Split in church is tragically real

Posted on January 25, 2009 
Filed under Opinion

Bishop Mark Lawrence and the Presiding Bishop“Recent opinion pieces published in the Gazette about divisions in the Episcopal Church reveal more than intended.

One writes that only ‘four bishops’ have left the church and that ‘the vast majority of Episcopal churches’ don’t want to leave. This is the Episcopal Church’s oft repeated mantra — division in the church is numerically minor, therefore wildly overblown. This rhetoric fuels the crisis it seeks to deny. It isn’t helpful to claim that there is some smoke but no fire when there are flames everywhere. …”

– Suzanne Schwank, Chairwoman of the Diocece of South Carolina’s Department of Christian Faith Formation writes in The Beaufort Gazette.

(Photo from the Presiding Bishop’s visit to South Carolina in 2008.)