South Carolina: Top Episcopal bishop tosses S.C. election

By Adam Parker
Friday, March 16, 2007

The Very Rev. Mark Lawrence needed at least 56 "yes" votes to be elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. He got 57.

But because some of those votes were electronically submitted, Presiding Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on Thursday invalidated the election. Canon law doesn't allow e-mail votes.

So for now at least, Lawrence will not be relocating from California to the Lowcountry. The Right Rev. Edward Salmon Jr., who has served as bishop for 17 years and has announced his intention to retire, will continue as interim bishop until a new leader is consecrated.

To become bishop, Lawrence had to sesecure a majority of "consents" from members of the church's House of Bishops and from Episcopal standing committees nationwide. Votes had to be signed by a majority of standing committee members and postmarked by Monday.

Lawrence said his visits and consultations with Episcopalians in the Lowcountry left a deep mark.

"My heart has been knit with the good people there," he said.

And the election process may not be finished, he added.

"I'm not sure it's over," he said. "The ball is in the court of the diocese. If they desire that I stand for election once again, then we would look at that."

In four months of often acrimonious debate and "mud flinging," many people have learned a great deal, Lawrence said, and perhaps it would make sense to "play the second half."

"That will have to be prayed through," he said. "With God there's always hope. I live by that."

The election of Lawrence has been steeped in controversy from the beginning. He was one of three finalists chosen because of their orthodox views of Scripture, the Rev. M. Dow Sanderson, former president of the standing committee, said last year.

Since 2003, when the openly gay Gene Robinson was elected bishop of New Hampshire, the church has struggled to reconcile a "broad tent" view held by the majority of adherents with a view held by a small faction of dissenters who oppose what they call the liberalization of the church in the U.S. The dissenters have sought to align with other parts of the global Anglican Communion, especially churches in Nigeria and Rwanda, which have been actively courting unhappy parishes and dioceses in the U.S. and Canada.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall Harmon of the South Carolina diocese called the razor-thin vote "very disturbing." For someone as well-qualified as Lawrence to encounter such resistance bodes ill for the future of the church, he said.

"This is about trust. What you have is a community where trust has broken down," Harmon said. "It's a real tragedy, because good people are being badly hurt."

In recent months, Lawrence had indicated a willingness to leave the Episcopal Church if it failed to repudiate its endorsement of gay marriage and ordination and embrace a more orthodox view of Scripture. He also wrote that Jefferts Schori would not be welcome at his consecration. These comments caused many in the church to express concern over the election, a concern that lingers and is reflected in the close results of the consent vote.

Last week, in a last-ditch effort to convince doubters, Lawrence wrote a letter to standing committee members affirming his intention to abide by canon law and remain part of the Episcopal Church. In the days that followed, several standing committees reversed their votes, according to the South Carolina diocese.

The 120-day consent period actually expired on Friday, but Carl Gredau, canon to the presiding bishop, and Episcopal Church Chancellor David Beers approved a three-day grace period, according to the Rev. Jan Nunley, a church spokeswoman. The extra time was granted to allow "the postal service to do its magic," she said.

Lionel Deimel, an Episcopal Church activist and board member of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, said the national church was "lenient to a fault" in its willingness to be flexible.

"Not since 1875, when the Rev. James De Koven was rejected as Bishop of Illinois, have diocesan standing committees prevented the consecration of a bishop in the Episcopal Church," Deimel wrote in a release. "The last bishop-elect to be rejected by the church's ruling body, the General Convention, was John Torok, in 1934."

Lawrence's failure to secure a majority of legitimate consents from standing committees means the diocese must schedule a new election, according to canon law. The election process could take months.

This article comes from The Post and Courier at Charleston.net
http://www.charleston.net/

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