[2] After working as a forester for Union Camp Corporation in Virginia and serving as a Young Life leader, Johnston went to law school in 1980.
from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University and worked as a trial lawyer with an environmentally focused practice in Charleston for several years.
[6] The statement declared the authority of the Episcopal Church and its General Convention to be "fundamentally impaired" because they no longer upheld the "truth of the gospel.".
[9] Without the support of Bishop of Arkansas Larry Maze,[10] the church received occasional pastoral visits from Johnston and other priests involved in the First Promise statement.
"[11] The "loophole" was closed; subsequent priests to leave the Episcopal Church for Rwanda and other provinces providing oversight to dissident U.S. and Canadian Anglicans either voluntarily renounced their orders or were inhibited and deposed.
"[15] The issue eventually became a flashpoint at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, where TEC Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold and Maze met with Rwandan Primate Emmanuel Kolini and Rucyahana to head off further disputes.
[13] In a letter to Kolini, Griswold reminded him of Lambeth's 1988 resolution on the integrity of diocesan boundaries and asked the primate "to make clear to Bishop Rucyahana that his current plan is most unwise and harmful."
[16] Murphy and former Trinity School for Ministry dean John Rodgers were made bishops by Emmanuel Kolini and Moses Tay.
In 2005, Johnston was contacted by laypeople in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, seeking to plant a new congregation in the northern part of the fast-growing Charleston suburb.
"[21] By the next year, the relationship between AMIA chairman Murphy and the Anglican Church of Rwanda's house of bishops, led by Kolini's successor Onesphore Rwaje, had broken down over questions of financial transparency and collegiality.