Wando High School senior Ian Lund knew he was risking his life when he tried to help a stranger trapped in an overturned van on U.S. Highway 17.

But he also realized it would be worse to do nothing at all.

The decision came to him in an instant, when he looked through the van's windshield and saw John D. Green, 54, of Charleston bleeding heavily and in pain from a broken arm.

"The first thing I smell is gasoline," Lund said. "I'm like, 'Oh, boy, this is not good.' "

Lund's bravery will be recognized tonight during a Town Council meeting. The town also plans to nominate him for a Carnegie Medal, which recognizes heroism.

"Ian showed tremendous courage and put his life in immediate danger to aid a complete stranger," Fire Chief Herb Williams said in a letter to council. "Ian recognized the inherent danger of the gasoline igniting while the driver was still trapped inside the vehicle. His efforts were extraordinary."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Teens / Youth • * South Carolina

Strong principals typically are seasoned administrators. Moore didn't have any experience as a principal, but she had a passion for Sanders-Clyde. She grew up in Atlanta and moved here for a College of Charleston minority fellowship to earn her master's in education.

Moore taught at Sanders-Clyde for four years before moving up to a lead teacher position. She left Sanders-Clyde to work as a master teacher, and for the next few years, she helped low-performing schools across the district improve.

When Sanders-Clyde's principal retired, Moore applied for the job. Even when she was a teacher at Sanders-Clyde, she knew she wanted to be its principal. It was a small, 200-student school, and she felt connected to the parents and community. She understood what it would take to help its children. It was the only school where she applied for a principal job.

By most every measure, Sanders-Clyde was struggling in 2003 when Moore became its leader.

It was so bad that more than 60 percent of its students weren't ready for the next grade in English and math. None of its students scored at the highest possible level on the state's standardized tests.

Its student enrollment dwindled as families abandoned the school. All but a few of Moore's students lived in nearby government-funded housing.

Despite those challenges, Moore refused to accept that her students couldn't score as well as the wealthier ones across the Cooper River.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • * South Carolina

By his 16th birthday, Mark Cabrera had not been so sweet.

He carried a knife to school, got caught with drugs, skipped classes, broke into a shed and stole a car, jewelry and reptiles at different times.

He was becoming an alcoholic and was getting high on drugs. He was angry and rebellious. He thought he could make more money selling drugs than he could completing an education. He was in and out of juvenile and criminal courts. His life was a mess.

For violating probation after being caught with marijuana, the Stratford High School ninth-grader served 43 days at Coastal Evaluation Center.

That's where he began to turn his life around.

On Thursday, he was one of 23 Berkeley County School District students honored by the district with a Turnaround Achievement Award.

Read it all from the front page of yesterday's local paper.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • * South Carolina

Grace Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina barely survived the Civil War, was seriously damaged by the earthquake of 1886 and withstood the ravages of Hurricane Hugo in 1989. No wonder the 162-year-old Gothic Revival building needs some serious restoration work. Cracks, settling and structural problems have taken their toll, especially in the steeple tower and clerestory walls.

Raising $12 million for repairs has been a challenge -- seven years into the "Saving Grace" project, the church's approximately 1,600 parishioners have raised about $4 million, enough to set up scaffolding and get started. Now a new challenge has appeared in the form of a pair of red-tailed hawks and their chicks nesting in the steeple tower -- a challenge that will cost an estimated $60,000 in construction delays.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * South Carolina

Squeezed by surging gasoline and grocery prices, the Dentons and other middle-class families are looking to cut corners any way they can to keep their household budgets afloat. It's become a daily struggle for those who exist in that gray zone between safety nets and Easy Street.

People are trading name brands for generic offerings, eating out less, pooling errands to avoid car trips, clipping more coupons — whatever they can do to save a few bucks here and there.

"We're in some very uncertain times right now," said Frank Hefner, an economics professor at the College of Charleston. "I don't think we are going back to the '30s where people didn't spend money, but people are thinking more about how they spend their money."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • * South Carolina

More Charleston area troops are making their way home from extended overseas deployments in the war.

Twenty-six members of the South Carolina National Guard's 218th Brigade Combat Team who served in Afghanistan arrived Thursday in North Charleston.

