FAQs

South Carolina Episcopalians

Bearing Witness to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ through the Episcopal Church

Frequently Asked Questions ...

1. What is "accession" and why is it so important?

In the Episcopal Church, the governing structure of a Diocese is required to yield to the authority of the national Church in the same way states yield to the Federal government. That’s what “accession” means. At the "reconvened" Diocesan convention in October 2010, and the 2011 Diocesan Convention last February, Bishop Lawrence and the Standing Committee convinced delegates to revise the governing documents of the Diocese in ways that are inconsistent with “accession” to the Constitution of the Episcopal Church.

In short, they turned the concept of accession upside-down.

The delegates voted to revise our Constitution so that now we accede to the Constitution of the Episcopal Church only when we are in agreement with it. When we disagree, the authority of our Diocese will preempt that of the national Church. See Article I.

2. My parish voted to amend eliminate "accession" to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, but our rector assured us we weren't leaving the Episcopal Church. Was he right?

Unless your rector is an attorney, he probably should not be giving you legal advice. Even when your parish gets advice from lawyers, it needs to include the prevailing view of most experts in Church law.

Melinda Lucka is an attorney in our Diocese, who has carefully researched this very question, and spoken with experts from around the country. Here's what she says about her research on this subject...

"At least two parishes, and perhaps many others, have voted to "change” their By-laws, to break their parish’s legal connection to the laws of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, otherwise known as The Episcopal Church, or TEC, and to accede only to the Protestant Episcopal Diocese in South Carolina.

"Breaking accession with TEC in parish By-laws means that parishes will no longer have a legal affiliation with the governing body (General Convention) or the laws (the Constitution and Canons) of TEC. They will no longer “belong” to The Episcopal Church. Sadly, parishioners are not being told this information; they are being told that the parishes just needed to “straighten out their By-laws.”

"When the Diocese voted in October of 2010 to change the “Corporate Charter Purpose Statement” of the diocesan Articles of Incorporation, it eliminated its affiliation with The Episcopal Church by stating that the Diocese will only operate in affiliation with its own governance and laws. The Diocesan Convention also voted in October of 2010 to eliminate accession to TEC Canons; however, it continues to recognize a 2006 version of the Canons, which was repealed and replaced with a later version in 2009 by General Convention. The Diocese then went on to break accession with the TEC Constitution in early 2011, except where it is consistent with its own Constitution.

"Later in 2011, TEC’s Executive Council, via a Resolution of its Joint Committee on Governance and Administration, nullified the elimination of the accession clauses in the diocesan Constitution and Canons. It notified the Diocese of this decision, but the Diocese does not acknowledge the nullification. The Diocese claims that it can take these actions, and that it can refuse to acknowledge the Executive Council’s Resolution…because it is a “sovereign diocese.”

"How can communicants of a “sovereign” Diocese, with broken accession to TEC’s governing body, and broken connection with its governing laws, still be able to call themselves “Episcopalians,” a term typically understood to refer to members of The Episcopal Church? It is the hope that parishes that have not yet broken away from TEC ‘s governing body and governing laws, but will be asked to take such a stand in the future, will vote to remain in full communion with The Episcopal Church, by retaining the accession clause to The Episcopal Church in their parish By-laws."

3. Why is this business about quitclaim deeds important? Doesn't my parish own its own property?

The Episcopal Church is what is known as a "hierarchical" church. It means that we are a national religious organization that has created subdivisions (called dioceses) to carry out its mission and support its congregations in their worship and ministry. It is similar to the model used by the Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians, among others.

Like St. Paul. those in hierarchical churches believe that we are better equipped to proclaim the Gospel as a united community of faith, rather than a swath of independent congregations off doing their own thing.

Yes, your parish owns its own property. However, the wider church has a legal or "trust interest" in it as well. In the Episcopal Church, a diocese holds parish property in trust for the national organization for the benefit and use of its congregations and their future generations.

None of us is so naïve to think that our parish will never have hard times or that there won't be times when it may not be able to adequately maintain its buildings. However, this trust relationship gives us the security of knowing that a larger community of like-minded Christians will always be there to our protect the heritage we hope to leave to others.

It also allows people to be assured that the work they do, their contributions, and their bequests and other kinds of gifts to the Episcopal Church will continue its work in years to come.

The Diocese's issuance of the quitclaim deeds, if it is valid, would essentially rupture this trust relationship. The deeds say that whatever legal interest the Diocese has in parish property is relinquished. However, there is ample reason to question whether a diocese or its bishop has the authority to act as a lone ranger in the way that Bishop Lawrence has and give away Church property.

