ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA REAFFIRMS ITS MISOGYNY

The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina held its annual meeting last weekend. The highlight of the event was to reaffirm the diocese's historic misogyny. Misogyny is defined as contempt for, dislike of, or ingrained prejudice against women. The schism of 2012 came about in part because of this. Then, the diocese solidified its stand by joining, in 2017, the Anglican Church in North America that does not allow women to be bishops, that is, for females to exercise ecclesiastical authority over males. 

Only a few weeks ago, I, for one, held out high hopes of a change of heart with the incident at the Mere Anglicanism conference in Charleston. An invited speaker got up and trashed Women's Ordination (ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood) in his presentation. The conference manager and Bishop Edgar promptly bounced the man from future speaking on the grounds of his offensive remarks on WO. However, it may have been more complicated than that since the manager had apparently wanted the speaker to trash Critical Race Theory and the speaker had unexpectedly veered off into an anti-WO attack. At any rate, some of the women present apparently gave the speaker pieces of their minds. At that, I thought, great, wonderful, the ADSC is finally seeing the light on equal rights for women. Alas, I was wrong. The ADSC has not changed. The diocesan convention of last weekend has brought me back down to reality.

Among the resolutions presented to the 300-plus attendees of the convention were R-4, R-5, and R-6. These had been drawn up by a task force of two men and two women and had been approved by the Standing Committee. The resolutions were entirely about creating gender neutral language. Words like "clergymen" would be changed to "clergy." "Chairman" would become "chairperson," and so forth. At first, I thought to myself, these are slam dunk votes. Who in the world would oppose such common sensible revisions in this day and age? I was wrong, again. The resolutions required a two-thirds vote in both orders. All three were voted down. Yes, that is right. The ADSC reaffirmed its long-standing misogyny by rejecting even as innocuous resolutions as ones for gender neutral language. Unfortunately, the REPORT gives us no details about the votes, just to say they all failed.

In his Bishop's Address to the convention last week, Bishop Edgar said the diocese was "growing." He described the two new local churches. I suppose one could say in terms of numbers of local churches, the ADSC is expanding but what about overall popular participation? Are people joining or leaving the ADSC? From the data provided by the ADSC itself and posted on their website, we see that, in the decade after the schism, the ADSC baptized membership fell from 23,181 to 18,130. Its communicant numbers declined from 17,798 to 11,673 while its Average Sunday Attendance slipped from 9,292 to 8,353. Find the details HERE . By what stretch of the imagination could anyone call this "growing"? 

The unwelcomed truth is staring Bishop Edgar in the face. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina is now and has been since the schism, on a trajectory of relentless and alarming decline in membership. No amount of Trumpesque spin can change the facts. Instead of denying reality, the diocesan leadership would be better off embracing this existential crisis head on right now. That is not happening. Ignoring and/or denying the facts will only magnify the problem that in the not too distant future the ADSC will be forced to confront whether they want to or not.

There were several other points in the convention that caught my eye, namely in the proposed resolutions. R-1 started: "Whereas this diocese...[is] a historic diocese in the ACNA and the larger Anglican Communion." WRONG. "This diocese" was created when the majority of clergy and laity of the Diocese of South Carolina left the Episcopal Church in 2012. It joined ACNA in 2017. That is not "historic." Moreover, the ADSC is not now and has never been in the Anglican Communion. It has gained recognition and support of some provinces of the Anglican Communion but it is not in the Anglican Communion. 

Even more concerning from a legal standpoint is R-2 which read "Whereas, in 1973 the Diocese incorporated as a non-profit corporation." WRONG. The diocese that incorporated in 1973 was the Diocese of South Carolina, aka the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. That diocese continued on during and after the schism of 2012. The entity that now calls itself the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina did not exist before October 15, 2012. If the ADSC has been incorporated since then, I am not aware of it. Perhaps someone else knows if it has been. 

This is no small issue. In 2019, the federal court in Charleston ruled that the Episcopal diocese was the one and only heir of the historic, i.e. pre-schism, diocese. Moreover, the judge issued an Injunction forbidding the new diocese from claiming in any way to be the historic diocese. By and large, the Anglicans ignored it. Then, the judge found TWICE that the ADSC was in contempt of court by continuing to refer to itself as the historic diocese. If the ADSC is now claiming that it incorporated in 1973, it seems to me the Episcopal diocese can haul them into court for a FOURTH time. And we were told the war was over. 

While the secessionists were retreating into their questionable defenses, the Episcopal diocese forged ahead enacting the principles it had championed all along. Nothing showed this better than the recent hiring of a rector at St. Anne's Episcopal Church, in Conway. A partnered, gay, man was unanimously chosen by the search committee and the vestry. To my knowledge, sexual orientation was never even mentioned in the hiring process. It was irrelevant, as it should be. Again, as far as I know, this is the first time a gay, partnered rector has been hired in the EDSC. It is high time after all it has been a decade since the schism. In my view, St. Anne's is very fortunate to gain this young man. He is Phi Beta Kappa from Sewanee.

In the end, all of this brings us back to the big picture of what we have known all along. The schism in SC was a local aspect of a much larger culture war going on in America, and to some extent, in the world. The Twentieth Century produced a massive impetus towards democracy in which freedom, equality, and inclusion was extended to all elements of society. The Episcopal Church picked up the ball on this and reformed the prayer book, gave women rights to ordination all the way to bishop, gave blacks equality and inclusion for the first time, and extended equal rights and inclusion to homosexual persons. However, a backlash formed led by the people who felt most threatened by the huge rush of democratic reforms, mainly white men. Historically, they had seen America as their own country. Now, they were going to be required to share power with others. It was more than many would accept. Hence, the rise of a strong anti-democratic reaction, most visibly shown in the candidacy of Donald Trump who openly promises to end our constitutional democracy. The Election of 2024 will decide which of the two historic forces is stronger, democracy or anti-democracy.

Nothing on the local scene tells us more about the strength of the anti-democratic reaction than the ADSC's convention vote last Saturday to reject gender neutral language in the constitution and canons of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina. Plus ça change, plus c'est la mème chose.