ONE ADSC CLERGYMAN DEPARTING

News has broken that one rector in the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina is bailing out. In fact, according to his own words, he is leaving the parish, the diocese, and professional church work. Find his announcement HERE .

The Rev. Greg Snyder is rector of St. John's, on  Johns Island, Charleston. He says he has been there for twenty years. He is leaving his post on 1 August.

He also says he made the decision to leave a week before the SCSC ruling of 20 April. The timing is a bit curious. Did he know something the rest of us did not know?

Snyder has also displayed an unusual reaction to the SCSC decision. St. John's on Johns Island is one of the fourteen parishes to be returned to the Episcopal Church. He did not fight the court decision. St. John's was one of the six which did not file for rehearing. In fact, Snyder told his people they would "probably" have to walk away from the property. He seemed resigned to this.

This is a rather drastic life change for the middle-aged Mr. Snyder, whose wife has been on the diocesan office staff for years. The only reason he gave for leaving was "I have led as far as I can go..." Now he is to become a Lecturer in Geology at the Univ. of Tennessee, in Knoxville. This will be quite a change from being rector of a parish in the lowcountry.

Snyder played a significant role in the life of the schism. For instance, he was on the Marriage Task Force committee that drew up the Statement of Faith in 2015 that rigidly institutionalized a diocesan ban on same-sex marriage.

Another long-time rector among the secessionists has also announced his retirement as of 1 September. The Rev. Greg Kronz has been at St. Luke's, of Hilton Head, for thirty years. Students of the schism will know Kronz as the chair of the bishop's search committee that went through as many as fifty candidates to draft one who had not applied, Mark Lawrence, of Bakersfield, California.

Change is certainly in the air of the schism in South Carolina. Both dioceses have new leadership with no baggage from the civil war years of the schism.

Evangelicals like to talk a lot about "God's Will." If it is God's will that fourteen parishes return to the Episcopal Church, should not the faithful person accept that? No one in these fourteen will have to leave. As for the clergy, there is a simple process for returning to the Episcopal Church. It is filing paper work with the bishop. Three clergy who went along with the schism have already returned to the Episcopal diocese. As for the people-in-the-pews, they do not have go anywhere. The prayer book services will continue on as ever. The vestry and wardens, however, must accept the authority of the Episcopal bishop. In spite of the propaganda the Anglican leaders have spread among their followers for years, the Episcopal Church has not changed its religion. It has evolved its social policy, but not the historic truths of the faith. 

One may expect to see quite a bit of dust in the air before all this settles down. It is all but certain the SC Supreme Court will reject the petitions for rehearing. I expect this to come in a week or two. Then, the federal appeals court is almost certainly going to reject the Anglicans' appeal of Judge Gergel's ruling. Then, the two sides can begin in earnest the long and difficult process of settling the nuts and bolts of possession.

There is much more change to come.