Anglican Global South recognizes Bishop Mark Lawrence and Diocese of South Carolina

It is interesting to note that the majority of the worldwide Anglican Communion is found in the "Global South."  The Steering Committee of the Primates of the Global South have now formally written Bishop Mark Lawrence of the Diocese of South Carolina assuring him and the diocese of their support and recognition of their Orders as Anglicans.

Pageantmaster over at T19 writes:

This is not just the statement of seven Global South Primates, but it is a statement from those Primates in their capacity of Primates serving on the Steering Committee of the Global South Provinces, and the Global South movement which bears its name. They write for and on its behalf. It includes the whole of the Global South Movement including the Gafcon Movement and the non-Gafcon Provinces of the Global South which comprise the majority of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion.

In addition Steve Noll comments as well at T19 that the primates "are using 'recognition' as the means of establishing communion among Anglican churches, in line with Orthodox practice (see also Lambeth 1930)."

While this does seem to be the trajectory, what appears to be happening now is what the Supreme Court of Virginia could not yet find two years ago when it overturned the lower court's ruling awarding all the property to the former Episcopal churches that voted to separate in 2006 and 2007. While the court was able to identify that the Episcopal Church had suffered a schism, they did not see such schism yet in the Anglican Communion (which they apparently identified as the Church rather than the denomination for the purposes of the Virginia statute - which must alarm TEC at some level, especially now that the Supreme Court refuses to revisit the lower court's ruling that the Denis Canon does not apply in Virginia).

 Here we may see more evidence of a formal rupture in the Anglican Communion not longer based on old affinities with the British Empire or current relationships in the British Commonwealth (that is, a political relationship), but one founded on doctrine.

 That much of the Commonwealth encompasses the Global South must be troubling to the Church of England. In addition, in this letter we see a coalition of primates once aligned with Rowan Williams and the Anglican Covenant and those aligned with GAFCON, in other words The Covenant coalition that the retiring Archbishop of Canterbury cobbled together has collapsed.

That being said, there still exists in the United States and Canada a strong affinity with the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Therefore the recent appointment of Justin Welby could prove most interesting.

Here is the statement:

Our Dear Bishop Mark,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

We, the Steering Committee of the Primates of the Global South of the Anglican Communion, were very sad to hear that the Presiding Bishop of TEC has interpreted your address to the Diocesan Convention on 17 November 2012 as a renunciation of your ordained ministry.

We want to assure you that we recognize your Episcopal orders and your legitimate Episcopal oversight of the Diocese of South Carolina within the Anglican Communion.

You and your Diocese of South Carolina are in the thoughts and prayers of all our congregations and our colleagues in the Global South.

Please be assured of our prayers and support.

May the Lord bless you!

Yours in Christ,

The Most Revd Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis
Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Bishop of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa
Chairman, Global South Primates Steering Committee

The Most Revd Nicholas Okoh
Primate of All Nigeria
Bishop of Abuja
Vice-Chariman, Global South Primates Steering Committee

The Most Revd Ian Ernest
Primate of the Indian Ocean
Bishop of Mauritius
Hon. General Secretary, Global South Primates Steering Committee

The Most Revd Datuk Bolly Lapok
Primate of South East Asia
Bishop of Kuching
Hon. General Treasurer, Global South Primates Steering Committee

The Most Revd Stephen Than Myint Oo
Primate of Myanmar
Bishop of Yangon
Member, Global South Primates Steering Committee

The Most Revd Dr. Eluid Wabukala
Primate of Kenya
Bishop of Nairobi
Member, Global South Primates Steering
Committee

The Most Revd Hector “Tito” Zavala
Primate of the Southern Cone
Bishop of Chile
Member, Global South Primates Steering Committee

Read it all here.  

Note, I linked to an earlier statement (see here) and have now updated this post with the most recent statement.  The most-recent statement is not yet up on the GlobalSouth website.