Episcopal
presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has taken the
highly unusual step of invalidating the election of a
bishop in the tradition-minded Diocese of South
Carolina, which has rejected her authority because of
her liberal theological outlook. The elevation of the
Very Reverend Mark Lawrence had become a flash point in the
denomination's struggle over whether parishioners with
conflicting views of the Bible on gays and other
issues could stay in the same denomination. The last
time the Episcopal Church threw out a bishop's
election was more than seven decades ago.
Jefferts Schori
made the decision Thursday on the eve of a key private
meeting in Texas involving all Episcopal bishops. The church
leaders must decide by September 30 whether to
meet demands from Anglican archbishops to roll
back their support for gays or lose their place as the
U.S. wing of the world Anglican family.
In the South
Carolina case, Jefferts Schori concluded that several
Episcopal dioceses had failed to submit proper written
consent for the election as required by church law,
according to the Reverend J. Haden McCormick, head of
the committee that administers the South Carolina
diocese.
A majority of
Episcopal dioceses must approve an election before a bishop
can be consecrated and installed. The diocese said it had
received 57 diocesan consents, one more than required.
But McCormick said in a statement that some dioceses
wrongly "thought that electronic permission was
sufficient as had been their past accepted practice."
McCormick called
it a "tragic outcome" that he hoped would be "a
wake-up call" about conditions in the church. Theological
conservatives are a minority within the 2.3
million-member Episcopal Church. A national
spokesman for the denomination was traveling to the
Texas assembly Thursday night and could not immediately be
reached for comment.
Lawrence, a
priest in the conservative Diocese of San Joaquin, based in
Fresno, Calif., was elected on the first ballot last
September as South Carolina bishop.
The San Joaquin
diocese has also rejected Jefferts Schori's authority,
partly because it opposes the ordination of women. In
December the diocese took the first step toward a
formal break with the denomination. Some Episcopalians
believed Lawrence planned to follow suit in South
Carolina. He vehemently denied it.
"That was mud
that got thrown at me, and in some people's mind that
stuck," Lawrence said.
Lawrence will
remain pastor at St. Paul's Episcopal Parish in
Bakersfield, Calif.
Officials of the
South Carolina diocese, which includes 75 parishes in
the lower and eastern part of the state, plan to meet within
the next couple of weeks to decide their next step.
Acting Bishop
Edward Salmon, who is retiring from the South Carolina
post, will remain until a new bishop is consecrated. (Rachel
Zoll, AP)