC joined the Anglican Church in North America, Lawrence was recognized as a member of the College of Bishops of the ACNA.
It would be misleading to claim that Lawrence became bishop of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina in 2008. He did not. He became "bishop" of the ADSC in 2012 after he left the Episcopal Church. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina did not exist before 2012; and this has been established by the United States District Court, in Charleston.
The second point may not be calculated. The letter says Edgar will be consecrated "our Diocesan Bishop" on March 12. In fact, Edgar was elected Bishop Coadjutor. He will serve alongside Lawrence. Only when Lawrence retires will Edgar become the diocesan bishop. That is expected at the end of this year. I suspect this error was just sloppy editing.
Another thing that amazes me is all this business about contributing to a "Bishop's Purse" for Lawrence. Has anyone paid attention to how much Lawrence has raked in during these fourteen years? His salary and benefits come to around a quarter of a million dollars a year. Moreover, he has had virtual free use of the multi-million dollar bishop's residence on Smith Street. If you add the value of this housing, the value of his yearly income would be around a third of a million dollars a year. Presumably he would entitled to receive other income as retirement in the Episcopal Church system and Social Security.
Lawrence's tenure has been quite expensive for his followers. They are paying two sets of lawyers, one for the diocese and one for the local parish. God only knows how much this schism and epic litigation has cost the trusting faithful of the ADSC. Now, on top of this, to ask them to hand over even more money to a man whom they have maintained most generously strikes me as between insensitive and shamelessly materialistic.
