South Carolina announces nominations for Bishop

South Carolina Standing Committee announces three nominees for bishop

Friday, July 28, 2006 [Episcopal News Service]

The Standing Committee of the Diocese of South Carolina announced July 27 that three men are nominees to succeed Bishop Edward L. Salmon Jr. The three nominees are:

the Rev. Canon Ellis English Brust, 48, chief operating officer and chaplain to the president of the American Anglican Council, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia;

the Very Rev. Mark J. Lawrence, 56, rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Parish, Bakersfield, California; and

the Rev. Stephen D. Wood, 42, rector, St. Andrew's Church, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.

The electing convention will meet at St. Philip's Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on September 16.

Under the canons the Episcopal Church (III.16.4(a)), a majority of the bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan Standing Committees must consent to the man's ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of the election.

The consecration is planned for February 24, 2007.

Salmon, 72, was elected in the fall of 1989 and consecrated on February 24, 1990, as the thirteenth bishop of South Carolina.

The names were announced a few days ahead of the August 1 deadline listed on the search committee's website. The website also said that the nominees would be chosen during June and July, and the slate "sealed until after General Convention 2006."

I don't know the other two candidates, but Brust did a fine job at General Convention leading the AAC daily briefings. Not that's a qualification for bishop or anything. I liked him, though, and I think he'd be both soundly orthodox and properly pastoral.