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An Open Letter to Sewanee Vice Chancellor McCardell Concerning Status of Diocese of South Carolina
From VirtueOnline: The Voice of Global Orthodox Anglicanism
David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
November 20, 2012
Dear Dr. McCardell,
As Vice Chancellor of Sewanee: University of the South, you must be distressed over the horrific news about the long anticipated schism between the Diocese of South Carolina, an owning diocese of the University, and The Episcopal Church, headquartered at 815 Second Avenue in New York City.
VOL's sources tell us that the ugly turmoil will hurt Sewanee's fundraising efforts among South Carolina's finest Episcopalians and best alumni. If this is untrue, please respond accordingly, and I will share the news.
Given the seriousness and rapidity of recent harsh developments for the worse, the Anglican Communion and the Sewanee community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and donors can no longer wait for your much anticipated and needed statement about the general conditions of the breach; therefore, as the editor of the leading and most reliable Anglican alternative news website, I am posting online this letter of inquiry.
You may reply directly to me, and I will respectfully post your response in a follow up news story.david@virtueonline.org
Your own Low Country South Carolina cottage is located in a safe and non diverse section of beautiful and historic Old Beaufort, which makes St. Helena your home parish. St. Helena still claims membership in Bishop Mark Lawrence's Diocese of South Carolina.
1. Do you consider Bishop Lawrence to be your bishop?
As of today, Sewanee's website still lists Bishop Lawrence as a Trustee of the University. Based on TEC's hostile attack against Lawrence, and the resolutions confirming withdrawal from TEC that were passed by his diocese yesterday in Charleston, resolutions which included your Parish of St. Helena as a sponsor, your home diocese has now returned to its historic and non integrated independent ecclesiastical existence.
2. Is Bishop Lawrence still a trustee of Sewanee Episcopal University?
Based upon news reports, TEC is now organizing rump leadership for a replacement Episcopal diocese in South Carolina, with Bishop Charles vonRosenberg, the retired Bishop of East Tennessee and former Sewanee trustee, as its leader.
3. Is Bishop von Rosenberg your bishop, and do you expect him to replace Bishop Lawrence on Sewanee's board of trustees?
4. If you do expect Bishop von Rosenberg to replace Bishop Lawrence, or if such a change is probable, why have you not yet notified your alumni and donors in South Carolina of this pending material change in University governance, especially now when many families are considering year end gifts to Sewanee's annual fund?
5. In general, why have you not kept in constant communication with your most prominent South Carolina donors during this time of grief and regret? Why have you delayed in issuing any statements?
6. If you do issue your forthcoming statement and take a strong stand in favor of Bishop Lawrence, whom at Sewanee, especially at the Seminary, and even at 815, do you most fear will make retribution against you?
The prominent anti Lawrence, pro TEC lawyer, Josephine Hicks, is a feminist Sewanee alumna. She serves on her law firm's "Diversity Committee."
"Parker Poe was one of the first law firms in North Carolina to have a lawyer provide this type of central oversight of diversity and inclusion initiatives. The Firm also created a Diversity Committee which is charged with developing, monitoring and evaluating Parker Poe's initiatives and progress in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and creating a firm-wide atmosphere of inclusiveness."
"In order to further diversify our attorney base, the Firm also actively recruits lateral women and minority partners and associates."
"Our female and minority attorneys are involved in leadership positions within the Firm. One female partner serves on the Board of Directors, a female partner serves as a Practice Group Leader, a female partner serves as Chairperson of the Firm's Diversity Committee, another female partner serves as the Chairperson of the Professional Review Committee, and a female partner serves as the Chairperson of the newly formed Community Service Committee. Our women attorneys also hold a variety of community leadership roles including serving as Chairperson of the North Carolina Symphony Society, Chairperson of the Carolina Ballet, member of the Board of Directors of the Charlotte Women's Bar, Past President of the Wake County Bar Association, and Past President of CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women)."
7. Have you ever had any communications from Josephine Hicks regarding either your or Sewanee's relationship with Bishop Lawrence and his diocese?
In the coming months, massive and horrendous legal attacks are expected from TEC as further assaults against Bishop Lawrence, the Diocese of South Carolina, and even your own St. Helena in Beaufort. As Sewanee is very rich with $318,000,000 of income generating endowment investments, much of it contributed by faithful Episcopalians in South Carolina from generations past and present, Sewanee is in a unique position to help promote justice, reconciliation, and healing in South Carolina.
8. Will you offer strong leadership to the budget committees at Sewanee to do the right thing by issuing a sizable and Christian affirming financial grant to Bishop Lawrence to help fight off TEC in court?
9. If you do come to the financial and moral aid of "the least of these" in South Carolina, but TEC's brutality against dissent is victorious in the end, will you ask Bishop Lawrence to return his Sewanee honorary degree?
Sewanee boasts a large contingent of students from South Carolina, as it has for decades. The tenor of your campus for these students can be either positively or negatively affected by TEC's next steps. If not already, Sewanee can quickly become unsafe for these students.
10. What are you now doing in your position of authority and leadership to engage the pro TEC forces on campus and to guaranteed that South Carolinians at Sewanee are protected from the kind of ugly bigotry and prejudice that creates a hostile learning environment, as well as fuels the kind of unsustainable changes is social climate that permit reprisals and recriminations against those from South Carolina who are institutionally vulnerable because of their true Christian faith?
Furthermore, and in related news, Bishop Scott Benhase, a Sewanee trustee, has forced TEC's anti Biblical, anti Christian, pro-gay Same Sex Blessings upon Episcopalians in the Diocese of Georgia. He is in keeping with the explicit pro-gay trends that are entrenched in Sewanee and are growing in Sewanee's owning dioceses.
11. Will you allow Same Sex Blessings in Sewanee's Chapel of the Apostles, and if not, why haven't you said so yet, and if so, likewise, why haven't you said so yet?
We look forward to your responses.
David W. Virtue DD
VIRTUEONLINE
'via Blog this'
