In the Diocese of South Carolina one of the larger Episcopal churches in the country appears to have grown impatient with the path chosen by diocesan leadership. St. Andrew’s church of Mt. Pleasant has begun 40 Days of Discernment™, the same study materials that other churches have used that have left the Episcopal Church in recent years. St. Andrew’s claims more than 2,400 members.
Read the rector’s letter to the congregation here. The parish’s 40 Days of Discernment™ webpage is here and includes a link to the Anglican Church in North America. 40 Days is based upon material first used in 2006 by Truro and Falls Church before they left the Diocese of Virginia.
Recall in 2003 Bishop Salmon wrote about the departure of All Saints, Pawleys Island:
When a vestry of a parish in the diocese votes to take action to leave the church, they cannot then hold an office as a vestry of the church from which they have voted to depart.
South Carolina’s current bishop, Mark Lawrence, and six other Communion Partner bishops recently returned from a visit to Lambeth Palace with Rowan Williams. The seven bishops wrote in their report on that meeting of their “commitment to remain constituent members of both the Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church.”