A.S Haley: What in the World Is Going on in South Carolina?

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Things are about to get a whole lot more interesting in South Carolina. Bishop Mark Lawrence and the Standing Committee of the Diocese have announced a postponement of the annual convention which had been scheduled for next month. The reason for the postponement is a series of letters written by South Carolina attorney (and former diocesan chancellor!) Thomas S. Tisdale, Jr. to the current chancellor of the Diocese, Wade H. Logan, III.

The letters constitute truly one of the most remarkable sets of communication from one church attorney to another that this church attorney has ever seen. The first is dated January 25, and starts out as though it were just one colleague writing to another -- not on behalf of any particular client, mind you: the rest

Nevertheless, under the current regime at ECUSA, we must assume that the letters from former chancellor Tisdale are the precursors to an attempt to depose Bishop Lawrence on (false) charges of "abandonment." There would otherwise be no reason for the Presiding Bishop or her chancellor to agree to pay Mr. Tisdale to write no less than eight separate letters to try to gather the "evidence."

And if the Presiding Bishop thinks she can accomplish in South Carolina what she did in Pittsburgh -- depose the sitting bishop, and install a puppet who can serve as a figurehead in any lawsuit -- then that is just what she will try to do.