First, the Bishop of South Carolina, Mark Lawrence wrote this article in the Living Church: A Conservationist among Lumberjacks
…There is much axe swinging these days in the Episcopal Church. I have grown sad from walking among the stumps of what was once a noble old-growth Episcopalian grove in the forest of Catholic Christianity. It may surprise some, but I write not to bemoan the theological or moral teaching that is in danger of falling to the logger’s axe. I have done that elsewhere. My concern here is that as the church’s polity is felled only a few bother to cry “timber.”
I have space to raise three concerns, and these briefly: the presiding bishop’s threat to our polity —litigious and constitutional; the revisions to the Title IV canons; and, finally, a passing word about inhibitions and depositions to solve our theological/spiritual crisis…
Second, the Bishop of San Diego, James Mathes wrote a response for Daily Episcopalian: Nullification revisited
…Bishop Lawrence feigns great sorrow at the changing landscape of the Episcopal Church. He writes, “I have grown sad from walking among the stumps of what was once a noble old-growth Episcopalian grove in the forest of Catholic Christianity.” Donning the mantle of ecclesial conservationist, Bishop Lawrence even quotes environmentalist, Aldo Leopold, “a conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke [of the ax] he is writing his signature on the face of his land.” The bishop adds, “far too many leaders in our church have never learned this lesson.” Indeed.
All of this is prelude to his main premise that the presiding bishop is threatening the polity of the Episcopal Church. He wants you to believe that the threat is manifested in three ways: because her chancellor has retained a South Carolina attorney to represent the wider Episcopal Church’s interests should they diverge from the Diocese of South Carolina’s interests; through the Title IV revisions from the 2009 General Convention; and by the manner in which the House of Bishops has dealt with bishops who have left the Episcopal Church…
Bishop Lawrence says in so many words: Save yo’ confedit moneh boyz, the South shall rahz agin’!
I think many already regret consenting to this man’s election as Bishop of South Carolina.
If only Mark Lawrence had stuck with ‘being a lay reader’.
Yet, with his blending of psalms, conservation writing, and his own creative imagination, and feeling for the PB he certainly spins a good yarn.
Looking from the outside in; This newly-ordered bishop (Mark Lawrence) would seem to be the one who is swimming against the tide of prophetic Anglicanism in North America. If he surmised all this while yet un-bishoped, why did he bother struggling to get nominated?
Crying ‘foul’ against one’s own fellow bishops is hardly the Godly way of episcope. And what danger will he himself be doing to the soul of the Episcopal Church while swinging the axe against the episcopal leadership in TEC? Surely this is the time for his impeachment?
Same old same old from S.C. And I do hope those who consented are thinking sackcloth and ashes.
Mark Lawrence seems to serve himself and forget the many glbt Anglicans and their struggle for dignity in the Christian community. I find very little love in his words. Hypocrisy is a constant issue with people who like to exclude others. Mark Lawrence is one of those hypocrites and his attacks on the Presiding Bishop are both misplaced and ignorant.
Should anyone be surprised that Lawrence is now attempting to destroy TEC? Did anyone really believe he and the other snakes in SC would not weasel their way out of their half-baked lies about adhering to the worship and doctrine of TEC?
I suspect that Lawrence is contemplating his own next bully moves, especially if somehow the global communion does not clearly and swiftly police/punish KJS and TEC for existing, as dirt, as danger?
Stay tuned. Lawrence is far from done with stirring up trouble and strife and ill will, aimed at anybody who dares to disagree with his closed and sacred conservative religious understanding of things.
His current preferred Status Quo hermeneutic is consistent with an earlier one, insofar as all of the readily identified difficulties mainly involve what is wrong with abolitionists; not slavers?
(x)Mark Lawrence has been taking an ax to TEC’s Catholic order since his DioSanJoaquin days, and now *he* is a “conservationist”? O_o Give me a break! (And God bless TEC!)
A few words from those of us who opposed consenting to Lawrence’s consecration: We told you so.
Mark Lawrence represents the type of thinking that is now most visible as the right wing “Tea Party” people. He is capable of much mischief and I have no doubt he will do every thing in his power to destroy rather than build the future Church. He never should have been consecrated a bishop. Deadly mistake but I do believe Lawrence will ultimately pay dearly for his destructive and un-Christ like behavior. He appears to be more “thug” than leader and his efforts will not be rewarded.
“Stay tuned. Lawrence is far from done with stirring up trouble and strife and ill will”
– drdanfee, on Friday –
The swiftness with which Dr. Dan’s prohecy has been fulfilled will now be recognized in the move by Bp.Lawrence to co-opt the services of the one-time Bishop of Rochester, U.K., into his cabal of dissidents in South Carolina. What next, I wonder?
Will it be Dr. Nazir-Ali’s challenge to the archi-espicopal throne of little Robbie Duncan? Watch this space.
Bishop Mathes has written a most reasonable response to the recent statements issuing from his fellow Bishop – of South Carolina – urging him not to go along the path of dissociation from TEC, in the belief that the Diocese of South Carolina has the legal right to go it alone. For Bp. Lawrence to act on his false premise would be to slip into the schismatic fraternity of Bishop Bobbie Duncan and ACNA. It may not be seemly for TEC to execute summary discipline on this newly-consecrated bishop; but if he continues to flout the authority of TEC polity,… Read more »