A DECADE OF SCHISM:

Reflections on the break, the causes and the results of the Episcopal Church split of 2012 in South Carolina

Part 3. The Results

This is the last in a series of blog postings marking a decade since the schism of October 2012. We have examined what happened in the split itself and at the long term and immediate causes of the break. Now, we will look at the results of the schism in the ten years since. Again, we will have to summarize an enormous amount of detail of what has transpired in the last decade.

Essentially what we have now is a situation where the Episcopal diocese owns the entity of the old diocese while the separatists have the bulk of the local churches.

This is the outcome (not finalized, to be sure) of a long and hard-fought legal war. Of all the five cases of dioceses that voted to leave the Episcopal Church in the period of 2007-2012, the litigation in South Carolina has been the most involved. For instance, it was the only one in which the local parishes joined in the diocesan lawsuit. It was also the only one to be fought in both state and federal courts. Moreover, it was the only one in which the state supreme court directly intervened only to reverse itself, not once but twice, leaving undefined and unsettled outcomes.

The litigation in state courts falls into three periods.

1-2013-2015. Total victory for the separatists. 

The circuit court immediately issued an injunction banning the Episcopal diocese from claiming to be the historic diocese. (This allowed the separatists to hold the names and emblems of the old diocese until the federal court ruling of 2019.)

The circuit court held a two-week trial in 2014 favorable to the separatists. In February of 2015, the court published an order entirely in favor of the separatists on the assertion that the Episcopal Church is a congregational organization.

2-2015-2020. Presumed victory of the Episcopal side.

In 2015, the South Carolina Supreme Court held a hearing dismissive of the circuit court decision.

August of 2017, the SCSC issued an opinion with three majority decisions 1)29 of the 36 parishes in question belonged to the Episcopal Church, 2)8 local churches owned their own properties trust-free, and 3)Camp St. Christopher belonged to the Episcopal diocese. It also held that the Episcopal diocese was the one and only heir of the historic diocese. Thus, the Church side won the entity of the old diocese and the bulk of the local churches. The SCSC decision was remitted to the circuit court for implementation.

3-2020-present. Disqualification of presumed TEC victory and a split decision.

The circuit court, to which the SCSC Remittutur had been sent, refused to enact two of the three majority decisions and instead ruled entirely (as the 2015 decision) entirely in favor of the separatists. The TEC side appealed this to the SCSC.

The SCSC discarded the circuit court order and issued new decisions on the local properties contradicting its 2017 majority decisions. In two rulings, April and August of 2022, the SCSC removed 21 of the 29 local churches that the 2017 decision had awarded to the Episcopal side. This left the Episcopal diocese with 8, instead of 29 of the 36 parishes in question. However, the SCSC consistently ruled that the Episcopal diocese was the one and only heir of the historic diocese including Camp St. Christopher.

The SCSC thus released three different, and contradictory opinions, the gist of which was to remove the bulk of local churches from Episcopal Church to local ownership that the original court decision had ordered.

The chaotic behavior of the state courts in the decade of litigation has raised questions about their competency, or politicization.

Meanwhile, there was litigation in federal court. In 2013, the Episcopal Church bishop of lower SC sued the separatist bishop in the United States District Court, in Charleston, for violation of the trademark laws, essentially that the breakaway diocese was fraudulently claiming to be the Episcopal diocese.

In 2019, District Court Judge Richard Gergel ruled that the Episcopal diocese was the only heir of the historic diocese. He also issued an Injunction banning the separatist contingent from claiming in any way to be the Episcopal diocese. Very importantly, this was the first time that a federal court ruled that the Episcopal Church is an hierarchical institution.

The state supreme court and the federal court agreed that the Episcopal diocese was the heir and owner of the historic diocese and its properties. This became a non-issue even though the separatist side appeal Gergel's ruling to the U.S. appeals court. The recent announced settlement said this appeal would be withdrawn. This would settle once and for all the question of which side owns the entity and assets of the pre-schism diocese.

The effects of the state and federal court actions are: the Episcopal side owns the old diocese and all of its assets while the separatists own the bulk of the local churches. This is in effect a split settlement.

Legal issues aside, what about the rest of the schism in the past decade? Let us begin by looking at what happened to the big promises the diocesan leaders made in the run-up to the schism.

1-the diocese was sovereign and could secede from the Episcopal Church at will. 

