BISHOP MARK LAWRENCE'S RECENT PASTORAL LETTER

In Bishop Mark Lawrence's recent pastoral letter to the members of the Diocese of South Carolina, the bishop seems distressed by the request for certain documents from the diocese and a number of the churches within the diocese by the office of the Presiding Bishop. I read over the letters of request by the attorney for the PB's office, Thomas Tisdale, to Wade Logan, Chancellor of the diocese, and I see no reason why the diocese objects to supplying the documents. Of course, I have no special knowledge of canon law nor of the law of the land.  The bishop asserts that he is the only bishop with canonical jurisdiction in the diocese, and he, along with his Standing Committee, claim sovereignty for the Diocese of South Carolina. Note that "Episcopal" is missing from the name of the diocese.

My first thoughts upon reading Bishop Mark Lawrence's letter were, "Whining, self-pitying, and sanctimonious!" - which led me to wonder if, in his letter, Bishop Lawrence is setting up his case for a claim of persecution by the office of the Presiding Bishop against him and his doocese.

Bishop Lawrence counsels against a unilateral, precipitous response to the "unjust intrusions", "provocative interference", and "unprecedented incursions" into the affairs of the diocese.

In the service for the Ordination of a Bishop in the Episcopal Church, Mark Lawrence was asked:

Will you guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church?

He answered:

I will, for the love of God.

One presumes that Mark Lawrence affirmed the statement in the knowledge that "the Church" meant the Episcopal Church.

Surely statements such as the one below from his address to the Special Convention of his diocese had nothing to do with the request for documents:

Surely most of you know that I believe the foundations of The Episcopal Church and this Anglican way of being a Christian are being bit by bit destroyed.
....

This false teaching, that I have called the Gospel of Indiscriminate Inclusivity, has challenged the doctrine of the Trinity, the Uniqueness and Universality of Christ, the Authority of Scripture, our understanding of Baptism, and now that last refuge of order, our Constitutions and Canons. (This is the kudzu.)
....

The General Convention has become the problem. It has replace a balanced piety in this Church with the politics of one-dimensional activism.

And his mantra repeated no less than five times:

"When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Ps 11:3)