The Episcopal Forum of South Carolina

​The Episcopal Forum of South Carolina was organized in 2003 by local residents who wanted to maintain a strong connection between Episcopalians in our diocese and the wider Episcopal Church.

This month, its mission completed, the Episcopal Forum has announced it is closing. Its final act: To donate its remaining funds to support communication for reconciliation efforts in The Episcopal Church in South Carolina.

"Today, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina is a vibrant, growing, and fully engaged Diocese with The Episcopal Church. With the support of hundreds of members and thousands of other supporters both near and far, the Forum has done what it could do to both preserve the spirit of The Episcopal Church in the diocese... and provide complementary educational programs," Forum President Warren Mersereau wrote. "Consequently, the time has come for the Forum to quietly close its 'doors.'" Read the announcement here.

Bishop Skip Adams, in a letter thanking the Forum, wrote: "Your group was hard at work to guarantee the Episcopal flag would conttinue to fly in this part of the state years before the split was official, and your members were those who stepped up as we reorganized.

"As we continue to look to the future, seeking reconciliation and unity with those who left, we do so with the appreciation and understanding that you all played a pivotal role in what such a road would look like," the Bishop wrote. The letter is posted in full in the Forum's final newsletter.

Tributes to the Forum also can be read on the blogs of Dr. Ron Caldwell and Steve Skardon. A formal resolution was adopted at the Diocesan Convention on November 17, expressing gratitude for the Forum's work: 

Be it RESOLVED,

That we, the members of the 228th Annual Convention of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, on this 17th Day of November 2018, give thanks to God for the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina for their critical and selfless role in celebrating and encouraging the spirit of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina and broadness of who we are as Anglicans. 

Since its founding in 2003, the Episcopal Forum has labored, often under much duress and opposition, as well as personal sacrifice, to provide connection to South Carolina from the broader Episcopal Church.  This effort manifested itself in many ways, chiefly in the form of conferences and workshops for those loyal to The Episcopal Church.  They facilitated the visits of personalities from around the Church, thus affording South Carolina Episcopalians rare but valuable opportunities to meet and hear voices from outside South Carolina, where the winds of diocesan secession were blowing. 

In the words of Bishop Adams, the Forum undertook the hard work “to guarantee the Episcopal flag would continue to fly in this part of the state.’ 

After the re-organization of the diocese in 2013, the Episcopal Forum re-focused its mission toward providing educational endeavors within the diocese, sponsoring visits from both Presiding Bishops Katharine Jefferts-Schori and Michael Curry, and others. Additionally, the Forum has sponsored conferences for clergy and laity alike celebrating and highlighting the ministries of many who, historically, have been marginalized and disenfranchised, particularly women, African-Americans and LGBTQ persons.

Always with a Gospel focus, the Episcopal Forum encouraged us to be “Enthusiastically Episcopalian!”

We give thanks to the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina, and we give thanks to God for its tireless labors.