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Conservative Episcopal Bishop Rejected
by AP
from 365Gay.com on the Web
March 19,
2007
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South Carolina, Mar. 16 --
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori took the highly unusual
step Thursday of invalidating the election of a bishop in the tradition-minded
Diocese of South Carolina, which has rejected her authority because of her
liberal theological outlook.
The elevation of the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence had become a flash point in the
denomination's struggle over whether parishioners with conflicting views of the
Bible on gays and other issues could stay in the same denomination. The
last time the Episcopal Church threw out a bishop's election was more than seven
decades ago.
Jefferts Schori made the decision on the eve of a key private meeting in Texas
involving all Episcopal bishops. The church leaders must decide by Sept.
30 whether they should meet demands from Anglican archbishops to roll back their
support for gays or lose their place as the U.S. wing of the world Anglican
family.
In the South Carolina case, Jefferts Schori concluded that several Episcopal
dioceses had failed to submit proper written consent for the election as
required by church law, according to the Rev. J. Haden McCormick, head of the
committee that administers the South Carolina Diocese.
A majority of Episcopal dioceses must approve an election before a bishop can be
consecrated and installed. The diocese said it had received 57 diocesan
consents -- one more than required. But McCormick said in a statement that
some dioceses wrongly "thought that electronic permission was sufficient as had
been their past accepted practice."
McCormick called it a "tragic outcome" that he hoped would be "a wake up call"
about conditions in the church. Theological conservatives are a minority
within the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. A national spokesman for
the denomination was traveling to the Texas assembly Thursday night and could
not immediately be reached for comment.
Lawrence, a priest in the conservative Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno,
Calif., was elected on the first ballot last September as South Carolina bishop.
The San Joaquin Diocese has also rejected Jefferts Schori's authority, partly
because it opposes the ordination of women. In December, the diocese took
the first step toward a formal break with the denomination. Some
Episcopalians believed Lawrence planned to follow suit in South Carolina.
He vehemently denied it.
"That was mud that got thrown at me and in some people's mind that stuck,"
Lawrence said.
Lawrence will remain pastor at St. Paul's Episcopal Parish in Bakersfield,
Calif.
Officials of the South Carolina Diocese, which includes 75 parishes in the lower
and eastern part of the state, plan to meet within the next couple of weeks to
decide their next step.
Acting Bishop Edward Salmon, who is retiring from the South Carolina post, will
remain until a new bishop is consecrated.
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