A contracted airline's bankruptcy last month prevented hundreds of soldiers from getting home on time.

One of them was Capt. Trae Redmond III, who was among the group that arrived about 5 p.m. Thursday at the National Guard Armory on Cross County Road. He left in January 2007 and his son, Grady, was born the next month.

"We got through it," Redmond's wife, Jennifer, said Friday evening as her husband bathed their son at their North Charleston home.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Military / Armed Forces • * South Carolina

Demand is up for food assistance. Local soup kitchens and food pantries all report increased traffic since the beginning of the year, and some say donations are down.

Churches, a primary source of donated goods, continue to provide non-perishable items to agencies that distribute to the needy. But the growing demand is causing the need gap to widen.

Volunteers and program administrators at faith-based organizations such as Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach, Seacoast Church's Dream Center, Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, Tricounty Family Ministries and Hillcrest Baptist Church independently confirmed that service providers have been especially challenged in recent weeks to satisfy the growing need.

Rising food prices have forced people to make hard choices and even forgo essentials, such as health care or child care in favor of food, several service providers said. Rising fuel prices have exacerbated the problem.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Poverty • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Energy, Natural Resources • * South Carolina

The costs finally became too much for Walter Tucker.

Three weeks ago, he swallowed his pride and took a place in the soup kitchen line at Our Lady of Mercy Church on Charleston's East Side so he could extend his already stretched food dollar with a free meal.

Prices are up so much that many people are forced to make a choice, "either a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread," he says.

"It was hard to come to a soup kitchen," Tucker says. "You feel a little hesitant at first, like you may be seen as a bum." But a choice has to be made, he says. "Come in to get something to eat, or don't eat."

Sister Pat Keating, who directs this Sisters of Charity soup kitchen on America Street, says the soup kitchen normally feeds fewer than 100 for lunch at the beginning of the month when people tend to have more money on hand. Now, she says, Our Lady of Mercy often finds 150 or more in the food line.

"They're running out of money because food is expensive. We're seeing people we have not seen before."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Poverty • * Economics, Politics • Economy • * South Carolina

Today this stadium has resounded with passages from Holy Scripture bearing on the reality of the family. We have heard the plea and promise made by the young widow Ruth: "Wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Wherever you die I will die and there be buried" (Ro 1:16-17). To hear these words is to be moved with a deep feeling for the strength of family ties: stronger than the fear of hardships to be faced; stronger than the fear of exile in an unfamiliar land; stronger than the fear of possible rejection. The bond that unites a family is not only a matter of natural kinship or of shared life and experience. It is essentially a holy and religious bond. Marriage and the family are sacred realities.

The sacredness of Christian marriage consists in the fact that in God's plan the marriage covenant between a man and a woman becomes the image and symbol of the covenant which unites God and his people (cf. Hos 2:21; Jer 3:6-13; Is 54:5-10). It is the sign of Christ's love for his Church (cf. Eph 5:32). Because God's love is faithful and irrevocable, so those who have been married in Christ are called to remain faithful to each other forever. Did not Jesus himself say to us: "What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder" (cf. Mt 19:6)?

Contemporary society has a special need of the witness of couples who persevere in their union as an eloquent, even if sometimes suffering, sign in our human condition of the steadfastness of God's love. Day after day Christian married couples are called to open their hearts ever more to the Holy Spirit, whose power never fails and who enables them to love each other as Christ has loved us. And, as St. Paul writes to the Galatians, "the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity" (Gal 5:22-23). All of this constitutes the rule of life and the program of personal development of Christian couples. And each Christian community has a great responsibility to sustain couples in their love.

--Pope John Paul II in Columbia, South Carolina, during his U.S. Visit; Elizabeth and I were there together in the stands of William Brice Stadium on that day and remember it as a powerful witness to Christian unity. I did not note until this week that it was September 11--KSH.

Update: There is more on the then Pope's South Carolina visit in 1987 here.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • * South Carolina

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Taylor knows what texting while driving could cause: danger for the person behind the wheel and anyone else on the road.

That's why the North Charleston teen thinks it's a good idea that the state might stop new drivers from using their phones while on the road. But will they listen? That's another question.

