OLD SAINT ANDREW'S TO FILE FOR REHEARING

The Rev. Marshall Huey, rector of Old Saint Andrew's parish church, in West Ashley, Charleston, announced this morning that OSA will file a petition with the state supreme court on Thursday, May 5, for a rehearing. Find this HERE , on Facebook @48.

Old Saint Andrew's is one of the 14 local churches to be returned to the Episcopal Church by decision of the South Carolina Supreme Court of April 20, 2022.

In my opinion, there is no chance the SCSC will agree to a rehearing. Their decision was unanimous and explicitly "final." Mr. Huey used to be a lawyer. He must know his chances. 

Huey did not indicate whether anyone else would join in the petition for rehearing. One cannot imagine the 15 churches which gained their properties would dare risk this gain with a rehearing. After all, the court reversed, for them, the SCSC decision of 2017. As for the rest of of the 14,  I have not heard from any about their plans.

At least this tells us whether the Anglican side will accept the inevitable or continue to deny and delay. Now we know. It is more of the same we have seen for nearly ten years now. The litigation goes on and on.

Deny and delay have been the chief tactics of the Anglican side for years. This may be the motive here. The last time around, the SCSC issued its opinion on Aug. 2, 2017. The ADSC petitioned for rehearing on Sept. 1 (after extensions). The SCSC then asked the EDSC to file a counter-petition concerning rehearing. The EDSC did on Sept. 18. Two months later, on Nov. 17, the SCSC issued its decision denying rehearing; and on the same day sent its decision and Remittitur to the circuit court. So, ADSC's attempt at rehearing failed, but succeeded in devouring two and a half months of time.

The 2017 SCSC decision listed 8 parishes that were judged to be outside the bounds of the Dennis Canon. Two of the 8 dealt with the same parish which was identified as St. Andrew's, of Mt. Pleasant. Old Saint Andrew's claimed that this was an error, that the St. Andrew's named was actually Old Saint Andrew's (the colonial parish church of Saint Andrew's). Under state law, a person who believes the court made a clerical error has a year to file for a correction. OSA did not do this. However, the circuit court judge, Edgar Dickson, went out of his way to include OSA in his decision of 2020 and to give the church clear ownership of the property. The SCSC has now reversed this. So, first TEC owned OSA, then it did not, and now it does again. 

At any rate, the justices who recently studied the local church documents relating to accession to the Dennis Canon deemed OSA's to be in compliance with the trust laws. OSA was placed in the group of 14 parishes that had clearly adopted the Dennis Canon and therefore set up a trust for the Episcopal Church. This is in the 2022 SCSC decision.

It is fitting for OSA to return to the Episcopal Church. According to both state and federal courts, the Episcopal diocese is the historic diocese that was set up in 1785. The old part of the OSA church building is the oldest church structure in South Carolina. The historic church returns to the historic diocese. Justice.

I will get a copy of the petition for rehearing asap and relay it here. Apparently this will be on Thursday of this week. Since this is the deadline for requests for hearing, we will know then whether any of the others in the 14 will file for rehearing.

Note. I also watched the homily of the Rev. Elizabeth Bumpas, at St. James, James Island. Find it HERE @40 when she says, "This legal verdict may be rooted in evil but the permissive will of God is allowing it" [so that the people of St. James can go out on James Island spreading the Gospel]. She did not explain what she meant by "rooted in evil," even as she inexplicably juxtaposed evil with God's will. I trust she did not mean to demonize the Episcopal side or the court. That sort of unfortunate and disappointing attitude would poison the well as the two sides work their ways laboriously to legal finality.

The reactions that I have seen among the 14 have been hither and yon. There is no unanimity. The rector of St. Luke's, Hilton Head, said there may be a possibility of negotiation (to keep the property away from TEC). He offered no evidence. However, the rector of St. John's, on Johns Island, was more resigned as he said they would "probably" have to walk away from the property. At any rate, we will have a much clearer view by the end of this week of the legal reactions of the 14.