Last fall, the Diocese of South Carolina elected as Bishop Fr. Mark Lawrence of Bakersfield, California. Fr. Lawrence was elected on the first ballot. The election of a Bishop requires the consent of a majority in the House of Bishops as well as the Standing Committees of all the Dioceses of the Episcopal Church. After a delay in the process, it appears Fr. Lawrence may not receive the consents of a majority of the Standing Committees by the March 9th deadline. The following is Father Sandersons commentary on the matter.
The Arrogant and Ignorant Rejection of Mark Lawrence
If you are a southerner as I am, you will know the indignation that we feel nearly every time that southern people are portrayed by the national media and entertainment industry. Stereotypes abound. Accents and phrases that have never been uttered by any human being since time began are foisted upon the unsuspecting. We are depicted as ignorant barefoot fools, slapping our children, each of whom is supposed to be infected with lice and pinworms. Amos and Andy could never have been more of a tortured caricature.
And so we do well to be indignant, because the picture painted of us is a lie. We are indignant because the people who manufacture such images are arrogant and ignorant, a most unattractive combination. And we are indignant because the perpetrator has formed his smug opinion, and nothing, least of all the truth, will change his rigid mind.
And so, it seems like the same-old story. Anglicanism in South Carolina dates to 1680. We have had a gracious and blessed heritage. Our leaders, both lay and clerical, have served this church with distinction for generations. They have shown themselves time and again to be reasonable, articulate, well-educated and faithful. The first four or five bishops of the diocese were known as Carolina Catholics, for while they were not ritualists, thy held a doctrine of the church that was both catholic and evangelical in the best Anglican sense of those words.
In the conflicts that have beset our Church since the General Convention willfully ignored the rest of the communion, we have set our course with very simple and well-stated parameters:
1) We are Biblical, Creedal, and Apostolic. The Scriptures have authority. The Scriptures are interpreted in light of Sacred Tradition. The Tradition has been received from the Apostolic Church. No Christian has the right to alter this deposit of Faith and still call himself a catholic Christian. When bishops, conventions or seminaries attempt to change the received doctrine, we will protest and resist.
2) We are both evangelical and catholic. Our Evangelical hearts require us never to cease in our quest to take the Gospel to all people. Our Catholic sense of order reminds us that the church is never merely the local community, but the whole people of God connected through a common Faith and the Apostolic Succession to Jesus himself. Therefore, we understand that independent Anglicanism is impossible. Our request for Alternative Primatial Oversight had nothing to do with schism. On the contrary, it was clear to us that the American Church, by its unilateral actions, had in fact created a de facto schism with the rest of the church. It was our very catholic ecclesiology that would not allow us to stand for such a breach in communion. But even as we registered our strong protest against American unilateralism, we never once took a single uncanonical action, nor have we threatened to do so.
This is what we have consistently said, and we have been called schismatic.
This is what our bishop-elect has consistently said, and he has enjoyed the same abuse.
South Carolina votes to leave the Episcopal Church, the newspapers declare. That is a lie.
Disloyal. Rebellious. Fanatical spouteth the Via Media and Episcopal Forum.
But that is but slander and hypocrisy.
Your bishop-elect will not take his oath of allegiance! complain the Standing Committees in spite of his own clear words to the contrary.
And in Tanzania, the unanimous communiqué signed by our own Presiding Bishop has validated and vindicated every single point we have tried to make.
So what could possibly cause a Standing Committee to vote no? Arrogance and ignorance. No two ways about it.
Mark Lawrence is one of the finest priests this church has produced. He is humble, scholarly, wise and spiritually mature. What a tragedy if he is denied the office to which God and South Carolina have so clearly called him.
All because some people would rather believe in their prejudices, than the truth so plainly available to them.
Arrogance. Ignorance. And Shame.
Dow Sanderson
Church of the Holy Communion,
Charleston, South Carolina
