[Magdalen] 2nd priest in SC returns to The Episcopal Church

[Roger Stokes]

On 28/03/2015 20:57, Ginga Wilder wrote:
> Jim,
> It is complicated.  The Lawrence group brought real property into the
> picture when they sued TEC in January 2013 and later TECSC.  So, you will
> need to ask the Lawrence folks about that.  In addition, the bishops and
> clergy of TEC have taken vows to protect the property, so if that property
> were not included in the suit, TEC clergy would be doing exactly the same
> think Lawrence did.  (But, OMG, I have no clue what our little church would
> do with the huge church plant of the Lawrence church in Summerville...I'll
> leave that legal minds.)

This side of the pond there are some medieval parish churches, ones that 
predate the Reformation.  As such they were originally built for the 
Church in communion with the Bishop of Rome but were taken over after 
the split with Rome under Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century.  (Please 
note that is when the final split happened as Elizabeth's half-sister 
Mary had reconciled the Church in England to Rome.)

This meant that when the RC Church was again able to have their own 
churches in the 19th century they had to build new ones - and not as 
many as had been taken over by the Anglicans.  I do not think they would 
appreciate it if the C/E habded them back and told the RCs to maintain them.

> TEC and SC want some things returned: our name (The Episcopal Diocese of
> SC), our marks (Diocesan shield, etc.) and some diocesan property that
> belongs to TEC/TECSC.

That is what matters.  The intellectual property and marks should be 
reclaimed for the avoidance of confusion.  if you go to www.anglican.org 
and scroll through the list of official diocesan web pages South 
Carolina brings you to http://www.episcopalchurchsc.org/ the group under 
Bishop von Rosenberg's oversight.  That is not definitive but the 
website of Bishop Lawrence's diocese indicates that it is under 
provional primatial oversight of a group that is not recognized as a 
constituent body of the Anglican Communion.

It's position is basically unclear.  The Archbishop of Casnterbury is 
called the Focus of Unity of the Anglican Communion and I note that on 
his visits to the constituent Provinces of the Communion he met 
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori but not the leader of any of 
the other Anglican tradition groupings in the USA.

As for the real property that is being claimed, as Ginga said it is part 
of the duty of the trustees to seek to reclaim that which has been taken 
away.  If the leaders of TEC did not seek repossession then they would 
be failing in their fiduciary responsibility as trustees.

Roger