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South Carolina Episcopal Bishop Resigns Orders in The Episcopal Church
By David W. Virtue, DD
www.Virtueonline.org
December 26, 2020
William Jones Skilton, ordained the first suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, has resigned his orders after he was barred from visiting churches that still remain with The Episcopal Church.
In a letter to Virtueonline, Bishop Skilton said that after much prayer he wrote Bishop Michael Curry asking that he be released and removed from his orders in The Episcopal Church. "This is the church where I was baptized, confirmed and nurtured until I came to the US from Cuba."
"For a number of years, I have said that TEC seeks reconciliation totally on their terms and a biblical conservative has no place there anymore. The call to conversation is only to have you "come over" to their position and we are invited to stay in TEC and "exist" but not allowed to flourish."
"I tried to minister across the great abyss of differences in South Carolina only to be told by TEC that I could not do this and [they] barred me from visiting churches that remained with the Episcopal Church or even being invited by these churches."
"I don't need to tell you how difficult this was and the hospitality and kindness extended to me by Bishop [Mark] Lawrence made it possible to visit Anglican churches." Skilton said it had been a blessing to worship and assist at Old St. Andrews Anglican Church when this was possible.
Skilton said he got a call from Bishop Curry regretting that he was taking these steps, but nonetheless released him as of December 6, 2020.
"I can now join the long list of those who have left this Church that they love."
In July, former Central Florida Bishop John W. Howe left the Episcopal Church and joined the Anglican Church in North America, arguing that TEC had not only redefined marriage but what it is to be a bishop.
This has been a long time coming, but the tipping point was the "hearing" (read: trial) of Albany Bishop William Love. Love's trial was the final straw, he told VOL. "The scriptures and the whole catholic and Anglican tradition have understood Christian marriage to be a union of a man and a woman in Christ. The Episcopal Church has always said that The Book of Common Prayer is the authority for our doctrine, discipline and worship," said Howe.
Next month, the Bishop of Albany, William Love will leave the diocese as bishop following his rejection of homosexual marriage now fully embraced by TEC. He will take leave in January but will remain the diocesan bishop until Feb. 1 -- three days before the 14th anniversary of his installation as diocesan bishop.
Orthodoxy is now officially dead in The Episcopal Church.
UPDATE: ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach has informed me that Bishop Skilton will be licensed to preach and serve in the Diocese of South Carolina beginning January.
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