On Sunday, September 27, churches throughout our diocese celebrated the Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost with online services of worship, as most of them have not resumed in-person worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click here for the lessons appointed for use on the Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost.

Find the links to the services below:

All Saints Episcopal Church, Hilton Head Island
All Saints offered  returned to Sunday service in the church this week, shared live on Facebook at 10:15 am. Watch it at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
 The Episcopal Church in Okatie, Ridgeland
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
The Episcopal Church on Edisto, Edisto Island
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Summerville
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
​Grace Church Cathedral, Charleston
Watch the Sunday Choral Eucharist at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church, Pawleys Island
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin. 
 
Church of the Holy Communion, Charleston
Watch the Said High Mass from Sunday at this link.
 
Church of the Messiah, Myrtle Beach
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Conway
This week, the congregation worshiped online with Grace Church Cathedral in Charleston, where the Rev. Rob Donehue, Rector of St. Anne’s, served as the celebrant.
 
St. Catherine’s, Florence
The congregation gathered together on Zoom for Sunday’s service. Watch from Facebook at this link.
 
St. George’s Episcopal Church, Summerville
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
​St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Port Royal
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
​
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, North Myrtle Beach
Watch the Sunday service at this link.

On Sunday, September 20, churches throughout our diocese celebrated the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost with online services of worship, as most of them have not resumed in-person worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click here for the lessons appointed for use on the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost.

Find the links to the services below:

All Saints Episcopal Church, Hilton Head Island
All Saints offered  returned to Sunday service in the church this week, shared live on Facebook at 10:15 am. Watch it at this link. Click this link for the bulletin. 
 
 The Episcopal Church in Okatie, Ridgeland
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
The Episcopal Church on Edisto, Edisto Island
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Summerville
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
​Grace Church Cathedral, Charleston
Watch the Sunday Choral Eucharist at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church, Pawleys Island
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin. 
 
Church of the Holy Communion, Charleston
Watch the Said High Mass from Sunday at this link.
 
Church of the Messiah, Myrtle Beach
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Conway
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
St. George’s Episcopal Church, Summerville
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
​St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Port Royal
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
​
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, North Myrtle Beach
Watch the Sunday service at this link.

Dr. Walter Limehouse, a member at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Charleston, was honored on Sunday, September 13, 2020 during the Sunday service at Grace Church Cathedral, Charleston, for his 24-year lay ministry as Diocesan Coordinator for Education for Ministry (EfM), a program of theological education. He has announced he will retire from this role, and Archdeacon Callie Walpole presented him with a plaque of the diocesan seal for his service.

Dorothy Gervais Carter, longtime EfM mentor shared the following article about Dr. Limehouse's retirement:
 
“The gift of the Holy Spirit is never for personal gain or glory but always for the blessing of others … the encouragement for each person to be the person God called him or her to be.”
                  - Karen Gorham, Bishop of Sherborne
 
These words, written in reference to Pentecost, could just as easily be applied to the 24-year lay ministry of Dr. Walter Limehouse, our newly retired diocesan coordinator for Education for Ministry (EfM), a program of theological education by extension of the School of Theology at the University of the South (Sewanee). During Walter’s tenure as diocesan coordinator (1996-2020), he oversaw and enabled EfM mentors who shepherded hundreds through the EfM program, as well as actively mentoring a group at Grace Church Cathedral, which encompassed participants from around the diocese, for many of those years. At the same time, he had a full and rewarding career as an emergency department physician and medical ethicist at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). In the roles of EfM coordinator and mentor, Walter valued and imputed value to everyone’s point of view – quite the feat as the EfM community is a richly diverse crew!
 
When faced with challenges, Walter did not avoid the “hard things” but approached them always with an eye to their possibilities – engaging with and working through them as opposed to around them.  In 2007, when the diocesan leadership severed ties with the Sewanee-based program, he quietly, creatively, and determinedly cobbled together an umbrella of supporting parishes to sponsor EfM in the diocese under the umbrella of Grace Church (now Cathedral) in Charleston. This alternate arrangement allowed the program to continue with uninterrupted availability until the diocese reaffirmed its sponsorship of the program in 2013.
 
Walter’s “hand at the EfM helm” in the Diocese of South Carolina has been a steady one with a gentle touch -  a quiet and enabling leadership of encouragement. His spirit of clear-eyed openness invited others to “come and see.”
 
Godspeed and joy in the next season of your life!

On Sunday, September 13, churches throughout our diocese celebrated the Ninth Sunday After Pentecost with online services of worship, as most of them have not resumed in-person worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click here for the lessons appointed for use on the Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost.

