A LETTER TO THIS EDITOR, 21 APRIL 2022
As you might imagine, this blog has had thousands of hits in the last two days, and I have received numerous e-mails, all of which I appreciate. Lots of people want to know what is going on in the schism in South Carolina and want to share their thoughts with me. I often think I learn more from others than they learn from me, the same belief I had in my years of teaching.
Here is one e-mail from today that I know everyone will enjoy reading:
Hi Ron,
FINALLY! We may have reached the end. Time will tell. I will not believe it until there is an Episcopal Church vestry installed in my church and legal documents made public that return the property to the Episcopalians. PLEASE have a competent attorney draw up those documents.
I have followed this all along and have read the vast majority of the legal briefs and opinions. Today I believe the entire matter could have been avoided if those lawyers used by the parishes over the years had been competent and qualified to understand the requirements to create a trust in compliance with South Carolina Trust Laws. I know, with years of personal observation, that often times organizations use professional people who are members of their organization to handle things, either gratis or at reduced costs. If so, in this matter some may have gotten what they paid for.
In its finality, the SCSC used a loose interpretation of SC trust law to divide the parishes between the two competing dioceses, and extract themselves from the 2017 opinion for which some had a change of heart after the opinion was issued. To expect even a lay person like myself to believe that they expected the circuit court to review this matter and make needed adjustments to their collective opinion is ludicrous. Where was the instruction to the circuit court to do so? Was there a remand or wasn't there? They should have taken their own advice and "put it in writing" when they sent the matter back to the circuit court. Seems to me that, without written instruction to the circuit court, there must have been a lot of off-the-record communication between the SCSC and the circuit court judge. The good 'ole boy network hard at work. It doesn't go unnoticed that the largest churches in Charleston remain with the disassociated diocese.
Larry Wilson
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Thanks to Larry for sharing this with us.
I encourage you to send your thoughts to me. If appropriate, I will post either with or without your name, as you wish.
Reactions to yesterday's decision have been a bit slow to appear. Some are grieving, as the rector of Old St. Andrew's who sent out an E-MAIL telling his people he would keep up the legal fight. Apparently some people are having trouble accepting the reality of the hour. On the other hand, over at some big parishes, I can hear the champagne corks popping. This is a tremendous victory for ST. PHILIP'S of Charleston which has been at war with the Episcopal Church for seventy years, starting with the civil rights movement in the 1950's. (There is a theory that the schism was really a belated backlash against integration.) They finally won their war. They kicked the "liberals" off their property. No doubt they and their fellow travelers are celebrating their big victory.
So, whether you are grieving or celebrating, share your reactions with us. E-mail at the above address.
