Not long after he was consecrated Bishop of San Joaquin in 1988, the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield recalls traveling to the Episcopal Church Center in New York City on business and being mistaken for Bishop Calvin Schofield, who was Bishop of Southeast Florida at the time.
“They were expecting this tall, trim, handsome bishop and there was a brief look of dismay when they realized I obviously wasn’t the strapping athletic person they were expecting,” he said laughing at the memory.
Episcopalians have seemingly been mistaking Bishop Schofield for someone else ever since. Even before Dec. 8, when he presided at the diocesan convention, which voted to leave The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, some of his critics accused him of being reckless, schismatic, or even dishonest.
“You are talking to someone who loves the tradition of the church. It is my heritage,” Bishop Schofield said during an interview with a reporter from The Living Church. “I don’t have any personal antagonism toward The Episcopal Church or its leaders, but day by day they seem to depart more and more from what is asked of us in scripture.
“It is not my wish to leave The Episcopal Church. If I saw signs that they were returning [to the historic faith] it is possible I would approach my convention about revisiting this decision.”
Bishop Schofield said he has grown frustrated with those who continue to characterize the current division in the church as the work of a small minority.
“Thousands of members are leaving The Episcopal Church every week,” he said. “San Joaquin is not the point. That just happens to be where a majority of evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics are concentrated. For more than 20 years they have tried to drive us away. As a protest movement, I would hope that this would have an effect on The Episcopal Church.”
The only change in the diocese since its convention is in the name of the primate prayed for during the Prayers of the People. Now clergy are encouraged to mention Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone rather than American Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
“I haven’t heard a word of complaint about the prayers,” Bishop Schofield said. “We wanted to stay the way we were without oppression and threat. If you’re looking for change, you won’t find it. That is the reason we did what we did.”
After nearly 20 years of episcopacy, Bishop Schofield said he had grown increasingly concerned that the diocese would be unable to elect a successor with theological views consistent with his own. Bishop Schofield was elected within 90 days of General Convention in 1988 and his confirmation hearings in Detroit were almost as grueling as those for Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003. Along with alternate primatial oversight, concern for his successor was an important consideration in his decision to recommend that the diocese disaffiliate.
Bishop Schofield will reach the mandatory Episcopal Church retirement age of 72 in 2010. He said he considers himself to be in relatively good health, but in 2002 he suffered a serious fall in an airport, breaking his leg and his shoulder, requiring surgery. During an extended recovery in the hospital he contracted an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection. Daily treatments make travel difficult, but otherwise he said he feels good.
Clergy in the Southern Cone are expected to retire at age 70, but the primate has authority to extend that time, Bishop Schofield said he intends to consult with diocesan convention on a plan for the election of his successor next year.
“If I begin to notice some slippage or those around me bring it up I’d have to give it more serious thought, but so far I really haven’t given it much consideration,” he said.
Steve Waring
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2 Comments
It is rdiculous for Bishop Schofield to say that he has nothing against the national church or the leadership in the church. I live in the Diocese of San Joaquin and I have heard him malign the national church over the 20 years he has been a bishop and, more recently, he has maligned Presiding Bishop Schori. He has decimated the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of San Joaquin. He has divided churches with his views and actions, and he could care less about the people in the pews who have been hurt. For more than 40 years, I was a faithful member of a church in Turlock, CA, and I was opposed to his attitude toward the national church. We were without a priest, and Bishop Schofield brought in a priest, deposed in the national church, to serve in our parish. 5 members of the vestry, including me, resigned and left because we could not be in our church in these circumstances. Have the rest of you forgotten integrity? Why do you believe whatever this man says?
I dare say we remember Integrity. We probably think of Mr Crew and his associates more than we ought, so it's fair to say that Integrity comes to mind often when we think of what the national church is doing.
As far remaining Episcopalian, you have that option. Last time I checked, three churches have decided not to join the Southern Cone. Before bitterness sets in, ask yourself what would have happened were your situation reversed and you and your church wished to exit the Episcopal Church, like the churches in San Diego. How would you have been treated?
To any objective observer, Bishop Schofield is exhibiting a great deal more grace towards those who oppose them than Bishops Lee, Mathes, Bruno, Schori and the rest.