Find the links to the services below:


All Saints Episcopal Church, Hilton Head Island
All Saints offered a Weekend Worship Service for September 12 and 13. Watch it at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
 The Episcopal Church in Okatie, Ridgeland
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
The Episcopal Church on Edisto, Edisto Island
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Summerville
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
​Grace Church Cathedral, Charleston
Watch the Sunday Choral Eucharist at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church, Pawleys Island
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin. 
 
Church of the Holy Communion, Charleston
Watch the Said High Mass from Sunday at this link.
 
Church of the Messiah, Myrtle Beach
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Conway
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
St. George’s Episcopal Church, Summerville
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
​St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Port Royal
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
​
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, North Myrtle Beach
Watch the Sunday service at this link.

The Diocese of South Carolina filed a Second Petition to Enforce the Injunction in federal court yesterday, again requesting enforcement of the Court’s Order and Opinion and Permanent Injunction issued on September 19, 2019. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel previously granted the majority of a similar petition filed on November 11, 2019 in an Order and Opinion issued on December 19, 2019 declaring that “Defendants may not subvert this Court’s clear Order … by continuing to co-opt the goodwill of the exact marks they are enjoined from using.” As noted by the Diocese of South Carolina in yesterday’s Petition: “Despite having already been found in contempt, defendants continue to violate the Injunction.”
 
This Second Petition again cites numerous examples that demonstrate continued violations of the Injunction by the disassociated diocese including continuing to assert that they were founded in 1785, using the name “Diocese of South Carolina,” and asserting that their first bishop is instead the fourteenth bishop of their newly-formed organization. Furthermore, exhibits in the filing show that the disassociated diocese has repeatedly claimed that Mark Lawrence, who was the XIV bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina, was instead consecrated the fourteenth bishop of the newly-formed diocese in 2008, more than five years before it was created. As noted in the Petition, these statements intentionally cause “widespread public confusion as to who is the Historic Diocese and what it stands for.”
 
Additionally, it is noted that the disassociated diocese has continued to conduct business as the “Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina,” most recently demonstrated when the disassociated diocese applied for and received a federal loan under the Paycheck Protection Program using that business name.
 
The Second Petition to Enforce the Injunction references more than two dozen continued violations of the September 2019 Injunction, primarily on websites and social media platforms operated by the disassociated diocese or their members (view Exhibits filed with petition at this link).  These repeated violations have added to a continued confusion as to the identity of the two competing organizations. In summary, the Petition states: “Defendants continue to hold themselves out to be the Historic Diocese, using its marks and co-opting its pre-2012 history and goodwill dating back to the eighteenth century.”
 
In this new filing, the historic diocese asks the Court to again enforce the Injunction and “provide any further relief that the Court deems appropriate under its contempt powers, as well as the safe distance rule, in order to compel and ensure the Defendant’s future compliance.”
 
In the ruling on September 19, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel ruled in favor of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina (now recognized as The Diocese of South Carolina) and The Episcopal Church (TEC) on a trademark infringement and false advertising lawsuit filed in 2013, declaring that the group that disassociated from TEC in 2012 (and all affiliated churches) can no longer use the name “Diocese of South Carolina” nor use the “diocesan seal” or “Episcopal shield.” As clearly stated in Judge Gergel’s original opinion, “the Defendants have every right to disassociate from the TEC and pursue their doctrine and community as they see fit, yet they may not leave with the Plaintiffs' goodwill and marks generated over the course of over two centuries.”

On Sunday, September 6, churches throughout our diocese celebrated the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost with online services of worship, as most of them have not resumed in-person worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click here for the lessons appointed for use on the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost.

Find the links to the services below:


All Saints Episcopal Church, Hilton Head Island
All Saints offered a Weekend Worship Service for September 5 and 6. Watch it at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
The Episcopal Church in Okatie, Ridgeland
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
The Episcopal Church on Edisto, Edisto Island
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Summerville
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
​Grace Church Cathedral, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church, Pawleys Island
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin. 
 
Church of the Holy Communion, Charleston
Watch the Said High Mass from Sunday at this link.
 
Church of the Messiah, Myrtle Beach
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Conway
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church, Florence
Watch the Sunday service on Zoom through Facebook at this link.
 
St. George’s Episcopal Church, Summerville
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link.
 
​St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Port Royal
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
​
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Charleston
Watch the Sunday service at this link. Click this link for the bulletin.
 
​St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, North Myrtle Beach
Watch the Sunday service at this link.