S.C. JUDGE DENIES EPISCOPAL CHURCH REQUEST TO EXPAND LAWSUIT TO INCLUDE DIOCESE STANDING COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND TRUSTEES

Press release:

CHARLESTON, SC, October 3, 2013 – South Carolina Circuit Judge Diane S. Goodstein released her decision yesterday that the Episcopal Church (TEC) and its local remnant, the Episcopal Church in South Carolina (ECSC) cannot expand their counterclaims against the Diocese of South Carolina to include almost two dozen parishioners who voluntarily serve as diocesan Trustees and members of the Diocese’s Standing Committee.

In her decision, Judge Goodstein wrote, “This court finds that the individual leaders whom Defendants seek to join as Counterclaim Plaintiffs are entitled to immunity” under state law. She also wrote that “adding the additional defendants would be futile.”

In the spring, TEC and ECSC had sought to broaden their lawsuit against the diocese to include dozens of diocesan volunteers, threatening to hold them financially liable. They filed to add these additional defendants to their lawsuit after attempting to move the entire matter to U.S. District Court, where a federal judge decided the issue would best be heard in South Carolina circuit court.
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The Real Story Behind the Diocese of SC Split With TEC
By: the Rev. Jim Lewis
Canon to the Ordinary
Diocese of South Carolina

Much has been written about the Diocese of South Carolina’s separation from The Episcopal Church (TEC) – and most of it has been wrong.

Virtually all the articles suggest our diocese left because TEC ordained a gay bishop. That’s just not true. The diocese separated last year, nine years after TEC elected its first, non-celibate, gay bishop – and only after the denomination tried to strip all authority from our bishop, the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence.

Though media insist our motive for leaving is our difference with TEC’s policies on the ordination of gay bishops and same-sex marriage, the real issues are rooted in the 1970s,well before Gene Robinson became the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in 2003...