Updated Monday afternoon
Monday Update Stand Firm has published this interview with Mark Lawrence.
A further report from Episcopal News Service rounds up various responses: Reactions to Lawrence announcement note ‘sorrow’.
The Living Church has Presiding Bishop Invalidates South Carolina Election and a longer report, Bruised Feelings Will Not Lead to Disobedience from South Carolina.
Secular newspaper reports:
Washington Post Alan Cooperman Episcopal Church Rejects S.C. Bishop
Charleston Post Courier Ex-candidate for bishop asks members to choose and earlier Top Episcopal bishop tosses S.C. election
Associated Press Rachel Zoll Episcopalian leader rejects conservative diocese’s choice of bishop
Bakersfield Californian Local pastor’s bishop bid rejected
From the blogs:
daily episcopalian Mark Lawrence plays the victim
titusonenine Dow Sanderson: The Arrogant and Ignorant Rejection of Mark Lawrence
American Anglican Council AAC Statement on the Denial of Consent for South Carolina Bishop-elect Mark Lawrence
Confessions of a Carioca South Carolina Postscript
Lionel Deimel Deimel on Lawrence’s Failed Bid: “Most Episcopalians Relieved” and Reflections on the Mark Lawrence Affair
In a Godward Direction See how these Christians…
Telling Secrets Losing It
Episcopal Majority South Carolina
Admiral of Morality A Godly admonition
I quite liked the Telling Secrets article, the author had taken a step back to look at the “bigger picture”. At one point Elizabeth wrote “We are losing our minds – the “mind of Christ” – which is not about ‘group think’ but about holding in tension the paradox and mystery of the reality of two very different truths…” It reminds me of one respected elder’s advice that interpreting the bible is like walking between two railway tracks. If you take the advice too far you end up off the rails on one side, but if you take the advice… Read more »
Cheryl
What do you mean an “inclusive” bishop? These so called inclusive bishops accept nobody into their clubs except those who agree with them!! I am contantly amazed by the inability of “inclusive” people to see just how exclusive they are. As I have said before (and no doubt will say again) fundametalism rules in the corridors of power in TEC that make the likes of Akinola look like Neville Chamberlain
This is a sad situation, and no one comes out looking good. Nor does this engender trust at a time when it is in short supply. The conspiracy theorists are now invited out of the woodwork, which only adds insult to injury. Our Presiding Bishop had a tough call to make, knowing, I’m sure, that she would be tarred for not “bending” far enough to confirm the validity of all the consents. Whether the canonical requirements of her office allow for such flexibility, I very much doubt. The deadline had already been extended for three days. And had she offered… Read more »
Inclusive types have long included those outside their ranks. In the Church of England, particularly since the rise of the Oxford Movement, the Broad Church movement was designed to keep the traditionalist Catholics, traditionalist Protestants, themselves and radicals within the one broad organisation. This has been inherited, and it is why liberals, as they are now called, get tarred with the brush of ineffectiveness – and indeed put up with a great deal more than any ideologue might. What is different now is that the outward pushing forces are so great, and the collapse of traditionalist Catholicism so clear, that… Read more »
I agree with the tone of some of the comment here – it is very sad that the necessary votes of confirmation were not given – especially since the conservative/trad side did not do the same to Gene Robinson. I hope all the so-called ‘inclusive’ people wake up to the contradiction and the fundamentalist non-inclusive way they treat those with whom they disagree. The presiding bishop doesn’t look good on this one either. She should have said NO to the bullying in Tanzania and YES to the candidate the Holy Spirit had suggested to the people of South Carolina. This… Read more »
“… it is very sad that the necessary votes of confirmation were not given – especially since the conservative/trad side did not do the same to Gene Robinson.” I’m not quite sure what your point it. +Gene’s election by N.H. was consented to by the actions of General Convention, since it fell within the time period for that to be the process rather than the one SC undertook. All of the rules for consents were followed correctly at gencon and none of the rules were bent. In the SC case, the diocesan bishops sent their yay/nay to the PB directly.… Read more »
Neil,
Are suggesting that the presiding bishop should have simply disregarded the canonical requirements for determining valid votes to consent? She does not have the power to take that step.
I would have thought that the US, land of the free and the vexatious litigant, would be aware even in Church circles of the huge risk involved in ignoring legal provision. Even on this side of the pond, we’re aware of the legal shenanigans going on between seceding congregations, TEC etc etc. Would ANYONE in their right mind proceed with a consecration so visibly open to legal challenge? Only a reckless idiot. The blame lies fairly and squarely on the SC bureacracy, and if I were a SC Episcopalian I’d be demanding explanations, not of the PB, nor looking for… Read more »
Surely, a Presiding Bishop has not mandate to “say YES” to a Bishop electus, whatever that would be.
It’s for the Diocesan Bishops and the Standing Committees to consent. Separately.