"I do think it will be a big uproar if it does actually go through," Sarah said. "Nobody is going to follow it."

The bill would allow law enforcement to stop 15- and 16-year-old drivers if they are caught text messaging or talking on a phone without a hands-free device, although the provisions allow for emergency communication.

The issue pits personal rights against safety concerns and is sure to be controversial when the House debates the proposed legislation, said Rep. Bob Walker, R-Landrum.

"You know as well as I do, all of us, young people included, are going to be distracted, listening to the radio, talking on our phones, eating food," he said.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Teens / Youth • * South Carolina

Wednesday at the White House, speak at the United Nations on Friday and visit the site of the 2001 terror attacks at the World Trade Center on Saturday. He will celebrate Mass in two baseball stadiums, the Washington Nationals Park on Thursday and Yankee Stadium on Saturday.

More than 20 percent of Americans are Catholic (65 million of 300 million), but only four of every 100 South Carolina residents, or 4.2 percent, belong to the church. But even in this predominantly Baptist state, the pope's visit could have tremendous implications.

"You better believe it," said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. "I think you're looking at one of the two most influential Christian figures in the world today, the other being Billy Graham. ... He's more than a figurehead. He's a very thoughtful person with a global perspective."

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, has always been known as a deep thinker, striving to reconcile modern thought with orthodox Christian doctrine.

"I think what Benedict brings is a profound understanding of the relationship between faith and reason that our culture has lost; that faith is reasonable," said Stephen Gajdosik, the media relations officer for the Catholic Diocese of Charleston. He planned to see the pope on the White House lawn. "I think our culture wants to posit a lot of false dichotomies, black or white. If we applied reason to the whole political maelstrom right now, we would find our way to solutions much more quickly."

Monsignor Martin Laughlin, diocese administrator, also praised the pope's ability to bridge the gap between secular and religious.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI • * South Carolina

Home foreclosures in the Charleston area rose dramatically during the first three months of this year, mirroring national trends and reinforcing worries about the shaky U.S. economy.

Lenders filed foreclosure proceedings on 874 residential properties in the tri-county area in the first quarter, according to statistics compiled by The Post and Courier.

While comparable data from a year ago is unavailable for Dorchester County, the number of foreclosures in Charleston and Berkeley counties jumped to 638 this year from 425 in the same period last year, a 50.1 percent increase.

Dorchester County, which reports the number of properties set for county auctions, rather than foreclosure filings, saw a 53.8 percent increase from the same period last year.

Read it all from this morning's front page.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Housing Market • * South Carolina

AAC: Was any progress toward reconciliation made at this House of Bishops’ meeting?

+Lawrence: We spent a day and a half on what was called a reconciliation retreat. What makes it difficult to answer that question is that, based at our table discussion, the table I was at, I thought we began to talk about the difficulties that are connected with that whole area of reconciliation. So in that sense, on a table level, I would say, yes, we made some progress. But once we got to the legislative portion of the meeting…reconciliation is always costly and the question is, who it’s going to cost and who wants to sacrifice in order to reconcile. Once we got to the legislative portion of the meeting and the deposition for Bishop Schofield and Bishop Cox, I wouldn’t describe the mood of the house as conciliatory to those who, for issues of faith, don’t feel like they can conform to order of the church.

What we have in The Episcopal Church (TEC) today is that many people feel like the faith of the church has been compromised or violated and in order to deal with what they feel is a profound compromise or denial of the faith of the church historically and biblically, they feel like they have to do things contrary to the order of the church. At that point, many in the House of Bishops and in various other formats of the church desire to impose the order of the church upon them. That is, if Bishop Schofield believes the faith of the church has been denied, he has to go beyond the order of the church as in the canons and constitution of TEC, and those who are in the forefront who are quite comfortable with the new faith of the church, so to speak, feel like they have to impose the order upon him or upon Bishop Cox.

The difficulty we have, then, is the very way we went about imposing the order of the church. That is, after the House of Bishops’ meeting, after the voting on the canonical depositions of Bishop Cox and Bishop Schofield, it seemed to be revealed that those depositions were done in a way that was contrary to the order of the church...

AAC: What is your next step?

