S.C. Episcopal diocese declares itself `sovereign’

(RNS) A South Carolina diocese has declared itself “sovereign” within the Episcopal Church, the latest salvo in a long-running skirmish between the conservative diocese and the denomination. The Diocese of South Carolina, which covers 47 parishes in the eastern and coastal parts of the state, voted on Friday (March 26) to assert the local authority […]

(RNS) A South Carolina diocese has declared itself “sovereign” within the Episcopal Church, the latest salvo in a long-running skirmish between the conservative diocese and the denomination.

The Diocese of South Carolina, which covers 47 parishes in the eastern and coastal parts of the state, voted on Friday (March 26) to assert the local authority of Bishop Mark Lawrence, particularly in dealing with breakaway parishes.

Concerned that Lawrence would not fight to keep conservatives from seceding with church property, the Episcopal Church hired its own lawyer earlier this year. The 2.2 million-member denomination maintains that local parish property is held in trust for the regional diocese and the national church.


In a series of four resolutions, the South Carolina diocese declared that Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has “no authority to retain attorneys in this diocese that present themselves as counsel for the Episcopal Church in South Carolina.”

The resolutions aim to put Lawrence in charge of the situation and allow him to provide a “generous pastoral response” to dissident parishes. Last October, Lawrence and the diocese said they would begin to partially withdraw from the Episcopal Church because of its growing liberalism, particularly its acceptance of homosexuality.

Addressing the diocese on Friday, Lawrence said he and Jefferts Schori “stand looking at one another across a wide, deep and seemingly unbridgeable theological and canonical chasm.” The two will continue to talk, however, “even if it requires phone conversations from vastly different area codes,” he said.

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