New Level of Repression Signaled by Charges against +Lawrence

The certification of abandonment by ECUSA's new Disciplinary Board for Bishops, communicated to Bishop Mark Lawrence by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on October 15, 2012, raises some very troubling questions. It also evidences a new degree of repression operative in ECUSA that seems designed to curb the free speech and other First Amendment rights of its clergy.

The first thing to note is the change in tone between this Disciplinary Board and the one that considered the same charges against Bishop Lawrence last year. In the certification just linked, after reviewing the actions of South Carolina's Diocesan Convention in 2010 and 2011, when it adopted a Constitutional amendment and other canonical changes to withdraw its accession to the Church's canons, and to qualify its accession to the ECUSA Constitution, the Board writes.... Read more