SOUTH CAROLINA: Lawrence responds to election postponement in letter to parish
Episcopal News Service. January 16, 2007 [011607-04]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Very Rev. Mark Lawrence has said in a January 12 letter to his parish of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Bakersfield, California, that his attempts to answer questions about fear that he will lead the Diocese of South Carolina out of the Episcopal Church "have not been sufficiently calming for some."
Lawrence, 56, was elected September 16 as South Carolina’s 14th bishop. Since then there has been speculation about whether Lawrence's election will or should get the necessary consents. Some diocesan standing committees have already announced that they will not give their consent, and some have publicized their decisions, including Bethlehem and Kansas.
The canons of the Episcopal Church (III.11.4(a)) require that a majority of the bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees respond within 120 days of receiving notice of his or her election, saying whether or not they consent to the Bishop-elect's ordination.
On January 11, the Diocese of South Carolina announced that it had postponed Lawrence’s consecration because a delay in sending out requests for consents to Lawrence’s election means the consecration dates now falls within the 120 days.
"We are in a profound time of transition within the Anglican Communion -- a time when important questions regarding the nature of the Church are being asked and need answers sufficient for this era in which we find ourselves -- the Windsor Report is the ultimate validation of this position," Lawrence wrote in the letter to his parish. "I want to be a part of answering these questions in a responsible manner that doesn't truncate the discussion by taking refuge in narrow approaches."
Lawrence added that "some dislike my traditional theological convictions regarding the Scriptures, Creeds, and liturgy, especially in that I hold these traditional beliefs with a willingness to rethink the way The Episcopal Church has functioned ecclesiastically within the larger Anglican Communion."
"I am conservative towards the essential doctrine and discipline of the Faith, yet progressive in regard to how the Church needs to change if it is to live out its calling in this age of globalism," he wrote.
Lawrence attempted to set the conflict in the Episcopal Church in a larger context.
"Frankly, I find it ironic that those of my generation who were so quick to trumpet the need for non-conformity when they were opposed to the "establishment" are most ungracious towards those whom they think do not conform now that they are holding the reigns of power," he wrote, adding that he is "cast in the role of protesting against the rising tide of dubious conformity -- a conformity which, at least in the mind of some, will not be brooked."