House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson urged a group of Episcopalians in the Diocese of South Carolina November 3 to take advantage of an “incredible moment” in the life of that diocese to begin talking to people “whom you may not have talked to recently” so that together they might develop new models for mission, reports Mary Frances Schoenberg in Episcopal Life Online.
The moment to which Anderson was referring was created when the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence, the diocese’s bishop-elect, recently received the canonically required consent to his ordination and consecration from a majority of the standing committees of the Episcopal Church dioceses and from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction.
“You have some opportunities for newness,” Anderson said told nearly 150 who attended the “Connecting with the Episcopal Church in 2007” event sponsored by the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina for which she was the keynote speaker. The meeting took place in Charleston at the Inn at Middleton Place.
Joining Anderson were her chancellor, Sally Johnson, and the Rev. Francis Wade, a member of Anderson’s Council of Advice and the recently retired rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on the grounds of Washington National Cathedral.
South Carolina Bishop Ed Salmon spoke during the day-long gathering and participated in a question-and-answer panel that closed the day. Forum President Lynn Pagliaro read the letter of greeting from Lawrence in which the bishop-elect said in part that it was his “firm conviction that in Christ’s reconciling work we shall find the key to our unity.”
Read the article here.
The Charleston Post and Courier story is here