Bishop Mark Lawrence's Remarks to Old St. Andrew's Parish, Charleston SC

"If you were to ask me, what areas of Christian theology have the Diocese of South Carolina and the national Episcopal Church been moving at odds, I would say they would be in the areas of (1) the trust and worthiness of Holy Scripture as the word of God containing everything necessary for our salvation, and (2) the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ as the unique God-man who is the savior of the human race, regardless of cultural background, religious affiliation, color, race, creed, or sexual orientation, who everybody has to decide whether they will follow or not. As he divided the thieves on the cross, between the one who continued to rail and condemn him, and the other thief who said, “Remember me when you enter into your kingdom,” to which our Lord said, “Today you will be with me in paradise,” every human being gets behind one of those thieves and their eternal destiny. We all enter into paradise behind the thief who repented, or behind the thief who did not. Since we all get in line behind a thief, everybody loses their bragging rights, of their moral goodness and virtue and deservedness. We are saved by grace, or we’re not saved at all. We either get bleeding mercy or justice. As for me and my house, give me bleeding mercy. But that uniqueness of Jesus Christ is absolutely essential."

Click here for the entire .pdf file of the transcript.

A new day in the Diocese of S.C.

Diocese of South Carolina Turns the Page; Looks Forward
Special Convention Approves Canonical and Constitutional Amendments Regarding Disassociation

Today, Saturday, November 17, 2012, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina met in Special Convention at the “mother church of the Diocese,” historic St. Philip’s Church in Charleston.  There, an overwhelming majority passed three resolutions.   

Here for the rest  

From Bishop Lawrence to the Diocese of SC

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“…not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
Galatians 1:7-8

Grace, peace and courage to you in our Lord Jesus Christ, who was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world into the redeeming love of the Father and sustain us in the power of the Holy Spirit. I write to you in the aftermath of General Convention 2009. You need to know that the landscape of Anglicanism and The Episcopal Church has once again changed. I haven’t time now to describe these matters in the detail that they deserve and I am still too close to the events to adequately evaluate them. I shall write you at greater length when I return to Charleston next week. But let me answer ever so briefly two questions: Where is the Episcopal Church after General Convention 2009? What does it mean for South Carolina?

More

Gen Con 09 from the Diocese of SC

From the D of SC website:

Pray for the 76th General Convention, Anaheim, July 8-17
Joining Bishop Lawrence in Anaheim, will be SC lay delegates: Reid Boylston, Lydia Evans, Wade Logan and Elizabeth Pennewill, with Lonnie Hamilton as first alternate. Our clergy delegates are the Very Rev. John Burwell, the Rev. Haden McCormick, the Rev. David Thurlow and the Rev. Steve Wood. Three of our delegates will be blogging from the convention. View their blogs here: The Very Rev. John Burwell, The Rev. Steve Wood, Mrs. Lydia Evans. Our Canon Theologian, the Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall S. Harmon, will be blogging offsite at titusonenine.

Read Bishop Lawrence's letter to the clergy concerning General Convention. Read the Very Rev. John Burwell's personal reflections on General Convention.

Charting Our Course - Shaping the Future; A Message from the Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina.

Charting our Course; Shaping the Future

By the Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence (From the Diocesan Website)

One of the better descriptions of the Church I’ve read over the years comes from a character in J. F. Powers’ novel, Wheat that Springeth Green. Powers, a semi-reclusive Catholic writer known primarily for his short stories, has given us a helpful analogy for understanding the Church—he pictures her as a big old ship. As one character tells another in the story:

“This is a big old ship, Bill. She creaks, she rolls, and at times she makes you want to throw up. But she gets where she’s going. Always has, always will, until the end of time. With or without you.”

I thought of that description of the church some time ago when I read an article in the newspaper of a cruise ship returning to New York from a vacation in the Bahamas. It seems the ship encountered a storm at sea. One disturbed passenger was quoted as saying, “We were going back and forth, up and down. And then, ‘Boom!’” The cruise ship, Norwegian Dawn was hit by a freak 70-foot wave. Reaching as high as deck ten, the wave smashed windows, flooded cabins, and sent furniture flying across rooms. One passenger complained, “Why would you go through a storm? Can’t they see it coming? I’m trying not to be angry.” The captain of the ship wasn’t quoted in the story so there’s no way of knowing whether the storm was foreseen, unavoidable, or underestimated. This much I know as a crewman on the Ship of Faith: there are times you can see a storm approaching, you can even warn others on board it is coming, but there’s no way to avoid the storm if the course charted and the storm’s trajectory are aligned.

Read the Rest