South Carolina expelled from the Episcopal Church

October 18, 2012
by George Conger

The Diocese of South Carolina has been pushed out of the Episcopal Church of the USA. The involuntary secession of the 29,000-member diocese comes as charges have been brought against its bishop, the Rt Rev Mark Lawrence for allegedly “abandoning” the communion of the Episcopal Church.

On 17 October 2012 a statement printed on the Diocese’s Website said that two days earlier Bishop Lawrence had been notified by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori that on 18 September 2012 “the Disciplinary Board for Bishops had certified his abandonment of The Episcopal Church.”

The diocese reported that Bishop Lawrence was “notified of these actions taken by the Episcopal Church between two meetings, one held on October 3 and one to be held on October 22, which Bishop Andrew Waldo of the Upper Diocese of South Carolina and Bishop Lawrence had set up with the Presiding Bishop to find a peaceful alternative to the growing issues between The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of South Carolina. The meetings were to explore ‘creative solutions’ for resolving these issues to avoid further turmoil in the Diocese and in The Episcopal Church.” the rest

Diocesan website: Episcopal Church Takes Action Against the Bishop and Diocese of SC

Post and Courier: Bishop Mark Lawrence said to have abandoned Episcopal Church

A.S. Haley: There They Go Again...
It has been obvious for quite some time that the Episcopal Church (USA) has wanted to pick a fight with Bishop Lawrence and his Diocese of South Carolina, one of the larger and more successful in the Church. But success in winning new communicants has never counted for much ever since the advent of the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori to head up ECUSA. No, what counts far more in her book is subordination to her metropolitical delusions of grandeur.

So it was entirely predictable that the Bandit Bishop would make the first move, acting through her new Disciplinary Board for Bishops (the existence of which the Diocese of South Carolina does not recognize). The announcement that sets out all the details, recently posted on the Diocese’s Website, has been published here at SF in this post.

The details included in the announcement show a considerable degree of forethought and planning on the Diocese’s part. ECUSA’s move automatically triggered amendments to the diocesan constitution which resulted in the immediate disaffiliation of one of the Church’s oldest dioceses, and the calling of a Special Convention (to decide, among other things, with which branch of faithful Anglicans the Diocese will affiliate next)....

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Stand Firm:
TEC Moves Against South Carolina Bishop and Diocese; Special Convention Called and The Earth Shifted: Rage, Revisionists & Responses for The Diocese of South Carolina