"Null & Void."

Katherine Jefferts-Schori has declared the Diocese of South Carolina's election of Fr. Mark Lawrence "null and void" because of technical problems with some of the consents (there were a sufficient number of positive responses to confirm the election). Here are some resources:

• Statement from SC Standing Committee president.
• Episcopal News Service.
• American Anglican Council statement.
• Charleston Post & Courier.
• Statement from Fr. Dow Sanderson:

In the conflicts that have beset our Church since the General Convention willfully ignored the rest of the communion, we have set our course with very simple and well-stated parameters:

1) We are Biblical, Creedal, and Apostolic. The Scriptures have authority. The Scriptures are interpreted in light of Sacred Tradition. The Tradition has been received from the Apostolic Church. No Christian has the right to alter this deposit of Faith and still call himself a catholic Christian. When bishops, conventions or seminaries attempt to change the received doctrine, we will protest and resist.

2) We are both evangelical and catholic. Our Evangelical hearts require us never to cease in our quest to take the Gospel to all people. Our Catholic sense of order reminds us that the church is never merely the local community, but the whole people of God connected through a common Faith and the Apostolic Succession to Jesus himself. Therefore, we understand that “independent” Anglicanism is impossible. Our request for Alternative Primatial Oversight had nothing to do with schism. On the contrary, it was clear to us that the American Church, by its unilateral actions, had in fact created a de facto schism with the rest of the church. It was our very catholic ecclesiology that would not allow us to stand for such a breach in communion. But even as we registered our strong protest against American unilateralism, we never once took a single uncanonical action, nor have we threatened to do so.