A majority of members in 49 churches in total voted to sever ties to the Episcopal Church and remain affiliated with the diocese following disputes over the redefinition and reinterpretation of Scripture. Then-Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori removed South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence from Episcopal office, based upon an Episcopal Church House of Bishops Disciplinary Board signing a "Certificate of Abandonment of the Episcopal Church".

Barrister Mr Smyth QC, who died aged 77 last year, was accused of attacking boys whom he had met at a Christian camp in Dorset in the 1970s and 1980s.

The independent inquiry was launched into the Church's handling of allegations against the Mr Smyth.

Permission to Officiate (PTO) is required for any Church of England priest to preach or minister.

The State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor was created in 1977 to help advance individual liberty and democratic freedoms around the world. The U.S. had pledged to do so since 1948, when it backed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Technically religious freedom was covered along with other fundamental rights in the bureau's mandate.

Another senseless killing by a police officer of an unarmed black man, George Floyd.
Hundreds of thousands of people participating in peaceful protests.
The unleashing of a spirit of lawlessness where rioting, violence, destruction of businesses and properties (mostly minority owned), unbridled theft, personal assaults on bystanders, store owners, the elderly, and police officers.