Observations and emendations emerging from the rogue diocese press release

The outfit calling itself "The Episcopal Church in South Carolina" is on the warpath again. Yesterday, the low country minions of Madam Oven Mitt issued a press release announcing yet another legal action against the leaders of the Diocese of South Carolina. Typical of the sleazy propaganda we have come to expect from the rogue diocese's fauxilliary bishop and his bevvy of benighted barristers, the press release attempts to create an alternate universe in which the reasonable actions of faithful shepherds acting to protect their sheep are re-imagined into illegal acts of treachery, conspiracy, and fraud. Dripping with utter contempt for all things godly, it continues to cast the legitimately elected and consecrated Bishop of South Carolina as a renegade cleric with a penchant for exceeding his authority.

While it has been reprinted verbatim on numerous web sites, I would humbly offer the following observations concerning the gross inaccuracies propagated in the press release. Perhaps some publishers might consider a few editorial emendations, just for fun.

Bishop Mark J. Lawrence

1) The Rt. Revd. Mark J. Lawrence should be styled appropriately according to his standing as the legally and canonically elected Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina. The rogue diocese's repeated reference to him as "Mark Lawrence" is condescending, demeaning, and intentionally insulting to him and to those under his spiritual authority.

2) References to Bishop Lawrence and the clergy and parishes under his authority as a "breakaway group" are simply inaccurate on their face. In actuality, those clergy and parishes who have followed after the apostate national "church" are the "breakaway goup." They have separated themselves from the established diocese and formed a rogue diocese under a fauxilliary bishop.

3) As I have pointed out before, there is no such entity as "The Episcopal Church in South Carolina." That name is a front for a lawless national organization bent on taking control of a legally constituted local entity. It has no legal standing to take action against a legally recognized ecclesiastical entity or any of that entity's legally recognized leaders. For this and countless other reasons, the lawsuit is without merit and should be dismissed out of hand.

A.S. Haley, far more knowledgeable of canon law than I, has more here.