S.C. Episcopalians split from U.S. church

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. -- The metal sign at the intersection of Waverly and Kings River directs visitors down a tree-lined road with the greeting "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You."

That sign soon will change as parishioners at All Saints Church Waccamaw complete a messy and potentially expensive divorce from the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church USA by removing the word "Episcopal."

Seventy miles up the coast from where the Civil War started more than 140 years ago, the latest revolt over the November consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay cleric, is playing out in a church whose 18th century origins predate the Declaration of Independence. The secession by All Saints, one of the largest Episcopal churches in South Carolina with 1,000 members, was approved overwhelmingly by congregants on Jan. 8.

But All Saints' decision to split, much like the South's firing on Ft. Sumter in April 1861, is more complicated than a momentary flash of anger over an unpopular decision. For many, the Robinson consecration was the final straw.

While the faithful argue the spiritual concerns about the direction of the Episcopal Church USA, a South Carolina court is weighing the financial control of the All Saints Church campus, whose several buildings include a sanctuary and Bible study areas. The financial implications of the divorce are significant because the All Saints property is valued at nearly $10 million.

"This is business. I hate to say it because I'm a born-again Christian, but this boils down, unfortunately, to property and endowments," Ross Lindsay, the All Saints chancellor, or attorney, said of the court fight and its national implications.

"Underneath the gay bishop is millions of dollars in endowments and property," he said. "Nobody wants to talk about that."

The fight over the property began in 2000 when the national church and the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina tried to lay claim to the property. All Saints sued to block the move. This month's vote to split from the church has heightened the drama and the bitterness.

Eugene Zeigler, the attorney for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, said the fight is not about money but about holding the church together.

"We are in a stronger position to reform if we stick together," Zeigler said. "If they peel off like Pawleys Island, we won't get anywhere."

Earlier this month, the Episcopal bishop in Lexington, Ky., took control of St. John's Episcopal Church, which opposed Robinson's ordination. The bishop downgraded the parish to a mission, clearing the way for the takeover. The Kentucky diocese feared the parish's governing board would leave the Episcopal Church USA, which is part of the worldwide Anglican community, and take with it property and bank accounts worth about $1.9 million.

There's more evidence of erosion.

In Episcopal churches around the country, factions in individual congregations have broken away in protest of Robinson's consecration. A new and so-far unaffiliated congregation of mostly conservative Episcopalians, who stopped attending church after the Robinson decision, is scheduled to begin meeting Sunday in Cheyenne, Wyo. Alternative services also are beginning for Episcopalians in Raleigh, N.C.

Thousands of Episcopalians, many of whom have opposed the ordination of women, prayer book revisions and, most recently, the Robinson consecration, are scheduled to meet this week in Plano, Texas, to discuss their future in the church. Known as the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, the group is pushing to align itself with Anglican churches outside the United States that oppose the Robinson consecration.

A group of about 2,600 met last weekend in suburban Washington to vent over Robinson and discuss what they should do.

The Pawleys Island church action is an extreme example of discontent but one that had been building for years, said Russell Campbell, a member of the church vestry, its governing board. Campbell said All Saints started challenging what it perceived to be inappropriate revisions in scriptural teachings, "heretical statements" by some bishops and "political correctness" seven years ago.

"We felt the church in the U.S. lost its way," Campbell said.

The result was the creation of the Anglican Mission in America, a splinter group within the worldwide Anglican community of 77 million members. All Saints wants to be governed by an archbishop from a different province, possibly the African nation of Rwanda, so as "not to remain part of an apostate national church," Campbell said.

"Isn't it ironic that this area, which grew rich because of the work of slaves, now seeks comfort from an African province? Interesting," Campbell added.

Guided by a 1979 Supreme Court decision, courts around the nation have ruled that congregations splitting from their churches forfeit their rights to property. An Episcopal law known as the Dennis Canon places every parish's property -- land, buildings and endowments -- under the control of its diocese and the national church.

A South Carolina circuit court, however, has ruled that the charitable trust established in 1745 deeding the property for religious purposes does not allow the state diocese or the national church to lay claim to the property, regardless of the Dennis Canon. The decision has been appealed to a state appeals court panel, and a ruling is expected soon. Both sides in the dispute say they expect a prolonged legal fight. The outcome could affect the futures of other Colonial-era Episcopal churches on the Eastern Seaboard.

All Saints is located on 50 acres of land, shaded by oaks, cedars and moss. An old cemetery next to the original church, built in 1736, has marble and granite headstones dating to the 1800s. Referred to locally as "arrogantly shabby," this touristy town on the northern coast of South Carolina, would not seem to be a hotbed of religious insurrection.

All Saints is one of the wealthier Episcopal churches in the state. Lindsay, the church's chancellor, says it has no endowment; church money is used for mission work, he said. The vote on Jan. 8 was swift and decisive, with 468 members choosing to break away and 38 voting against the measure.

Zeigler, the state diocese's attorney, said that if the South Carolina bishop "is going to hold the diocese together, he can't sit by while they peel off. We always have to be aware of the domino effect."

All Saints expects to decide soon the province with which it will align. Campbell said the church "is determined to provide a model for orthodox Anglican Christian worship."

Church members who opposed the split have elected a new vestry for All Saints. Anticipating an attempt to change All Saints' leadership, the church sent an angry letter to South Carolina Bishop Edward Salmon last month warning that anyone coming onto church property to make such a change "will be deemed as trespassers" and reported to police.

Campbell said the fight "is pretty much as political as it is spiritual. What was it Disraeli said? There's no war like a holy war."

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