Lindsay S. Buchanan of the Florence Morning News reports:
In a show of solidarity for Episcopalians in eastern South Carolina, bishops from The Episcopal Church’s Province IV came together Wednesday in Charleston for their biannual conference. … The 26 bishops that make up Province IV were intentional in their choice of coming to South Carolina — as a means of showing their continued support for what remains of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, currently led by provisional Bishop Charles vonRosenberg.
An excited groups of Episcopalians, including a core group from the newly founded St. Catherine’s church in the Pee Dee, seemed re-energized after presenting their individual stories to the bishops and hearing their feedback.
Hartsville representative Alex Gassett-Shifflet said that despite how hard it has been to move her family — her children are the only youth so far at St. Catherine’s — she knows that she and her husband are doing the right thing by helping create an Episcopal church in the Pee Dee, especially after meeting with the bishops and seeing how much they care.
“It means more than you know,” Gassett-Shifflet said. “It means the world to us that they all came to listen to us. I think we’re moving forward and we’re not going back.”
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Excellent article! Everyone should go to the website (SC Now) and read the full account. It even includes the letter of the bishops. The little band of long-suffering Episcopalians in the Pee Dee are to be commended in a big way. They are heroes. They chose to take the hard way in order to reject the prevailing bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, and fear that had taken hold in the old Diocese of South Carolina. They left the majority of their misguided friends to do the right thing and keep the faith. It has been hard but they have done a great job. Along the way they could take comfort in knowing they were part of a larger body and that body was part of a world-wide communion.
The Lawrenceites, who still occupy the Episcopal Church properties in the Pee Dee, on the other hand, are adrift. They are not part of any larger group. Indeed, their leader just attended the ACNA meeting in WI to announce he was not joining them. He claims his group is an “extra-provincial diocese” in the Anglican Communion. Absurd. There is no such thing. One wonders how long his admiring followers will accept their isolation and constantly rising lawyer bills following Lawrence’s relentless litigations.