4. Are there other advantages to the Church having a trust interest in parish property?

Yes, there are many practical advantages to this trust arrangement aside from providing continuity and community.

One is parish finances. When your parish wants to borrow money for repairs, a new building, or even just a line-of-credit, the bank assesses its risk in lending to you. If your parish was just an independent stand-alone congregation, your risk level could be much higher than if you were borrowing money as part of a larger organization like the Episcopal Church. Lenders know that with the larger Church on the hook with you, there is much less risk associated with doing business with you.

The same logic applies to insurers. Your parish is much more likely to get insurance on favorable terms when the insurer understands that you are part of a larger Church that has a stake in sustaining your viability and maintaining your property.

Then there's the appeal to people wanting to leave money and other assets to your parish when they die. Most people who leave money to an Episcopal Church do so because they believe in its mission and want to support its ministry. This trust relationship provides assurance that those wishes will be honored and those assets well-managed.

There is also the ability to attract good clergy, provide retirement and health benefits to your employees, and get help when your congregation needs technical or financial assistance. The Episcopal Church can not use its resources to help parishes in which it does not legally have an interest.

Another big advantage is a legal one. Unfortunately, parishes get sued and often are dragged into Court. The advantage of the Episcopal Church having a stake in your property is that it will likely be in court with you and help pay some, if not all, of the costs.

If yours is one of these parishes that thinks it is going to leave the Episcopal Church and take Church property with it, you probably need to calculate how much it will cost to go to court when the Episcopal Church says it wants it property back. Yes, that is the same Episcopal Church that has millions of dollars in funds it can use to battle you in Court. Because of the quitclaim deeds, you probably shouldn't count on the Diocese being able to help you.

Lots of parishes have tried the same thing in other dioceses and they have ended up losing their claim to the property and taking on enormous legal bills in the process. They thought they could get something for nothing. They were wrong and it cost them dearly.

5. Our rector recorded our quitclaim deed the day after he received it. Was that a mistake?

Well, it probably wasn't the most prudent thing to do. If these quitclaim deeds are such a good thing, why hasn't the Diocese done something with them over the past nearly 250 years of its existence.

SC Episcopalians is not a law firm and does not dispense legal advice. However, there are plenty of legal types out there who will tell you there is no reason to rush to record your quitclaim deed right now.

In fact, you may have every reason in the world not to.

Here’s why. Every parish situation is different, and filing a quitclaim deed like this is going to affect each parish differently. Before even considering recording this deed, your vestry needs to review the matter at a minimum with your parish attorney, banker, and insurance company to assess its long-term implications for the parish.

If your parish receives income from trusts or other financial instruments left to it by deceased members, you need to make sure that the deed doesn't violate the terms under which you receive that income.

Finally, there’s another one other reason for caution: common sense. The folks who prepared these quitclaim deeds were lawyers working for the Diocese of South Carolina. Surely, they were nice lawyers and did a good job for their client. However, your congregation was not the client. The lawyers were not working for you, your vestry, or your parish. Their job was to make sure the needs of the Diocese were met.

The quitclaim deed sent to your parish may be just the right thing for you, but you won’t know until you have your own legal and professional people look at it from your perspective.

If you are a Vestry member of a Warden you have a special legal obligation to look out for the people of your parish. You actually could be sued by someone in the parish who believes you did not act in the congregation's best interest or that you did not exercise due diligence before you rushed down to the county offices and recorded the deed.

6. Our rector reported that the Presiding Bishop and her liberal allies are trying to get rid of Bishop Lawrence and take over the Diocese of South Carolina. Is this true?

There is no evidence that the Presiding Bishop or anyone else in the Episcopal Church has it in for Bishop Lawrence or the Diocese. The long-standing claims of Diocesan leaders that the Episcopal Church is “at war” with them are more imaginary than anything else.

However, the reality is that the Diocese has taken certain legal steps to separate from the Episcopal Church that eventually will force the leadership of the national Church to step in.

With respect to the current Presiding Bishop, SC Episcopalians can find no evidence that she has never been anything but gracious to Bishop Lawrence. She has never said anything negative about Bishop Lawrence or the Diocese in public, nor can we find anyone who has heard her say anything negative in private. It has never been clear why Bishop Lawrence and the Standing Committee have repeatedly demonized her and challenged her integrity and commitment to Jesus Christ.

