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Episcopal bishop cleared of ‘abandonment’ charge - The Washington Post:
The Episcopal bishop of South Carolina, who has distanced his diocese from the national denomination since its sanction of openly gay bishops, has not “abandoned” the Episcopal Church, a church committee announced Monday (Nov. 28).
Bishop Mark Lawrence, an outspoken conservative, has said that he wants to remain part of the Episcopal Church, even as he decries its “false gospel of indiscriminate inclusivity.”
The Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire in 2004, and a lesbian priest as an assistant bishop in Los Angeles last year.
In protest, the South Carolina diocese, which covers the eastern portion of the state, has declared itself “sovereign” within the national denomination, rejected the leadership of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and withdrawn from some governing committees.
However, the church’s Disciplinary Board for Bishops “was unable to make the conclusions essential to a certification that Bishop Lawrence had abandoned the communion of the church,” said Bishop Dorsey Henderson, the panel’s chairman.
'via Blog this'
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Virtue Online
The Episcopal Church's Disciplinary Board for Bishops concluded this week that South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence has not abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church and dropped all charges against him.
It was a revelatory moment that most orthodox Episcopalians, including this writer, thought would never happen.
The Rt. Rev. Dorsey Henderson, President of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops, said the eighteen-person Board could not muster a majority to charge the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence of South Carolina with "abandonment of the Communion of this Church." Under Title IV, Canon 16, a bishop is deemed to have abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church by an open renunciation of the doctrine, discipline or worship of the church; by formal admission into any religious body not in communion with the church; or by exercising episcopal acts in and for a religious body other than the church or another church in communion with the church.
"Applied strictly to the information under study, none of these three provisions was deemed applicable by a majority of the board," Henderson said in his statement.
Canon Law Attorney A.S. Haley called it a clumsy attempt to take seriously the allegations of "abandonment" lodged by dissidents from Bishop Lawrence's own Diocese, who tried to turn his steadfast insistence on the central importance of Holy Scripture to the life of the Church into a case for his abandonment of it. Haley called the charges "childish."
Bishop Henderson, stung by the vehemence with which his initial announcement of "serious charges" against Bishop Lawrence was greeted, appears to have been unable to refrain from letting loose a parting shot, even as he retreated from the fray in ignominy, declaring, "I speak for myself only at this point, that I presently take the Bishop at his word, and hope that the safety he seeks for the apparent majority in his diocese within the larger Church will become the model for safety-a "safe place"- for those under his episcopal care who do not agree with the actions of South Carolina's convention and/or his position on some of the issues of the Church."
You should know that the language of "safe place" is pansexualist code in The Episcopal Church for letting them believe and act out their sexual fantasies and behaviors without fear of retribution. TEC is not a "safe place" by and large for orthodox Episcopalians except for this diocese (and one or two others) that has established a beachhead for evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics who may need a safe diocese when they are pushed out of dioceses like Newark, Massachusetts and Los Angeles.
It is doubly ironic that Henderson used the term "safe place" because the minority Forum crowd who number a mere 1,000 in the diocese (of 25,000) and who oppose Bishop Lawrence are not homosexuals looking for a "safe place", but liberals who erroneously believed that Lawrence was going to take the diocese out of The Episcopal Church.
Henderson talked about the orthodox as an "apparent majority." What "apparent" is there? They ARE the majority in the diocese. Would Henderson have been so caustic in his comments if the majority were liberals, progressivists, gays and lesbians and the minority were orthodox? Would he say to a liberal/revisionist bishop, "Please model for safety-a "safe place"- for those under your Episcopal care." Don't hold your breath. Henderson is as pro gay as you will find in the HOB. The fact he could not muster a majority to sink Lawrence doesn't mean he and they won't try again.
Bishop Lawrence repeatedly stated that he had no intention of leading the diocese out of The Episcopal Church - that he only sought a safe place within the Church to live the Christian faith as that diocese perceived it.
One of the more spurious charges (the 12th) is the allegation surrounding the circumstances of the ordination of Lawrence's son. The truth is, he did not lay hands on his son; that was done by Bishop Alden Hathaway witnessed by retired Bishop of South Carolina C. FitzSimmons Allison.
At all times, Lawrence stood on the sacred ground of Holy Scripture in his pronouncements, not canons making his position inviolable. He never hounded the Forum crowd or told them to leave (as countless liberal bishops have done to minority orthodox in their dioceses). Unlike liberal bishops who won't even allow graduates from Trinity School for Ministry into their diocese, Lawrence made no such stipulation. He and other orthodox bishops are living proof that they are far more "liberal" in allowing priests who disagree with them to find a "safe place" in their dioceses. Just ask Albany Bishop William Love how he has had to contend with liberals in his diocese. My God, the man even allowed Mrs. Jefferts Schori to celebrate recently in his diocese. At other times HOD President Bonnie Anderson has done nothing but make trouble whenever she comes into his diocese.
Please note that the action by the Disciplinary Board did not include the quitclaim action. This was not included in the original material submitted to the board. Lawrence told the "Living Church' on Nov. 23 that he issued the quitclaim deed in part because "the threat of property disputes" should not be "the only thing that holds us together." Diocesan Chancellor Wade Logan on Nov. 16 sent a quitclaim deed to every parish in the diocese. A quitclaim deed generally transfers ownership of the property from the party issuing the deed to the recipient.
"Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom, not the keys to the building," Logan said at that time.
So there is the possibility that the national church will find another way to get back at Lawrence. God forbid he should get a good night's sleep.
The truth is TEC's pansexual steamroller will brook no opposition. The passage of General Convention resolutions D025 and D056 make it almost mandatory for the church's revisionists to muster faux outrage at the Disciplinary Board's decision and ponder action of their own.
(Resolution D025 affirms "that God has called and may call" gay and lesbian people "to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church." Resolution C056 calls for the collection and development of theological resources for the blessing of same-gender blessings and allows bishops to provide "a generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church.")
There is little doubt that there is much gnashing of teeth at 815 2nd Avenue in New York over the Disciplinary Board's decision, but as Mrs. Jefferts Schori has repeatedly said, she has had no decision of influence in making the claims and therefore had nothing to do with whatever the outcome might be. She can hardly complain, at least publicly.
For the moment, Lawrence can breathe easily. He has beaten the Dennis Canon in the courts and his parishes are free to make whatever decisions they like about their future without fear of retribution from him. There will be no lawsuits being dealt out like cards in a poker hand as they have been in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
We await the next shoe to drop.
In a letter to the diocese following the decision Bishop Lawrence said the the statement leaves many questions unanswered - "frankly, to my mind it appears to read like a complex statement of a complex decision in a complex time within a complex church.
"Nevertheless, I believe it is best to take it at face value (even while noting that this diocese has not recognized the constitutionality of the new disciplinary canon). For now given no more allegations from anonymous sources within the diocese it is my hope we can all get back to focusing our full attention on proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and to Glory of God the Father that the Church here in the Diocese of South Carolina may add daily to its number those who are being saved."
