Matthew 24:36-40

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

A community dedicated to loving, not judging, respecting the dignity of every human being.

Prayer Attributed to St. Francis

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.

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15th Bishop Elect of the Diocese of South Carolina

The Reverend Canon Ruth M. Woodliff-Stanley

Ruth M. Woodliff-Stanley was elected as the next bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina during a Special Meeting of Convention on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Upon approval of the majority of the sitting bishops and standing committees throughout the Episcopal Church, she is scheduled to be consecrated 15^th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina on October 2, 2021. Bishop-elect Woodliff-Stanley will be the first female to serve as bishop in the more than 200-year history of our historic diocese. She will be the first full-time diocesan bishop of our diocese since 2012.

Ruth was raised and ordained in Mississippi. She has served as rector of a parish, as canon on the staffs of two bishops of The Episcopal Church, and also serves in church-wide ministry focused on stewardship of finances and property.

In closing her remarks to the Convention, the bishop-elect expressed her pure joy in being elected to lead the Diocese of South Carolina. “This is a moment of pure, unabashed joy. I cannot wait to be with you,” she stated. She went on to say, “You have given a vision of what is possible, it’s a vision I hope I can honor.”

As diocesan bishop, Ruth will lead 31 churches (including parishes, missions, and worshiping communities) affiliated with The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion in the eastern half of the state of South Carolina. The diocese represents more than 7,500 members, more than 100 priests and 15 deacons who are either canonically resident, or licensed to serve, in our diocese.

On behalf of the people of St. Francis Episcopal Church, your delegates, Bill Thornby, Sharon Crossley and I signed official documents titled “Canonical Testimony of Election”, certifying our participation in the election and verifying the results.

Ruth was elected on the second ballot from a slate of five candidates. As her election occurred on only the second ballot, there should be little doubt that the Holy Spirit was in the midst of this, a blessing for a diocese ravaged by schism. As a canonical resident in the Diocese of South Carolina, serving as your priest-in-charge the past three years, I must say that I believe the election of Ruth will be seen decades from now as the single greatest turning point in the history of the Episcopal Church in our Diocese. I am reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

So let us at St. Francis continue with the same determination of all those who have gone before us in wilderness, to do the work God has given us to do, to love and serve as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.

In passage with Him, Michael+