Legal wrangling pushes back convention

The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina announced last week it was rescheduling its Diocesan Convention, originally slated to begin March 4 at St. Paul's Church in Summerville, to March 26 so it could "adequately consider a response to (an) unprecedented incursion into the affairs of the diocese," according to a pastoral letter by Bishop Mark Lawrence.

A recent exchange of letters between attorneys, available for viewing on the diocese's newly designed Web site (www.diosc.com), has prompted the delay.

Thomas Tisdale Jr., a lawyer with the Nexsen Pruet firm, wrote to Wade Logan, chancellor for the diocese and a member of the Hagood & Kerr firm, requesting confirmation that Lawrence "intends to take no legal action to protect parish property" and has no plans to discipline clergy who wish to "withdraw" from the church or "to support the loyal Episcopalians ... who are opposed to such efforts."

The Jan. 25 letter comes after four congregations in the diocese -- St. Andrew's, Mount Pleasant; St. Luke's, Hilton Head; St. John's, Johns Island; and Trinity Church, Myrtle Beach -- have modified their bylaws or corporate charters to delete reference to the Episcopal Church, or otherwise expressed intent to disassociate in some way from the governing bodies of the church.

St. Andrew's transferred its property into a land trust last year, and its congregation voted to leave the church and align with the recently formed Anglican Church in North America, an Anglican "province-in-formation" that offers an orthodox alternative to the Episcopal Church.

In other letters, Tisdale asked for a list of people who have been ordained in the diocese since Oct. 24, the date of a special convention during which diocese officials voted to "begin withdrawing from all bodies of The Episcopal Church that have assented to actions contrary to Holy Scripture, the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this Church has received them."

Also requested were minutes from that convention, prefiled resolutions to be discussed during the next convention, standing committee meeting minutes since the beginning of Lawrence's tenure as bishop, mortgage and incorporation documents, property deeds and information about clergy appointments.

In a Feb. 5 response to these letters, Logan wrote that the four parishes have not left the church, and that "the Bishop, as the sovereign authority in this Diocese, will work pastorally with Diocesan parishes and their members in ways that will seek to keep them a part of this Diocese."

Logan refused to answer specific allegations "because I see no useful purpose in arguing what either the Bishop or I did or did not say."

He went on: "It seems transparent that The Episcopal Church is trying very hard to find reasons to involve either the Bishop or the Diocese, or perhaps both, in an adversarial situation."

In his pastoral letter, Lawrence wrote that he is the only bishop with canonical jurisdiction in the diocese and that Tisdale's requests constituted "an unjust intrusion into the spiritual and jurisdictional affairs of this sovereign diocese of The Episcopal Church." He expressed concern that the legal action was part of a "trajectory of the Presiding Bishop's Office to extend powers not attendant with the office."

In a separate statement, the diocese reiterated concerns "regarding both the intent of the legal action by the Presiding Bishop's office and its lack of canonical justification. We are waiting now to hear (Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's) response to these concerns before considering any further actions or statements."

The Diocese of South Carolina, which oversees the coastal half of the state, long has voiced its opposition to what it perceives as the liberal drift of the Episcopal Church concerned more with multiculturalism and political correctness than with the authority of Scripture.

The church has insisted that its actions are consistent with Anglican tradition, Scripture and the rights of an autonomous ecclesiastical body.

Reach Adam Parker at aparker@postandcourier.com.