Click on the letter for the larger view.
In other words, we have a secret. We know you are anxious and concerned, but we can't allay your anxiety and concern quite yet, because it would be imprudent to reveal the secret at this time. Sorry about that. Although the decision has been made, the situation remains fluid and requires discernment, thus you must be patient for a while longer.
Unless the letter is written in code that only the in-group in the diocese understands, the gist of the communication is so very immature that it could have come from a child of elementary school age were the language less high-flown. One is left puzzled wondering if the decision (whatever it is) was premature. Is it possible the course of action could change in response to discernment on the fluid situation? The bishop assures the members of the diocese that the leaders "are progressing" and have not "stopped or dropped the ball". If the decision is already made, then why the hesitation in disclosure?
But why am I surprised? The letter is typical +Mark Lawrence. Will he or won't he take the diocese and himself out of the Episcopal Church? The bishop or any member of the diocese is free to leave the Episcopal Church at any time, as the church does not hold its members in chains. My guess is that the "discernment" is about finding a way to take church property with them if and when they depart the Episcopal Church and a way for the diocese to claim to be still a part of the Anglican Communion. Of course, I could be wrong, and I hope I am. The matter remains of the vows +Lawrence made at his ordination as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I,Mark Lawrence, chosen Bishop of the Church in South Carolina, solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church.H/T to Mark Harris at Preludium, who brought the letter to my attention.
Is premature evacuation a fluid situation? Don't blame me, blame...well, me. This kind of behavior just drives me crazy.
ReplyDeleteOh Bex, I don't blame you. I say, me too, to the crazy-making. I ask myself why I don't simply ignore +Mark Lawrence, but I can't.
DeleteFWIW, +Mark and Jack Iker have been hug-dancing for a long time...
ReplyDeleteOh boy, now there's a mental image :D Now I have to go scrub out my brain with naptha and Brillo pads...
DeleteWaitinginFW, I know; I know. I don't understand how the members of the diocese who agree with +Lawrence put up with the secrecy - whatever it is that they might agree with. Do they even know?
DeleteMark Lawrence's arms would come together somewhere above the top of Jack Iker's head, David, so it shouldn't be that difficult an image to scrub away.
DeleteHa ha. See what you've started, Bex.
DeleteWaitingInFW, you're hardly off the hook for your contribution to the madness.
DeleteYep, GM, I did contribute!! But as you know there has been much madness, both the crazy kind and the laughable kind. And sometimes we just have to laugh about it to keep from crying. So many people have been hurt, in more dioceses than the Famous Four (will Lawrence make it Five?), and so many of those who walked away haven't a clue what the Good Ol' Boys were up to when they led them to the Southern Cone, or wherever. And they still don't. Pity that SC for the most part doesn't have a clue. It's just too bad that TEC can't take some kind of preemptive strike, but that's not the way Episcopalians do things.
DeleteYes, sometimes you have to laugh, or you cry. +Lawrence is such a prima donna since he became bishop. And there are still those pesky vows...
DeleteI know. It's my fault. I'll just run to the store now and pick up a big bottle of brain bleach.
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ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because I have been estranged from the Episcopal Church for 25 years and don't always follow its news very closely, but this kind of diocesan drama seems so 1976 to me!
ReplyDeleteJames, older than 1976 I believe. This sort of drama goes as far back as the history of the Christian church, though it's true that Episcopalians may have their own particular flavor of drama.
DeleteOf course you're right, and it's odd that it didn't occur to me, since I have been reading Spong, Ehrman and Co. and so should have the contentious history of Christianity on a front burner of my brain. Maybe I should be more sympathetic towards the secessionists, especially since I sort of seceded personally for a quarter of a century!
DeleteJames, the secessionists, if such they are, should do whatever they think best, but if they go, they should not attempt to take property with them. The dioceses hold the property in trust for the Episcopal Church as a whole. In other words, it's a bit like dying: you can't take it with you.
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