PRIORITIES
Everyone knows what American Anglicanism has become. South Carolina Episcopal Bishop Mark Lawrenceshows us what American Anglicanism could be:
When a congregation through a week-long event raises in pledges $300,000 for mission and 300 parishioners pledge themselves to be personally involved in mission, as just happened at St. Michael’s Charleston, such apostolic witness for Christ and his Church is still alive and breathes with the breath of Christ among us. Three hundred volunteered to engage in mission. Three hundred thousand dollars pledged for mission. The spirit breathes among us.
I say often to congregations, “Face reality as it is: Not as it was: nor as we wish it were: but as it is.” The reality is that as the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina we have unique opportunities and unique challenges. The remarkable English scholar, missionary and bishop, Stephen Neill once commented that “To be a bad Anglican is the easiest thing in the world; the amount of effort required in a minimum Anglican conformity is so infinitesimal that it is hardly to be measured.” But he went on to say, “To be a good Anglican is exceedingly taxing business.” If we substitute Episcopalian for Anglican we have just as telling and true a statement for our challenge today. To be a bad Episcopalian is easy. Just drift with the flow of whatever cultural stream carries you and you can be an Episcopalian. I remember reading as a seminarian, Bishop Allison’s debate with O.C. Edwards on evangelism. Fitz, as you might imagine was for it. If memory serves me well, Fitz opened with the line “You can be anything and be an Episcopalian. You can be immoral, and you can be heretical; as long as you are not tacky. And apparently there’s something tacky about evangelism.” Yes, it’s easy to be an Episcopalian sitting in the pews. But to be a good Episcopalian today, well this church is no place for ostriches or for the spiritually, intellectually, or morally lazy.
As an example of how a congregation that is just one step away from closing can turn around and begin to thrive under synergistic leadership and followership we can look at the transformation of All Saint’s, Florence. Two years ago this was a congregation with mission status, in extreme financial distress, and having conversations about possibly closing. I thought to myself “There is no way I am going to allow this church to close.” Well, that’s not exactly the way I said it. I met with the Very Reverend John Burwell and told him that I had a challenge for him and his staff. They rolled up their sleeves, and with the lay leaders of All Saints went to work. The Holy Spirit breathed new life into an anemic and declining congregation. Let me quote an excerpt from an upcoming article in the Jubilate Deo written by Communications Officer, Joy Hunter. She writes, “The proof is in the numbers. The first Sunday, with Burwell as the Rector, only 35 people attended worship. By December of 2011 average Sunday attendance (not counting Christmas Day) was 127. When they began the effort, the church had $35,000 in outstanding bills (including heating, air, office supplies and salaries). In 2010 they had a $1,000 surplus. In 2011 they, again, closed the books in the black. Pledges for 2010 were $68,143. In 2011 that had grown to $136,743 and in 2012 it increased once more to $202,000.” Thank you, Dean Burwell. Thank you staff and vestry of Holy Cross, Sullivan’s Island. And thank you lay leaders of All Saints who hung in there and persevered. God bless you! Today, under the leadership of their recently instituted rector, the Reverend Karl Burns, they move forward together.
Yes, there are unique dimensions to this turn around that are not present in every declining congregation. Nevertheless, I mention it to attest that transformation can happen. This is still rich soil in South Carolina for the Episcopal and Anglican Way. We can grow most parishes when Gospel commitment meets willing priest and willing parishioners who will seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and remember the words of the onetime Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, that “The church is the only organization in the world that exists primarily for those who are not its members.” When the Church decides to be missional under prayerful surrender to the Holy Spirit and building on the foundation that is Jesus Christ, she becomes contagious with good news; her young ones shall then see visions and her old ones shall dream dreams. Let me hasten to add to this that there is still no substitute for solid, faithful ministry and leadership by clergy and lay leaders if a parish is to thrive.
Will it last? Probably not. The last two attempts on Lawrence’s position both failed but past performance suggests that Katharine Jefferts Schori will try again and eventually find Lawrence guilty of something, plausible or not, remove both him and the Diocesan Standing Committee and replace everyone with her own handpicked toadies.
