NEW YORK — Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said Nov. 15 that the Diocese of South Carolina cannot unilaterally secede from the national church and urged conservatives to stay despite sharp disputes over theology and homosexuality.
“The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina continues to be a constituent part of The Episcopal Church even if a number of its leaders have departed,” said Jefferts Schori, who heads the 1.9 million-member denomination.
Leaders in the Diocese of South Carolina announced Oct. 17 that disciplinary actions taken against their bishop, Mark Lawrence, triggered their disaffiliation from the Episcopal Church. On Sept. 18, the denomination’s Disciplinary Board for Bishops found Lawrence guilty of abandoning the Episcopal Church and renouncing its rules.
The split escalated a long-running feud between the national church, which has approved gay bishops and same-sex “marriage,” and South Carolina conservatives who oppose the moves.
Four dioceses — in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Illinois — have split from the Episcopal Church since its consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003. In each case Episcopal leaders rebuilt the diocese while insisting that church rules allow people to leave, but dioceses must take additional legal steps to separate.
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