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  "path": "/2026/03/31/south-carolina-anglican-parishes/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-31T05:03:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://juicyecumenism.com",
  "tags": [
    "Anglican",
    "Harvest Church",
    "here",
    "trust clause",
    "Anglican Church in North America",
    "Mere Anglicanism",
    "St. John’s Parish Church",
    "displaced",
    "founded 1734",
    "disaffiliation threshold",
    "Global Methodist Church",
    "glebe",
    "video",
    "Christ Church Mount Pleasant",
    "‘We’ve Always Made It Work’: Displaced South Carolina Anglicans Adapt Amid Moves",
    "Final Resolution Reached in South Carolina Episcopal Case",
    "Anglican Longing",
    "South Carolina Anglican Parishes in Transition Share Challenges, Blessings",
    "Juicy Ecumenism"
  ],
  "textContent": "Last week an Alabama judge denied the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church’s (UMC) claim to own Harvest Church, a Dothan megachurch that broke away from the denomination (read coverage from _AL.com_ here). The case is among several weighing if the UMC trust clause is binding.\n\nSimilar cases are still active in state courts involving local churches that sought to both disaffiliate from the UMC and retain their historic properties, among them a number of West Virginia churches that my colleague Sarah Stewart has reported on here.\n\nWhile the vast majority of disaffiliating congregations were able to avoid litigation, that wasn’t the case everywhere. Some formerly UMC local churches are undergoing what former Episcopal churches earlier experienced as they navigated litigation amidst their own departures for the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).\n\nThis past January following the Mere Anglicanism conference in Charleston, South Carolina, I was able to meet one-on-one with a number of Anglican clergy to informally chat about their diocesan and parish ministries. Among these was St. John’s Parish Church Rector Jeremy Shelton, who kindly toured with me the parcel of land on Johns Island that the church has obtained and will develop into its new campus.\n\nSt. John’s is among seven South Carolina congregations displaced after losing its historic property in litigation with the Episcopal Church (an eighth lost in court but was able to purchase the disputed property back from the Episcopal Church). A majority of the 36 departing South Carolina churches involved in litigation were able to retain ownership, but I wanted to check in on those who were, in some cases, starting nearly from scratch. St. John’s Parish Church is among the older churches in the diocese (founded 1734) and, simultaneously, “the challenges we face are not unlike a church plant,” Shelton reports, noting his congregation has met for worship in a middle school for the past 3 ½ years, with set-up and take-down needs in a facility that is not their own.\n\nMore than a few readers of this blog will find that a familiar scenario, including those Methodists who were unable to clear the supermajority disaffiliation threshold and essentially “left the keys on the table” for their former Annual Conference, beginning life anew as congregations planted in the Global Methodist Church.\n\nThe new 22 acre site of St. John’s Parish, which the church hopes to occupy in a first phase of construction by Christmas of 2027, was fittingly once part of the church’s historic glebe (land historically assigned to a parish church, often used for farming or rented out for income). In an unusual case, this local church retained its name and intellectual property as St. John’s Parish Church while having to give up most of its physical property to the Episcopal Church.\n\nThis month the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina met for its annual convention in Myrtle Beach and released a video in which the clergy leading those churches which lost property in litigation (dubbed “churches in transition”) give an update on where they are now. I hope that both Anglicans and Methodists will find it of interest and encouragement, and will be inspired to pray for one of these congregations.\n\n“We have challenges just live everyone else, and challenges that are unique to those seven churches that lost their property,” notes Christ Church Mount Pleasant Rector Ted Duval. “We don’t want to be forgotten, we would love to be remembered in your prayers. I think we’ve done so well under God’s grace that when people come up to me, they mostly just say, ‘we hear you’re doing so great,’ and pat me on the back and move on with a smile on their face. And I’m grateful for that support, but I want them to know too that it’s not been easy and, we have our challenges and we’d love to be remembered and remembered with petitions for God’s blessing.”\n\nWatch the full video below on The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Vimeo channel here:\n\n**More from IRD** :\n\n‘We’ve Always Made It Work’: Displaced South Carolina Anglicans Adapt Amid Moves\n\nFinal Resolution Reached in South Carolina Episcopal Case\n\nAnglican Longing\n\nThe post South Carolina Anglican Parishes in Transition Share Challenges, Blessings appeared first on Juicy Ecumenism.",
  "title": "South Carolina Anglican Parishes in Transition Share Challenges, Blessings"
}