South Carolina Court Ruling in the All Saints Pawleys Lawsuit Against the Diocese of South Carolina Finally Occurs
May 1st, 2007

A South Carolina state judge has ruled that the minority of the members of the parish of All Saints, Waccamaw in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina who remained loyal to the Episcopal Church do, in fact, constitute All Saints’ Episcopal congregation.

The ruling arose from two different lawsuits, the earliest filed in 2000, over the issue of who owns the 50-acre campus that is also home to the breakaway Anglican Mission in America (AMiA). One of the cases arose in 2000 when the Diocese of South Carolina filed a public notice that All Saints, subject to applicable canon law, holds its property in trust for the diocese and the Episcopal Church as a whole. Attorneys for the diocese said that the notice was filed “out of concern that All Saints might attempt to convey its property” to the AMiA.

The parish then sued to have the diocesan notice removed from public records, claiming that legal title belonged entirely to the parish. The parish said they simply complied with diocesan canons as a “matter of courtesy.”

A majority of the All Saints’ congregation voted in late 2003 to amend the parish’s certificate of incorporation to omit references to the Episcopal Church and then to separate from the Episcopal Church.

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