50% + 1 is what is required. On paper. Signed.
“Inclusive churches” are not the only ones including those outside their ranks. On January 4th 2007, the Washington Post published a piece on the “secessionist” Virginia churches which included the following statements: “These days, Truro is a magnet for conservatives across the Washington area, and the percentage of “cradle” Episcopalians among its 2,000 regular worshipers has dropped steadily. In the 1980s, more than two-thirds of its members had been raised Episcopalian, according to church surveys. Today, fewer than 40 percent grew up in the church.” “At least two-thirds of the worshipers are Methodists, Presbyterians or Baptists, and there is no… Read more »
Cynthia, for the sake of accuracy, the rules were in fact bent at GC2003 with regards to the election of Gene Robinson. The announcement was given to the House of Bishops by (a gloating) Frank Griswold after the House of Deputies had adjourned for the day. Strictly speaking, this should have been kept secret until the House of Deputies was in session the next day. Now, this is not the same thing, he was going to become a bishop whether it was announced that night or the next morning, but it did establish that when a PB wants to bend… Read more »
I think the PB made the only call she could. Since there were so many technicalities w/ the vote it was probably best for every one to just start over. If she certified the election as-is, there would have been too many questions that would have nagged Lawrence+;s ministry. And I think she was wise to make the decision before the meetings this weekend. There seem to be two cascading issues here: 1) SCs that withheld consent for what appear to be political reasons. (One wonders if some people are getting nervous about the eventual HOB meeting to respond to… Read more »
Thanks for the link lapinb. Interesting… Bizarre! Some quotations :- Unlike many Episcopal churches nationally, neither Truro nor The Falls Church was active in supporting the civil rights movement or in protesting the Vietnam war.’ “I don’t remember any political sermons at all,” said Al Long, 80, who has been a member of The Falls Church since 1959. “We go there to find out what the Bible says and how we’re supposed to live and relate to each other and the Lord. . . . And that’s it.” Beginning in the 1970s, though, Truro embraced the antiabortion movement. It also… Read more »
Inclusivity doesn’t mean we abandon all Church discipline. Discipline is indeed necessary to preserve God’s hospitality to all. The issue with Mark Lawrence has always been that he seems not fully to recognize the authority of the Episcopal Church or the vows that he has taken and would take again to uphold its doctrine, discipline, and worship. No one is suggesting that he is not a welcome member of the Church. We are suggesting that he needs to be able to take a bishop’s vows without equivocation in order to serve as a bishop in the Episcopal Church. If he… Read more »
“Now, this is not the same thing, “
Precisely.
To equate the two is what we call straining at gnats.
I wasn’t there, so I can’t comment on whether or not the PB was “gloating.”
The TEC is so inclusive it literally is risking being destroyed from within. By allowing Duncan, Iker, Schofield, and others to remain members of the House of Bishops and in charge of entire dioceses the TEC absolutely allows the fox to guard the hen house. If by some chance a progressive became a bishop in a conservative church, how long would they last?
And TEC is accused of not being inclusive – wow!
Let’s be very, very clear here. A “consent” without signatures is no consent at all. A consent by email is no consent at all. One person could create an email and make it look like it came from the standing committee of a diocese. One person could take a piece of letterhead and type a “consent” upon it. The requirement for signatures makes the forgery at least a prosecutable crime. It raises the bar. SC had three extra days to get the bad consents regularized. They failed to do so. Either because they weren’t true consents or because they were… Read more »
James, you comment “…The announcement was given to the House of Bishops by (a gloating) Frank Griswold after the House of Deputies had adjourned for the day. Strictly speaking, this should have been kept secret until the House of Deputies was in session the next day.”
What rule are you referring to?
Tobias, it’s the Rule of No-Liberal-Gloating
(it must have been a tremendous relief after the eleventh hour attack upon Gene Robinson’s integrity and therefore candidature, during GC.)
Gloating
An offshoot of the well-known irregular verb:
“I see right prevail.”
“You get your own way”
“He/She/It gloats”
Thanks for the irregular verb conjugation, David.
I notice there is a good deal of irregularity in ultra-right-wing christian circles, with special forms for us of primates, Duncaites and in South Carolina — complete with declensions of nouns like ‘homosexualist’ etc.
Good regular verbs like amare seem to get pushed out in the verbal jungle of aggressive word-acts.
viz.
amo, amas, amat,
amarmus, amartis . amant
Seriously, I am interested in knowing what rule was violated by Bishop Griswold in announcing (gloatingly or not) the results of the ballot of bishops with jurisdiction consenting to the election of then-Canon Robinson. Most observers have noted that the rules surrounding his election and consent process were scrupulously observed, and this is the first suggestion I’ve seen to the contrary. I’m not familiar with the rule to which James Crocker is referring here, and would welcome a reference.