At which point the mother of all Episcopal legal battles ensues, a battle that TEO would lose even if it won. I can’t conceive of a scenario in which the majority of South Carolina Episcopalians would remain inside the national church so all the Episcopalians might end up with would be a whole host of empty Episcopal churches, including two that are probably the most historic in this country, St. Michael’s, which Bishop Lawrence mentioned above, and St. Philip’s, both of Charleston.
If it should so happen that the Episcopalians end up with the properties but can’t keep a functioning parish going at either church, let them try to sell them to non-Anglicans or to non-Christians. Those South Carolinians who opened up on Fort Sumter in 1861 would loudly complain about the noise of the resulting firestorm and one has to think that Columbia would get involved.
So I hope for 815′s sake that Mrs. Schori eventually realizes that establishing a loyalist Episcopal presence in the Palmetto State would be more trouble for Church Center than it would be worth and that the best thing for 815 to do would be to leave South Carolina alone.
For all practical purposes, South Carolina would become a church within a church, charting its own course and establishing its own relationships whether the national church approved of these relationships or not. Whatever eventually does happen, South Carolina would effectively return to its former status and Mark Lawrence would become an Anglican primate in all but name.
Virginia might dispute this but I think that the epicenter of American Anglicanism has always been South Carolina. Wander around Charleston, that most captivating of American cities(if you ever get a chance to visit the place, you are hearby ordered to take it; believe me, you’ll thank me later), and you’ll see what an Anglican city it is even though after American independence, Charleston was one of the most religiously tolerant cities on this continent.
Considering every attack against them, I think South Carolina understands this a whole lot better than most of the rest of us do.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Will Bishop Lawrence be deposed? Maybe. But there’s not a whole lot he can do about it. And all the attempts against both him and his diocese(those that have already happened as well as those that are undoubtedly still to come) have taught Bishop Lawrence and South Carolina that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
So what lesson should the rest of us take from all this? The most important one, I guess, is to stop worrying about things you can’t control(the national church’s open hostility) or things that don’t matter in the slightest(Anglican “legitimacy”) and just do the Master’s work. These guys figured that out and have done great things because of it. And it looks like South Carolina understands it as well.
When a congregation through a week-long event raises in pledges $300,000 for mission and 300 parishioners pledge themselves to be personally involved in mission, as just happened at St. Michael’s Charleston, such apostolic witness for Christ and his Church is still alive and breathes with the breath of Christ among us. Three hundred volunteered to engage in mission. Three hundred thousand dollars pledged for mission. The spirit breathes among us.
I say often to congregations, “Face reality as it is: Not as it was: nor as we wish it were: but as it is.” The reality is that as the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina we have unique opportunities and unique challenges. The remarkable English scholar, missionary and bishop, Stephen Neill once commented that “To be a bad Anglican is the easiest thing in the world; the amount of effort required in a minimum Anglican conformity is so infinitesimal that it is hardly to be measured.” But he went on to say, “To be a good Anglican is exceedingly taxing business.” If we substitute Episcopalian for Anglican we have just as telling and true a statement for our challenge today. To be a bad Episcopalian is easy. Just drift with the flow of whatever cultural stream carries you and you can be an Episcopalian. I remember reading as a seminarian, Bishop Allison’s debate with O.C. Edwards on evangelism. Fitz, as you might imagine was for it. If memory serves me well, Fitz opened with the line “You can be anything and be an Episcopalian. You can be immoral, and you can be heretical; as long as you are not tacky. And apparently there’s something tacky about evangelism.” Yes, it’s easy to be an Episcopalian sitting in the pews. But to be a good Episcopalian today, well this church is no place for ostriches or for the spiritually, intellectually, or morally lazy.
