THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THIS BLOG

Today, September 11, 2023, marks the tenth anniversary of this blog. The first entry was on Sept. 11, 2013. My original purpose was twofold: to inform the public of interactions of the two entities post-schism, and to update the public on my progress in writing a history of the schism. I had never had a blog before, and I really had no idea of how things would unfold. Still, I felt it important enough to play it by ear and see how matters occurred after the "divorce" of 2012. Looking back, I am astonished at what happened after the schism, how it happened, and its effects.

It has been a wild roller coaster ride, and one I could never have imagined beforehand. I have always said it is best that we do not know the future. There were two big issues coming out of the schism: who owned the old diocese and who owned the local churches. On the diocese, at first the breakaways insisted they owned it. They got a ruling and injunction from the circuit court to support this. Then, six years later, the federal court said no, the old diocese was the exclusive property of the Episcopal Church. The judge even issued an injunction against the separatists and then twice found them in contempt of court over their violations. On the second issue, local churches, 36 went to court against the Episcopal Church claiming the local properties. The circuit court agreed. Then, the state supreme court said no, 29 of the 36 in question actually belonged to the Episcopal diocese. And then, the lower court said no to that, all local churches owned their own properties. A couple of years later, the state supreme court said no both to itself and the lower court and ruled that 15 of the 36 actually belonged to the Episcopal Church, and then turned around and said on third thought, only 8 of the 36 really belonged to TEC. Perhaps Mr. Toad's Wild Wide would be a good analogy. 

As we know now, the diocesan leadership planned the schism. It was not a spontaneous accident. In fact, they had been laying the groundwork within the diocese for many years. In that time, the anti-Episcopal leadership had a virtual monopoly over the public message in the diocese and it was unrelenting in its criticism of the national church. Nevertheless, the pro-Church party in the diocese, although a nearly ignored minority, did not remain silent. Two forces fought back against the increasingly obvious aims of the leadership. The Episcopal Forum tried its best to defend loyalty to the Episcopal Church. The indomitable Steve Skardon provided the only exposure of the shenanigans of the anti-Church leadership. For years, his blog was the sole source of information not controlled by the diocesan leadership. He has not received enough credit for his hard and long work for truth. The next time you see him, give him a big "Thank You."

Slow to catch on at first, my blog gradually became the second favorite read on the ongoing status of the schism, after Skardon's. In the ten years, there have been over a million hits on its one thousand posts. It proved to be in such demand that after I published my history of the schism, in 2017, I decided to continue the blog to help people stay informed of the still unfolding saga of separation. Here are then ten most popular blog posts:

1-CHRONOLOGY. 15,200 hits. A detailed listing of significant events concerning the schism in time order. 

2-CERT DENIED. 12,400 hits. June 11, 2018. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to accept the appeal of the separatists challenging the SC Supreme Court ruling of 2017.

3-THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 6,850 hits. Aug. 26, 2017. I, along with everyone else, assumed the SCSC decision of Aug. 2, 2017 was final. 

4-A REMARKABLE BISHOP, A REMARKABLE THREE AND A HALF YEARS. 5,310 hits. Sept. 1, 2016. Showing the strength of the Episcopal diocese in the first few years after the break.

5-A NEW LETTER TO THIS EDITOR. 2,710 hits. July 2, 2018. The Rev. Rob Donehue won the blue ribbon with the most popular letter to the editor.

6-BREAKING NEWS!! SC SUPREME COURT RENDERS DECISION. 5,310 hits. Aug. 2, 2017. After five years of litigation, the SCSC handed down a "decision." No one could know this was not a final decision. 

7-SEPTEMBER 10, 2018--LETTER TO THIS EDITOR. 2,240 hits. Sept. 10, 2018. Wayne Helmly's eloquent letter was the second most popular letter to the editor.

8-SOURCES. 2,240 hits. 2017+. A bibliography of the primary and secondary sources of the schism in SC.

9-SPIN CYCLE. 1,800 hits. Aug. 1, 2018. Compilation of first hand accounts of Bishop Lawrence's talk in Sumter. At the time, everyone assumed 29 of the 36 local churches would be returned to TEC.

10-GOING OUT. 1,640 hits. Mar. 14, 2018. Report on Bishop Lawrence's somber address to the diocesan convention when everyone thought 29 parishes were to be returned to TEC.

Since the SCSC decision of 2017 turned out not to be final, I thought about compiling a second volume of the history of the schism to bring the story up to date over the past six years or to revise the original history to add new material. However, I doubt seriously that I will be able to do either. Age is catching up with me and my eyesight is probably not up to the hours of pouring over small print that would be required. In a way this is a shame because I have faithfully collected all the public documents of events all these years. My house is bulging with stacks of paper. However, I am not closing the door. Perhaps the Holy Spirit has other ideas.

Meanwhile, my history of the schism is still in print and easily available on Amazon. So far, the publisher has kept the book in print, for six years, but they could take it out of print at any time. If anyone else wants a copy he or she would be wise to go ahead and get it.