Both state and federal courts rejected this and ruled in the opposite. Both found that the Episcopal Church had authority over the local diocese. Hence, the Episcopal diocese is legally the heir of the historic diocese.

2-as a result of the All Saints decision of the SCSC in 2009, local churches owned their own properties unless they had committed in writing to make a trust for the Episcopal Church and its diocese. In other words, the local churches could leave TEC and take the property with them.

The SCSC has ruled that this is not the case. If a local church clearly resolved to adhere to the Dennis Canon, it in fact made a trust for the Episcopal Church even though it did not make a separate document creating a specific trust. At last word, the SCSC ruled that eight local churches did in fact make trusts through this manner and therefore belong to the Episcopal diocese.

3-After breaking away from the Episcopal Church, the diocese of SC would remain "Anglican." 

Not necessarily. It depends on how one defines the world "Anglican." The dictionary defines it as one in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Under this, the new diocese is not Anglican. The Archbishop has said repeatedly he does not recognize the present parent denomination of the separatist diocese of SC, the Anglican Church in North America. However, many bishops of GAFCON, the coalition of socially conservative/reactionary bishops mostly in the Third World, have recognized the validity of the separatist diocese of SC. In fact, GAFCON created ACNA as its proxy in the U.S. as a planned replacement of the pro-homosexual rights TEC.

All of the major promises the breakaway leaders made to the people turned out to be untrue in the decade following the break.

Even though predictions turned out to be off, the new diocese persisted in carving itself a certain identity and to differentiate itself from the Episcopal Church.

Since the schism had been prompted by social issues, the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina enforced its stands on these. In 2015, it adopted and made mandatory in the diocese an homophobic "Statement of Faith." In 2017, it joined the ACNA that banned women from offices of authority over men and allowed local dioceses to ban women from the priesthood.

While institutionalizing its social reaction, the ADSC also carried on a demonization campaign of the Episcopal Church. After the SCSC ruled in 2017 in favor of TEC, certain ADSC leaders developed a curriculum for use in local parishes that blasted the supposed wrongs of TEC. It taught essentially that TEC had abandoned true faith. This propaganda campaign was aimed at keeping people from remaining in the buildings after the return of the Episcopal church.

This hard attitude toward their former denomination may well have led to the separatists' rejection of all offers of compromise and settlement up to the present year. In 2015, the Episcopal side offered to give up claim to all local churches in return of the historic diocese (which was then in the possession of the breakaways). The separatists summarily dismissed this offer, and with disdain. They also failed to reach any settlement in the various court-ordered mediations. 

What about the internal state of the ADSC in the past decade? Before the break, diocesan leaders depicted the Episcopal Church as a dying institution. This implied that leaving TEC would lead to new life and vitality. Has It?

The statistics released by ADSC show a different picture. They show constant and relentless decline in membership and participation of their new diocese. As for communicants, in 2011, just before the schism, the 50 churches that adhered to the break listed 21,993. In 2013, the year after the schism, they numbered 17,798, a drop of over 4,000. In 2019, the ADSC listed 11,451 communicants. This means the new diocese has about half as many active members as it has on the eve of the schism, in other words it has lost half its communicants in the decade.

What can we say about the future?

At the time of the schism, I was one of those optimists who believed there would be a reconciliation and settlement in the near term. As the decade has progressed, I have lost my optimism. It was swept away in the deluge of ill-will. I underestimated the depth of the animosity of the separatists to their former church. I now think it is unrealistic to hope for reunion in the foreseeable future. I could be wrong. I often am.

So, without reunion, what is there? Both sides should accept the reality of the situation even though this might be painful. It is in their self-interests to work together in mutual acceptance and respect. They do not have to like each other, but they do have to love each other.

Finally, back to the big picture that is the theme of my blog. The schism in SC is part of a much large struggle for human rights in contemporary society. The Episcopal Church, rightly so in my opinion, has made itself a champion of the worth and dignity of every human being. This has led to dramatic changes for African Americans, women, and homosexuals. The people who disagreed with this movement have a right to their opinions, but they should recognize what this means. 

In the end, vertical religion is the starting place. Every human being should make a conscious attachment to the divine. However, vertical should not be an end in itself. It must evolve into horizontal to reach its mature flowering (faith without words is dead). Human beings were made by God in the image of God to be God's representatives in the world. We are here on a mission. We were given the time of our lives not just for ourselves but for God's work. The Episcopalians of lower South Carolina are doing just that even through the unfortunate trials and tribulations of many years.