As an example of how a congregation that is just one step away from closing can turn around and begin to thrive under synergistic leadership and followership we can look at the transformation of All Saint’s, Florence. Two years ago this was a congregation with mission status, in extreme financial distress, and having conversations about possibly closing. I thought to myself “There is no way I am going to allow this church to close.” Well, that’s not exactly the way I said it. I met with the Very Reverend John Burwell and told him that I had a challenge for him and his staff. They rolled up their sleeves, and with the lay leaders of All Saints went to work. The Holy Spirit breathed new life into an anemic and declining congregation. Let me quote an excerpt from an upcoming article in the Jubilate Deo written by Communications Officer, Joy Hunter. She writes, “The proof is in the numbers. The first Sunday, with Burwell as the Rector, only 35 people attended worship. By December of 2011 average Sunday attendance (not counting Christmas Day) was 127. When they began the effort, the church had $35,000 in outstanding bills (including heating, air, office supplies and salaries). In 2010 they had a $1,000 surplus. In 2011 they, again, closed the books in the black. Pledges for 2010 were $68,143. In 2011 that had grown to $136,743 and in 2012 it increased once more to $202,000.” Thank you, Dean Burwell. Thank you staff and vestry of Holy Cross, Sullivan’s Island. And thank you lay leaders of All Saints who hung in there and persevered. God bless you! Today, under the leadership of their recently instituted rector, the Reverend Karl Burns, they move forward together.
Yes, there are unique dimensions to this turn around that are not present in every declining congregation. Nevertheless, I mention it to attest that transformation can happen. This is still rich soil in South Carolina for the Episcopal and Anglican Way. We can grow most parishes when Gospel commitment meets willing priest and willing parishioners who will seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and remember the words of the onetime Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, that “The church is the only organization in the world that exists primarily for those who are not its members.” When the Church decides to be missional under prayerful surrender to the Holy Spirit and building on the foundation that is Jesus Christ, she becomes contagious with good news; her young ones shall then see visions and her old ones shall dream dreams. Let me hasten to add to this that there is still no substitute for solid, faithful ministry and leadership by clergy and lay leaders if a parish is to thrive.
Will it last? Probably not. The last two attempts on Lawrence’s position both failed but past performance suggests that Katharine Jefferts Schori will try again and eventually find Lawrence guilty of something, plausible or not, remove both him and the Diocesan Standing Committee and replace everyone with her own handpicked toadies.
At which point the mother of all Episcopal legal battles ensues, a battle that TEO would lose even if it won. I can’t conceive of a scenario in which the majority of South Carolina Episcopalians would remain inside the national church so all the Episcopalians might end up with would be a whole host of empty Episcopal churches, including two that are probably the most historic in this country, St. Michael’s, which Bishop Lawrence mentioned above, and St. Philip’s, both of Charleston.
If it should so happen that the Episcopalians end up with the properties but can’t keep a functioning parish going at either church, let them try to sell them to non-Anglicans or to non-Christians. Those South Carolinians who opened up on Fort Sumter in 1861 would loudly complain about the noise of the resulting firestorm and one has to think that Columbia would get involved.
So I hope for 815′s sake that Mrs. Schori eventually realizes that establishing a loyalist Episcopal presence in the Palmetto State would be more trouble for Church Center than it would be worth and that the best thing for 815 to do would be to leave South Carolina alone.
For all practical purposes, South Carolina would become a church within a church, charting its own course and establishing its own relationships whether the national church approved of these relationships or not. Whatever eventually does happen, South Carolina would effectively return to its former status and Mark Lawrence would become an Anglican primate in all but name.
Virginia might dispute this but I think that the epicenter of American Anglicanism has always been South Carolina. Wander around Charleston, that most captivating of American cities(if you ever get a chance to visit the place, you are hearby ordered to take it; believe me, you’ll thank me later), and you’ll see what an Anglican city it is even though after American independence, Charleston was one of the most religiously tolerant cities on this continent.
Considering every attack against them, I think South Carolina understands this a whole lot better than most of the rest of us do.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Will Bishop Lawrence be deposed? Maybe. But there’s not a whole lot he can do about it. And all the attempts against both him and his diocese(those that have already happened as well as those that are undoubtedly still to come) have taught Bishop Lawrence and South Carolina that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
So what lesson should the rest of us take from all this? The most important one, I guess, is to stop worrying about things you can’t control(the national church’s open hostility) or things that don’t matter in the slightest(Anglican “legitimacy”) and just do the Master’s work. These guys figured that out and have done great things because of it. And it looks like South Carolina understands it as well.
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