Voting 20-4 with one abstention, the diocesan board of Central Florida approved a protocol Dec. 13 for congregations and clergy who wish to leave The Episcopal Church.
 
Under terms of the plan, departing congregations have the option of purchasing the church property if those members who wish to remain with The Episcopal Church agree to the terms of the sale.
 
“The protocol does not guarantee success,” Bishop John W. Howe of Central Florida said in a recent letter to diocesan clergy. “If the leaders of some congregations offer unreasonable proposals and we cannot possibly accept them, and if I and the board offer counter proposals that these leaders cannot accept … there is no guarantee whatsoever that somebody may not do some something that the other side will find litigious. I believe nobody wants to go there. But we may not be able to avoid it.”
 
The vote of a rector and vestry cannot control whether or not a congregation disaffiliates under terms of the approved protocol. However, if at least a two-thirds majority of the vestry and rector believe “that a substantial majority of the congregation is determined to disaffiliate from the diocese at some point in the future, they shall immediately notify the bishop of that fact.”
 
After notifying the bishop, the leadership is relieved of their responsibilities over the Episcopal congregation and the diocese assumes control for guiding the congregation through a discernment process. While the plan favors those who wish to remain with The Episcopal Church, it does include a provision to allow for the property to be purchased by the breakaway group, an option Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has opposed. In some instances, she has encouraged or initiated legal action to prevent such transfers.
 
“On one level, I think the honorable thing those who wish to ‘disaffiliate’ would be to simply walk away,” Bishop Howe wrote. “That is what happened at St. John’s, Melbourne, and Shepherd of the Hills, Lecanto. And it appears that is what is about to happen at St. Edward’s, Mount Dora. But, on another level, I believe that there is a validity to the argument of some who wish to ‘disaffiliate,’ that it is they who have been faithful, while the national leadership of The Episcopal Church has increasingly abandoned the very heritage we have all sworn to protect. So, I want to try to work with these brothers and sisters if it is at all possible.”
 
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