On Sunday, November 29, churches throughout our diocese celebrated the First Sunday of Advent with online services of worship, as many of them have not resumed in-person worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click here for the lessons appointed for use on the First Sunday of Advent.

Find the links to the services below:


All Saints Episcopal Church, Hilton Head Island
Watch the Sunday service 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
This week the church filmed the service live on Zoom. Watch a recording 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 Family Eucharist (9 am) at this link, and the 11 am 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. Follow along with the bulletin at this link.
 
St. Catherine’s, Florence
The congregation gathered together on Zoom for Sunday’s service. Watch from Facebook at this link.
 
St. Francis Episcopal Church, Charleston
The congregation gathers on Zoom each Sunday. The service was shared on 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, 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
St. Stephen’s offers two drive-up services each Sunday at 8 am and 10 am. Watch the 8 am Sunday service at this link.

On Thursday, November 12, attorneys for The Diocese of South Carolina (also known as The Episcopal Church in South Carolina) and The Episcopal Church filed an Initial Brief of Appellants with the South Carolina Supreme Court (filed along with this associated Designation of Matter). The brief was filed in response to the June 19, 2020 Order by  South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Edgar Dickson that seemingly overturned the Supreme Court final judgement from August 2017 which ruled that the diocesan property and 29 parishes should be returned to the parties affiliated with The Episcopal Church.

The Brief filed today clearly demonstrates that Judge Dickson exceeded his limited jurisdiction on remittitur by reinstating a declaratory judgement that the Supreme Court had reversed, and that the Circuit Court erred in failing to follow the result of the Supreme Court’s judgment as the law of the case. His June 2020 order is referred to in the brief as the “Dickson Order.”

Today’s filing noted that “of primary significance to the present appeal is this Court’s ruling on that appeal.” Documentation in the brief supports that the Supreme Court Justices, as well as the opposing side, referred to the opinion of the Court as a “majority opinion” and confirmed that this opinion “reversed” at least in part, the previous decision of the lower court under Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein. The Brief further noted that: “By ruling in favor of Respondents {the disassociated diocese} the Dickson Order issued a declaratory judgment that largely duplicated that of the now-reversed Goodstein Order.”

The majority of the 35-page Brief is a detailed Argument in support of our diocese’s standing in this case. It begins: “…the Supreme Court Ruling comprised a three-Justice majority that reversed the Goodstein Order, declaring that Appellants are entitled to the Diocesan Property and the Respondent Parishes’ property. That is the result in this case. The fact that the Court issued multiple opinions in deciding the case in no way dilutes the result – and that result is conclusive. Fundamental principles of judicial review precluded the Circuit Court, and indeed preclude this Court, from reviewing that result.”

Further the brief notes, “It is well beyond time for this Court bring this litigation to a close by vacating the Circuit Court’s reversal of the Supreme Court Ruling and ordering it to enforce that Ruling, including granting Appellants’ Petition for Execution and Petition for Accounting.”

A Word from Archdeacon Callie Walpole: 

We are so pleased to announce the formation of an official Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission in the Diocese of South Carolina. Much of this work is already being done by many of you throughout the diocese—some of you for decades, perhaps your whole life, while others of us became more intensely involved following the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in 2015.

A diocesan commission allows us to unify our efforts and broaden and strengthen our common work. This commission is tasked with advancing the cause of racial justice, reconciliation, and healing. The commission held its first meeting this past Thursday, October 29. Stay tuned for how you can be involved and how you might also share your own ministry with this group. A few of the emerging goals of this commission include:

• To encourage and enlist others in our struggle for truth and justice with respect to racial matters.
• To plan and facilitate training opportunities for both diocesan leadership and the wider diocese.
• To encourage and facilitate the ongoing work of uncovering the history of our diocese with regard to the experience of Black Episcopalians.
• To tell the story of the Black saints of our diocese, both historical figures and contemporary communicants.

Gail DeCosta and the Very Reverend Dr. Adam Shoemaker serve as co-chairs. The members of the commission at present include: Tommy Bultman, Mamie Bush, Thaddeus Daise, Alison Davidow, Dr. W. Franklin Evans, John Gardner, Harriett Green, Magi Griffin, Carol Grish, Marj Kenney Williams, Minerva King, Nancy Laprade, Denzel Walls, Virginia Weaver, and Carolyn Wright-Porcher. Tater and Bill Beak and Lynn and the Reverend Greg Smith are serving the commission as Helpers.​