Loading ...One of largest U.S. Episcopal parishes exits
flockwoodSt. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. voted 97 percent to 3 percent on Sunday to leave the Episcopal Church , according to The Living Church.
The vote, 703-19, was announced early Monday afternoon. Asked by one of my colleagues for comment on Monday evening, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori indicated she was unaware of the developments. As soon as I get something from her office, I’ll post it.
March 31st, 2010 at 1:39 pm
I knew when Mark Lawrence was finally installed as bishop there, these kinds of things would happen. Don’t get me wrong: If people want to leave the church, fine, let them leave. But I consider it the worst sort of bad faith for a guy like Lawrence, who clearly wants to take the entire diocese out of the church to seek, be elected to, and accept the position of Bishop under the rules of the Episcopal Church when he has no desire to follow those rules.
He has apparently picked a fight with the national church, which has sicced its lawyers on him. No good will come of his election, and the people of South Carolina will suffer.
March 31st, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Got that right. Why have a civilized and Christian separation with conservative Anglicans keeping their buildings when you can kick out the congregation and then sell their facility to Muslims at 2/3 off? What kind of “stewardship” is Mark Lawrence practicing here?
March 31st, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I didn’t realize they had any buildings; I thought the buildings belonged to the appropriate Diocese of the Episcopal Church, not some breakaway group. But, given that Lawrence apparently wants to give the buildings away, your question about his stewardship is well taken. One wonders if he’d have been confirmed if he’d been honest about his intentions; he wasn’t, so we’ll never know.