In 2008 former Bishop Edward Salmon told fellow bishops that the Presiding Bishop “bent over backwards” to help the Diocese when it became apparent that Lawrence’s initial election as bishop of South Carolina would not get enough consents from the Church’s 110 standing committees for him to be consecrated. The Presiding Bishop even extended the deadline for consents by three days to give the Diocese more time to get them properly certified in ways that conformed to the requirements of Church laws.

However, in spite of this, Bishop Lawrence and the Standing Committee told the Presiding Bishop she was not welcome at his consecration and insisted that a bishop other than she preside. She agreed, and personally made arrangements for another bishop, more acceptable to Bishop Lawrence, to fill that role.

In another instance following Bishop Lawrence’s consecration, the Presiding Bishop made an unprecedented three-day visit to Charleston to listen to the concerns and complaints of the Bishop and clergy about the Episcopal Church. Ultraconservatives on the Standing Committee carefully steered her toward those parishes most hostile to her leadership and away from those that had expressed enthusiasm over her visit.

It should not have been a surprise to anyone that she was greeted with extraordinary rudeness and contempt. The day after visiting his parish in Mount Pleasant, the Rev. Steve Wood told his parish online that she was the “Anti-Christ” and later referred to the Episcopal Church as a “whore.” In spite of the widespread awareness of these remarks, Wood was never publicly chastised by the Bishop or Standing Committee.

Finally, during the consent process for both his first and second elections, Bishop Lawrence received the support of some of the most liberal bishops and dioceses in the Episcopal Church. The idea that they are now plotting against him doesn't really make much sense.

SC Episcopalians does believe that the Diocese's current strategy of creating "distance" between itself and the national Church will force Church leaders eventually to take action to protect its interests.

7. Bishop Lawrence predicted that the recent revisions to the disciplinary canons of the Church were designed to make it easier
to depose him. Isn’t that what has happened?

Last year Bishop Lawrence and his supporters began loud and repeated denunciations of recent revisions to Title IV of the Church’s Canons (laws) dealing with bishops and clergy whose actions appear to place them in violation of their oath of loyalty to the “doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church.” They asserted that these revisions were personally aimed at him, the Diocese of South Carolina, and its clergy.

SC Episcopalians has consulted numerous experts on Church law including chancellors in other dioceses and those who worked on these reforms. None of those claims could be verified.

Click here to read what we actually did learn.

Ironically, those we spoke with unanimously expressed the opinion that the revisions to Title IV are far more helpful to a bishop who is charged with violations than under the previous canon. One diocesan chancellor told SC Episcopalians that, if Bishop Lawrence is not deposed, he will actually have the revisions of Title IV to thank.

There is a long history to this that is not often available to people in this Diocese.

In the 1990s Church leaders felt that the Church's disciplinary procedures under Title IV were overly restrictive, and allowed for little in the way of a pastoral response to those who were charged and those who were victimized. At that time, Title IV was mostly a rehashing of disciplinary procedures used by the U.S. military.

In 1994, the Church initiated a reform process that would recommend changes to Title IV more in line with the ethics and values of a Christian community. These changes were finally approved at the 2009 General Convention, and put into place in July 2011.

Bishop Lawrence’s suggestion that the reforms are targeted at him seem to be groundless, especially since the Church initiated them long before either he was even a bishop. Making his argument even less credible is that there is no evidence that delegates from the Diocese or Bishop Lawrence himself objected to these revisions at the 2009 General Convention when they were approved.

8. My beliefs seem to be very different from those of the leaders of the Episcopal Church. How can I stay in the Episcopal Church, and will the Church even let me stay?

The Episcopal Church Welcomes You! is more than just a slogan.

The Reverend Jeffrey Miller, past president of the Standing Committee, recently described the Diocese’s future in the Episcopal Church this way: “The question is not whether we can stay; it is whether they (Church leaders) will let us stay and follow what we believe.”

The Rev. Mr. Miller was completely off-base with this statement. No one’s faith is being challenged in this matter.

The news that Bishop Lawrence’s actions have been scrutinized by the Church has nothing to do with what he or we believe about God, or how we choose to live out our faith. This is all about Bishop Lawrence’s responsibilities and obligations as a bishop... not his beliefs nor ours.

The Episcopal Church, and the Anglican tradition from which it developed, does not insist that all of its members believe exactly the same thing or that they living out their commitment to Christ in exactly the same way. The foundation of our theology is scripture, tradition, and reason, all of which comes together in our common worship and the sacraments.

Sadly we live in an environment that seems to focus on those things that divide us as Episcopalians. However, there is much more that unites us.