(This post is slightly revised from the earlier edition, after a couple of editing errors were corrected. We are saved by Grace, not by works, thanks be to God!)In an effort to become as notorious a false prophet as Balaam and Simon Magus, I decided to predict the relative chances of the candidates for Bishop. In that … Continue reading Father Waldo Explains His Reference to Excommunication

In these last few days before the delegates of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina choose their eighth Bishop, the tension is palpable. Little knots of people gather around coffee urns or in parking lots whispering, worrying, wondering. The Episcopal Church, as its name implies, takes on the personalities of its Bishops. So Diocesan … Continue reading Handicapping the Bishop’s Candidates

Father Burwell has responded to my post in two emails sent last night. Rather than take any of what he said out of context, I will print them in their entirety below. Dear Tim,Thank you for taking the time to get to know me a little bit better today and I appreciated your kind report … Continue reading Father Burwell Responds

The Very Reverend John B. Burwell,wrote to me after one of my posts and told me that I had misunderstood him. Some of our email exchange was posted here. We agreed to meet for lunch today to sit down in person and try to understand each other.We met at Queen Anne's Revenge, a pirate-themed restaurant … Continue reading The Bishop Candidate: The Very Reverend John B. Burwell Part 5 Lunch at Queen Anne’s Revenge

The Search Committee produced a slate of five candidates from which the Diocesan delegates, it hoped, would select the eighth Bishop of Upper South Carolina. A group of those delegates (three clergy, three lay) submitted a petition to include a sixth, The Very Reverend Dr. Philip C. Linder, Dean of Trinity Cathedral, Columbia. (Another disclosure … Continue reading The Bishop Candidates: The Very Reverend Dr. Philip C. Linder

Thanks to Mark for noting that a combination of human imperfection, fatigue, single malt scotch and dyslexia had resulted in the deletion of Fr. William's last name in the original post. This is the corrected edition. The incarnation of the Word of God means God’s self-communication in Jesus Christ. There is a reflection of the … Continue reading The Bishop Candidate: The Reverend Jerre Stockton Williams, Jr.

Theological liberalism, is according The Encyclopedia Britannica, “a form of religious thought that establishes religious inquiry on the basis of a norm other than the authority of tradition.” The Catholic Encyclopedia describes it as “certain tendencies in the intellectual, religious, political, and economical life, which implied a partial or total emancipation of man from the … Continue reading The Bishop Candidates: The Reverend W. Andrew Waldo

The Reverend David F. O. Thompson is Rector of St. Bartholomew's, North Augusta, South Carolina. He has been part of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina since his arrival at St. Bartholomew's and during his long ministry there St. Bartholomew's has grown into a solid, mature Christian ministry. [Full disclosure: I have known Fr. Thompson … Continue reading The Bishop Candidates: The Reverend David. F. O. Thompson