+Lawrence: I know that Bishop Howe has recently called for a re-examination of this. The Standing committee and Bishop of South Carolina, myself, have issued a letter of protest that the canons were not followed. I don’t know where we will end up with all of that.

Read it carefully and read it all, noting that there is more to come later.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Southern Cone • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • TEC Conflicts • TEC Polity & Canons • * South Carolina

The demand for new homes in the Columbia region slowed significantly so far this year.

Builders in a six-county area received permits to build 676 homes and apartments in the first two months of the year, down 38 percent from a year ago, according to U.S. Census data.

Also, builders in Richland, Lexington and Kershaw counties saw a 33 percent drop to 1,082 single-family homes in the first three months of the year, according to the Home Builders Association of Greater Columbia.

“We were expecting a downturn. I don’t know if I was expecting that much,” association executive director Earl McLeod said.

Read it all.

Filed under: * South Carolina

Terry Mallott of Goose Creek clutched a small bag with two metal and glass garden fairies as she made her way through the throngs at Azalea Park on Friday morning.

"Yes, I need them," she said with a smile, "because I want them."

Ah, this is the kind of person who keeps the local tourism industry happy.

Mallott was one of tens of thousands who turned out for the opening day of the Flowertown Festival. It's the biggest annual event in the Charleston area in terms of attendance.

Coming at the start of spring, it's another significant barometer of the tourist season, which pumps $5 billion a year into the local economy.

If Friday was any indication, the outlook is pretty good. Threatened rain didn't materialize, and the sun was out by early afternoon. It was hard to walk through Azalea Park, throngs filled Main Street for blocks, lines snaked back from food vendors and scores of mothers pushed baby carriages toward the carnival rides.

Read it all and some pictures are there.

Filed under: * South Carolina

The Rev. James Snell, president of the San Joaquin Standing Committee, has previously raised the possibility that Bishop Jefferts Schori might be liable for a presentment complaint under the canons which prohibit bishops from entering another bishop’s territory without permission. Under the canons to be considered for adoption by the special convention, the standing committee is the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese. The special convention is scheduled to begin in a few hours.

“Bishop Lawrence and the South Carolina Standing Committee have really gone out on a limb in respectfully calling for a second vote on the depositions and for postponement of the special convention,” the Rev. John Burwell, president of the standing committee told a reporter from The Living Church. “I am hoping that other diocesan bishops and standing committees will join me in respectfully calling for the consistent application of our canons.” Fr. Burwell, who also serves as rector of Holy Cross Church, Sullivans Island, also confirmed that the diocese had informed Bishop Jefferts Schori of their intent to make public the letter ahead of time and waited for confirmation that she had received it before doing so.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Bishops • TEC Conflicts • TEC Conflicts: San Joaquin • TEC Polity & Canons • * South Carolina

March 27, 2008



The Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church Center
815 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10017


Dear Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori:

We, as the Standing Committee and Bishop of South Carolina, write this letter to strongly protest what we recognize as a failure to follow the Canons of our Episcopal Church in the recent depositions of Bishops Schofield and Cox. We respectfully request that you and the House of Bishops revisit those decisions, refrain from the planned selection of a new bishop for the Diocese of San Joaquin, and make every effort to follow our Church Canons in all future House of Bishops decisions.

We believe that deposition is the most severe sanction that can be applied against a bishop.. Consequently, it is most important that both the letter and the spirit of the Canons be followed. In this instance, it is clear that the canonical safeguards in place were not followed.

Under Canon IV.9.2, the House of Bishops must give its consent to depose a bishop under the "abandonment of communion" canon. ". . . by a majority of the whole number of Bishops entitled to vote." The Constitution of the Episcopal Church, Article I.2, states in pertinent part that "Each Bishop of this Church having jurisdiction, every Bishop Coadjutor, every Suffragan Bishop, every Assistant Bishop, and every Bishop who by reason of advanced age or bodily infirmity . . . has resigned a jurisdiction, shall have a seat and vote in the House of Bishops."