Likewise, I have no control over the existence of the blog. This blog space is provided free to me by Google. They own the space, not I. I suppose at any time Google could decide to eliminate my blog. It would be their right. Therefore, people who are seriously interested in the events of the schism should print out "Chronology," at least from Aug. 2, 2017 (the end of the book) because it is a detailed listing of litigation, and other matters, up to the present day. If Google should remove my blog they would be removing Chronology too.

"Sources" is a bibliography of the source material of the schism. It needs to be edited and brought up to date since it is six years old. I will work on that the next time I go to the duPont library at Sewanee. It has been a while since I have driven the couple of hours to "the mountain."

It is interesting to note that readership of my blog has fallen off sharply in the past few months. This is understandable since the bulk of the schism has been settled. I suspect the general feeling among the public now is to accept the reality and move on. Most people passed the point of exhaustion with the schism long ago. I have considered discontinuing the blog but there are still people who want to read what I have to say and, besides, I cannot resist a "classroom." I signed my first contract to teach in college when I was 22 years old.

Too, the schism is not over. There are still loose ends to be wrapped up, and who knows when all of this will occur? There is still an active court case, the separatists suit against TEC for payments for "betterments," that is, improvements the occupants made on the properties returned to the Episcopal diocese. It is not a strong case and I expect it to be tossed out, but this has not happened yet. Moreover, the circuit court is sitting on the Remittitur from the SCSC to effectuate the SCSC ruling on the local parishes and the other decisions.

Then there is the question of what is to happen to the Church of the Good Shepherd, in West Ashley, Charleston. The separatists there appealed to the SCSC but the court rejected the appeal and ordered the property to be handed over to the Episcopal diocese. The breakaways have left the property. On yesterday they started meeting at the Northbridge Baptist Church, on Sam Rittenberg Blvd. I have not seen any announcement from the Episcopal diocese about what they plan to do with the now vacant property. I have seen nothing about an Episcopal clergyperson to develop a congregation. In fact, the original worshiping group of West Ashley, that went by the name of St. Francis, has dissolved as the members have moved into nearby Episcopal parishes. These people were mostly refugees from Old St. Andrew's. So, we are all awaiting word from the diocese about what is to happen to the Good Shepherd buildings. It is a desirable location, near the entrance to Charles Towne Landing.

In looking back over the last decade, it would be easy to despair. The ruins of a once great diocese, one of the original nine that founded the Episcopal Church in the 1780's, are still smoldering. The original goal of the anti-Episcopal movement in the 1990's was political. Deep-pocket right wing forces resolved to destroy, or at least severely wound, the Episcopal Church in order to diminish its "liberal" influence in American life. In South Carolina, they found willing allies in the diocese who were pushed by evangelicalism and its parallel socio-cultural conservatism. Spurred on by homophobia and misogyny in defiance of the general movement of the national church, the leaders of the Diocese of South Carolina resolved to remove the bulk of the diocese from the errant larger church. They told their followers they could take the diocese with them, they could keep their local properties, and they could remain in the Anglican Communion. None of this was true. But,  that did not matter to most people in the new diocese either.

Not only did the promises turn out to be false, but it quickly became evident that the schism would not be popular. Every metric of church membership in the separatist diocese has shown significant decline in the decade of the schism. Baptized membership dropped from 23,187 in 2013 to 18,130 today. Active members fell sharply from 17,798 in 2013 to 11,637 today. Average Sunday Attendance has declined from 9,292 to 8,353. All of the large parishes, except Church of the Cross in booming Bluffton, have witnessed falling numbers of active members. St. Philip's, of Charleston, went from 2,677 communicants before the schism to 1,249 today. At nearby St. Michael's, the numbers fell from 1,847 before the schism to 747 now. Budgets in the new diocese struggled to keep even, actually declining significantly accounting for inflation. The new diocese joined the Anglican Church in North America which, in spite of its name, is not in the Anglican Communion. It is a separate and independent Christian denomination, and one explicitly formed to keep women and gays from equality and inclusion.

The human and other cost of all this is something even I do not want to contemplate today. I estimate the cost of the litigation has been in the neighborhood of $10m. We will probably never know the true amount since neither side is forthcoming.

So, after all is said and done, what good came from the schism? How is anyone better off? It is imperative the we find some good or we will simply drift off into endless despair. I suppose the good we see will depend on where we stand. Just speaking for myself, I see an Episcopal diocese that is brimming with a remarkable zest for human rights. Such a thing was unthinkable in the diocese before 2012. All around I see good church people fighting for the rights all all, gays, women, blacks, the handicapped, you name it. We are called to love one another, not to stand in judgment on them. This I see in wonderful abundance in the new flowering of one of the oldest of all dioceses. This is a new day. This is a new birth. This is the good legacy I see of the schism.

Where do we go from here? We go on doing what we believe is the right thing to do. I regret deeply the choices of the majority of the clergy and laity of the diocese in 2012. They brought needless pain and disruption in the Body of Christ. However, I do not question their motives. One can never know what is in another's heart. I question their choices. We can all see the destruction they have caused.

What will happen in the next ten years? God only knows. It is best we do not. We are called to go on to the end keeping the faith and fighting the good fight. The Episcopalians of South Carolina did not ask for the schism, did not deserve it, but when the hour came, they did not shrink from doing the right thing even when it was very hard to do. They are my heroes and this blog is for them.