UPDATE: Church Attorney recuses self.
Contrary to allegations from some, Josephine Hicks was never a member of the Disciplinary Board according to Doug LeBlanc in a report in The Living Church.
Church Attorney Josephine H. Hicks performs legal work for the Episcopal Church’s Disciplinary Board for Bishops but is not a member of it, the Rt. Rev. Dorsey Henderson said in an interview with The Living Church.
The board is in the early stages of investigating allegations that the Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence, Bishop of South Carolina, has abandoned the Episcopal Church. Unnamed parties within the diocese made the allegations.
A roster on a webpage of Episcopal Church’s General Convention was incorrect in listing Hicks as a member through 2015, Bishop Henderson said. The Rt. Rev. Clayton Matthews, Bishop of the Office of Pastoral Development, also appeared on the roster. That too was mistaken, Henderson said, and the roster was changed Oct. 12.
“Josephine Hicks is not now, and never has been, a member of the disciplinary board,” the bishop said. The board, meeting by phone after the revised Title IV took effect July 1, “voted to retain her as the board’s attorney, as authorized by the canon. The attorney does not have a vote on matters before the board and thus not on matters related to Bishop Lawrence. She does not act independently from the board; she only performs those functions requested by the board consistent with the board’s responsibility under the canons.”
h/t to June Butler in The Lead comments on an earlier story.
Mark Harris also comments here.
UPDATE: The Living Church reports that the Church attorney has recused herself.
More on Hicks below in interview: