[Magdalen] Episcopal News Service highlights Episcopal Church in South Carolina

[Roger Stokes]

On 30/11/2014 23:24, Ginga Wilder wrote:
> And further, the schismatic churches, which as stated previously, formed
> other denominations when they broke with TEC.  Some claim to be Episcopal
> Dioceses (as the Mark Lawrence Church in South Carolina does)

They are episcopal in the sense that they have bishops as an order 
rather than simply a position (as is the case with the United Methodist 
Church among others).  Anglican orders are indelible, as are RC and 
Orthodox ones.  Clergy who have left a Province of the Anglican 
Communion retain (at least in Anglican eyes) the order they had when 
they left even if they are not authorised to exercise that order. (The 
same applies to clergy who are under discipline.) That means that Mark 
Lawrence is still a bishop, but not within the Church which looks to 
Katharine Jefferts Schori as its Primate.

> and most
> claim to be members of the Anglican Communion through unofficial
> relationships with Provinces in the Global South (which ARE members of the
> AC).  Archbishop Justin is clean in the interview that no breakaway church
> is in Communion with Canterbury, no matter what their unofficial
> relationships.

I think the word "official" is a bit slippery here as these 
relationships have, presumably, received the appropriate aithorisation 
by both parties.  That said, I agree that they do not transfer into a 
full communion status with the Anglican Communion as a whole, and so not 
to membership of that Communion.  The same sought of rerlationship 
exists between ELCA and TEC under the Called to Common Mission 
agreement, and to the Church of England and the Scandinavian Lutheran 
Churches under the Porvoo Agreement.

> This is the truth and factual at this time.  And, in time,
> this may change as time brings change in the structures of the AC.
>   +++Justin seems to be a reconciler, so I wouldn't think he'd support
> throwing anyone out, but perhaps welcoming those beyond the fringes.  But,
> what do I know?

+++Justin is certainly a reconciler and has been involved in that line 
of work for many years, dating back to his time as a Canon in Coventry.  
That is why he is not calling a Lambeth Conference in 2018.  He wants 
the Primates of the Communion to agree if and when a Conference should 
be held.

Roger