Also stepping into the breach was Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan and leader of Common Cause. "He has asked both sides to meet at the table with prayer and good will asking that both sides attempt to find a way forward," said the Rev. Dow Sanderson president of the Standing Committee of the diocese of South Carolina.

But that was not before the judge got his own shots in on the case. "This case worries me. I am a Christian and it makes me ashamed. Professing Christians and such a schism. I hope you'll pray about it and see if you can't fathom the will of the Almighty," he told the two sides.

With that, he told officials from the church and the diocese - not their lawyers representing them - to try and reconcile at a scheduled mediation session.

The judge is absolutely right. There is no biblical basis whatever for this kind of protracted court case and the tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees being spent on both sides over property. If ever the Pauline injunction of not taking a fellow brother to court applied, it is in this case.

Both sides in this dispute are solid evangelicals. This is not a case where the bishop, the Rt. Rev. Edward Salmon is some sleazy revisionist bishop bent on destroying orthodox parishes and clergy. He is not. And the evangelical parish of All Saints Church Waccamaw is also solidly orthodox. Furthermore the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy leader of the Anglican Mission in America to which All Saints is under ecclesiastical authority is about as solid an orthodox Anglican bishop as you will find. He is a former Episcopal priest with many years of service to the ECUSA. He is not a Johnny come lately to Episcopal disputes.

Furthermore you can't blame him for leaving the Episcopal Church and founding the Anglican Mission in America. His mission started precisely because dozens of parishes, their priests and laity were crying out for a place to flee too, as they watched their beloved Episcopal Church nose dive into the theological swamp over the 'faith once delivered to the saints' and moral turpitude. Don't blame the messenger.

And no one knows better than Bishop Salmon just how egregious the Episcopal House of Bishops has become in the way it treats its own orthodox bishops. The situation has become so bad that it "forced" into existence the Anglican Communion Network of a dozen orthodox Episcopal bishops of which he himself is a founding member.

Now this dispute did not technically begin with the Anglican Mission in America at all. It started in the year 2000 when All Saints' brought suit to claim ownership of the property after the diocese filed a notice in the Georgetown Country Courthouse that it and the national church held ownership of the 50-acre church property at Pawleys Island.

The church property was part of a trust created in 1745 by the Pawley family for "inhabitants on Waccamaw Neck" for a chapel of the Church of England. In 1767, All Saints' Parish was created by the South Carolina government and the trust was recorded. All Saints' Church claims its ownership of the 'property predates the creation of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. The diocese, on the other hand, claims the church law gives it and the national church an interest in the property and claims that All Saints parish abided by that law during its long history

But in 2004, All Saints' members voted to leave the Episcopal Church and become part of the AMiA. A Circuit Court judge issued a summary judgment that favored the church's ownership in 2001, but it was overturned by the state Court of Appeals, which ordered the issue to trial. In the meantime, according to one newspaper report, a vestry appointed by the diocese for All Saints' Episcopal parish filed suit seeking to be declared the true and valid vestry. The 2000 case was scheduled for trial this week and motions in both were due to be heard.

According to the Observer newspaper, Judge Harwell was the man in the middle playing Pontius Pilate. He told a small, packed courtroom that Pilate was a Roman official in the time of Jesus who was asked to render a verdict in a case that he thought never should have been brought before him.

"Where is the common sense? Why this stubbornness? Christians! Resorting to courts? In a matter of weeks I'll be retired, but this will go on and on and on. Neither side will accept this ruling. Declare the good news. This is declaring the good news for those who call themselves Episcopal? I don't think so."

All Saints' Church has asked for a jury trial and was seeking a continuance. The diocese was ready to try the case before Harwell. Harwell had postponed a non-jury trial until Nov. 28, giving both sides time to try meditation.

Both sides could not agree over what mediation was even about. Bishop Salmon said it was to resolve relationships. The Rev. Terrell Glenn, rector of All Saints' Church said it was to resolve relational and property issues.

The judge asked Salmon if the diocese would give up the property to the majority. Salmon replied, "This congregation cannot walk out. If they do, then anyone can do it. It undermines the diocese. We have been under attack for five years..." According to the Observer the bishop was cut off by laughter from the All Saints' Church side of the aisle. "It's not funny," he was reported to have said.

"We are not talking about good guys and bad guys here," Salmon said, "but sinners trying to resolve their problems."

Judge Harwell responded, "If you keep resorting to counsel then the schism will get wider. Is time of the essence here? It would be helpful to let the mediation go forward. Five years and 200 years, that's a heck of a difference."

In January 2004, 462 people out of 500 voted at a parish meeting to leave the Episcopal Church to join the Anglican Mission in America. Two years ago the parish sat down with the bishop and put a substantial financial offer on the table, but Bishop Salmon rejected it.

This reporter has visited All Saints' and notes that a small chapel is on the 50-acre campus, large enough to hold 32 Episcopalians, even more. A larger sanctuary easily accommodates the AMiA folk. Would it not be out of the realm of possibility for Bishop Salmon to allow both groups to meet on the same property, even at the same time, and bring this litigation to a close?

"A number of options have been offered," said Jay Greener, Communications Director for the AMiA. "This is an All Saints matter, and congregations in the Anglican Mission own their own property (if they have property), it is not owned by the AMiA."

The reality is that increasingly across the country both orthodox and revisionist bishops are cutting deals with fleeing parishes.

In the Diocese of Central Florida, orthodox Bishop John W. Howe negotiated a delicate situation with the Church of the New Covenant in Oviedo when it voted about 95% to leave the ECUSA for AMIA. "Their plant was a one-generation operation, fully paid for by the present membership. We sold it back to them at a price determined by a mutually accepted appraiser on a 30-year no interest purchase basis. Lots of criticism from all sides: "way too much," "way too little." Probably was just about right," Howe told VirtueOnline.

In the Diocese of Kansas, revisionist Bishop Dean E. Wolfe cut a deal with Christ Church Overland Park allowing them to keep their property in return for $100,000 a year payments for ten years.

But then you get a wimpy response from Olympia Bishop Vincent W. Warner who says he won't be forced into imposing a canonical solution on several parishes that want to flee the diocese and the Episcopal Church. That's all well and good. He has announced he is retiring so it will be his successor that will make that decision, and history shows that when moderate bishops try to be even handed, the next choice quickly deteriorates from moderate to liberal and finally revisionist. Look what has happened in the Diocese of Florida! Passing the buck to a new bishop won't necessarily save St. Stephen's Church, Oak Harbor or St. Charles', Paulsboro in the long run.

The truth is the bishop has the power, and Bishop Ed Salmon could resolve this situation easily enough. He is not bound by any pressure from Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and the national headquarters. He could accept a deal and in doing so demonstrate a gospel magnanimity missing so far from this debate, and then perhaps Judge Harwell could say words other than "Why this stubbornness? Christian resorting to courts?" He could then say, "See how these brothers dwell together in peace". Now that would be reconciliation and resolution indeed.

END