Due to amendment, Canon IV.9.2, at various times, required consent under these circumstances consisting of " . . . a majority of the House of Bishops," ". .. . a majority of the whole number of bishops entitled . . . to seats in the House of Bishops . . . " and " . . . by a majority of the whole number of bishops entitled to vote." The language of the Canon has consistently required that a majority of all bishops entitled to vote, and not just a majority of those present at a meeting, must give their consent to the deposition of a bishop. Although the language itself is clear, the definition contained in Title IV is even more specific. Canon IV.15 specifically provides that "All the Members shall mean the total number of members of the Body provided for by Constitution or Canon without regard to absences, excused members, abstentions or vacancies."

Read more...

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Bishops • TEC Conflicts • TEC Polity & Canons • * South Carolina

Bishop Lawrence has previously said he will wait a year before making any major changes in South Carolina. That said he has a low tolerance for weak, uninspired preaching.

“I feel unabashedly comfortable talking about my personal experience with Jesus Christ,” he said. “We [as a church seem to] get all tied up arguing about whether Jesus is the only way to God. He is God.

“The trouble with so much preaching in The Episcopal Church is that it resembles a new moralism. We ought to oppose the war. We ought to support the Millennium Development Goals … It’s a religion of nagging.

“Our preaching needs to be faithful to the gospel of the lordship of Jesus Christ. When our preaching is faithful, the Anglican/Episcopal tradition is more than capable of reaching our culture for Christ.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Evangelism and Church Growth • * South Carolina

Easter Sunday was just another day at the office for S.C. National Guard troops here.

Convoys rolled out of the gate, watchtowers were manned, and patients were cared for at the base clinic.

“I didn’t even think about it until I walked into the chow hall and saw the decorations,” said Sgt. Natalia Levesque, a medic from Greenville. “Then it hit me, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s Easter.’”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Holy Week • * Culture-Watch • Military / Armed Forces • * South Carolina

Without Good Friday, there can be no Easter.

That’s what the Rev. Mack C. McClam will tell parishioners tonight when he delivers a Good Friday sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church-College Place in North Columbia.

McClam, pastor of Francis Burns United Methodist Church on Farrow Road, will remind the two congregations, which are coming together for a shared service, that their faith comes with a price.

“If I had to give you a word for Good Friday, it was when the debt was paid.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Holy Week • Parish Ministry • Preaching / Homiletics • * South Carolina

Comments are closed.

One of the most critical leadership strategies I have tried to live day in and day out as Rector of a growing vibrant congregation is to make sure our theology drives every single thing we do together. Gospel-Holy Spirit driven theology that is clearly evident in our preaching, teaching and all we do. For instance, the goal of our recent instructed Eucharists was to enrich our worship by realizing the theological ‘whys’ of why we do what we do in worship.

One of the most profound learnings for me during our day of Clarity and Charity was a simple vacuum of any coherent theology coming from the Presiding Bishop. There was no there-there, no center of theological gravity. The most often repeated word from her was experience. Re-evaluating marriage, Scripture, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ through our own experience. I felt as if the head of the Unitarian church was at the microphone and not the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Read more...

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Conflicts • * South Carolina • * Theology

Comments are closed.

Check it out.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Bishops • TEC Conflicts • * South Carolina

In case you missed anything.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • * South Carolina

Part One is here and part Two is there.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Bishops • * South Carolina

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Bishops • TEC Conflicts • * South Carolina

One of the most critical leadership strategies I have tried to live day in and day out as your Rector is to make sure that our theology drives every single thing we do together. Gospel-Holy Spirit driven theology that is clearly evident in our preaching, teaching and all we do. For instance, the goal of our instructed Eucharist was to enrich our worship by realizing the theological ‘whys’ of why we do what we do in worship.

One of the most profound learnings for me during our day of Clarity and Charity was a simple vacuum of any coherent theology coming from the Presiding Bishop. There was no there-there, no center of theological gravity. The most often repeated word from her was experience. Re-evaluating marriage, Scripture, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ through our own experience. I felt as if the head of the Unitarian church was at the microphone and not the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

This idea of our own experience kept coming up to the point that finally at the end of the question and answer session I went to the microphone and stated to the P.B. that I am a happily married man of twelve years, but that as a priest in a very difficult ecclesiastical marriage with the church, feeling as if the Bride of Christ (the church) has become completely unfaithful with little or no fidelity. Imagine if my wife were to come home and say…. “Al, I think we should abandon the marital vows and base our marriage on our experiences of what feels right and wrong, in fact out of that experience Al, I think we should have an open marriage. I know it’s out of the box thinking but experientially it just feels like the right thing to do!” If that were agreed to, our marriage would inevitably end in destruction, not to mention the damage done to the countless relationships surrounding the marriage. So it is when we use our experience to trump Scriptural authority. I ended my time at the microphone asking the question of where in the world do we go from here now that we have once again and with clarity been exposed to our massive differences? The question was never answered.

Well, where do we go from here? How can we together move forward if one side of the relationship has no theological moorings? This juncture should drive each one of us to our knees in prayer, praying that Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit would make clear our future. As you pray that prayer, please pray for the Gospel unity of this Diocese and the leadership of Bishop Mark Lawrence.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Conflicts • * South Carolina • * Theology

Dear Bp. Jefferts Schori,

I am an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of South Carolina and attended the [recent] meeting on Monday with you at St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant. As I was rising to speak, time was called so I did not have an opportunity to offer my thoughts to you and those of us gathered.

First, thank you for your willingness to come and be with us. It seems always essential to meet face-to-face when there is conflict, mistrust and disagreement between parties. So, I am glad for the opportunity provided us to meet with you and listen to you in person. Perhaps you were able to listen to us as well.

I certainly won’t attempt to speak all that is on my mind, but as a 3rd generation Episcopal priest, the angst and sadness I feel for this province of the Anglican Communion could not be any deeper. I’ve written you once before about this, in fact—the only two occasions I have ever felt called to communicate with the Presiding Bishop. The perspective I offer is this. A majority of Episcopalians has chosen new directions with regards to an understanding of the primacy of Scripture and Biblical authority, with regards to the uniqueness and supremacy of Jesus Christ and his saving work, and finally with regards to marriage of same-sex persons. (If you only agree that it is the last of these three, the rest written below still can stand.)The side you are on has won the political battle for the high ground. Now that your battle has been won, one of the most urgent questions that remain is how to treat the losers. One can continue to wield power and simply beat us into submission or drive us out of the family. One can use every jot and tittle of the letter of the law to demean, belittle and thoroughly bind us by forceful, aggressive litigation and by a ‘take no prisoners’ mentality. In other words, we are being told to do it the way the winners would have it or face various forms of reprisal. For those of us on the loser’s side, it is embarrassing, humiliating and heart-rending.

Read more...

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Conflicts • * South Carolina • * Theology

My hope was that the audio and/or video would be able to be released publically so that people could form their own conclusions based on their interaction with the material. Unfortunately because some of the participants chose to share details of a quite personal and intimate nature that is not going to be possible. I hope to have more on this as time and schedule allows--KSH.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • * By Kendall • * South Carolina

Borrowers could have only one payday loan at a time worth $500 or less under state legislation aimed at tightening restrictions on an industry some say traps clients in a cycle of debt.

The Senate sent the legislation — after closely defeating a proposed ban on the industry — to the House for consideration.

"I am not pro-payday lending or anti-payday lending," said Rep. Wallace Scarborough, R-James Island. "I am trying to do the best for the people of South Carolina. I am trying to help reach a compromise. I think people are shortsighted if they say we need an outright payday lending ban."

Payday loans are small, short-term, unsecured loans that borrowers promise to repay out of their next paycheck or regular income payment, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Scarborough, a member of the House committee that will first review the Senate bill, said the Legislature should find ways to "clean up the industry." The lenders, he noted, serve a purpose for people who need the types of loans not available at banks.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • * South Carolina

Duct tape is used to seal the mouths of unruly children on a Ware Shoals school bus.

Two 16-year-old boys sexually assault a 14-year-old girl on a Berkeley County school bus after paying the driver $10 to look the other way.

A once-beloved Gilbert school-bus driver sits in prison after confessing to sexually abusing girls as young as 7 on his bus.

Such stories grab the headlines and paint a grim picture of the trek that more than 300,000 S.C. children take twice a day on a school bus.

But the reality is the vast majority of them arrive at school and back home again safe and sound.

Ugh. Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • * South Carolina

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • * South Carolina