The Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese of San Joaquin, albeit with new leadership, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said after she learned that clergy and lay delegates to the diocese’s annual convention voted today to approve the second and final reading of a constitutional amendment to leave The Episcopal Church and accept an offer of affiliation from the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone.
“We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said. “We wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey. The Episcopal Church receives with sadness the news that some members of this church have made a decision to leave.”
Soon after the legislative session began this morning at St. James’ Cathedral in Fresno, Calif., an amendment to the language of the proposed constitutional amendment was moved for consideration. If approved it would have negated the first reading of the vote last year. The amendment failed.
Debate on all of the motions was fairly limited after that. Several times during the day Bishop John-David Schofield and diocesan chancellor Rusty VanRozeboom urged those delegates voting with the majority to show compassion and respect toward those who did not want to leave The Episcopal Church. Subdued applause followed the announcement that the canonical amendment to accept the invitation to join the Southern Cone had passed. Delegates did not see the actual language of the proposal to join the Southern Cone until this morning. Because the deadline for submitting canonical amendments had expired, it required approval from three-fourths of those present to be introduced for consideration.
When a vote by orders was required, delegates walked between pairs of tellers who were stationed at either side of the room, one side for those in favor and the other for those opposed. Bishop Schofield referred to this process several times during the day as “London Bridge” voting because of its resemblance to the children’s nursery rhyme game. The unprecedented decision by an Episcopal diocese to affiliate with another diocese will undoubtedly have significant implications for the future of the Anglican Communion as primates and provinces line up either for or against whether Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams withdraws Bishop Schofield’s invitation to next year’s Lambeth Conference.
Archbishop Williams was briefed on the invitation by the Southern Cone in September during a meeting in London with Archbishop Gregory Venables. To date he has not issued a public statement. Archbishop Williams is expected to address this and other issues of Communion in an Advent letter to be released soon.
There are also new legal complications in the U.S. Some congregations and clergy in the Diocese of San Joaquin do not want to leave The Episcopal Church and it appears likely that Bishop Jefferts Schori will attempt court enforcement to ensure that all property and other assets remain with the loyal minority. Some members of the minority have organized as Remain Episcopal San Joaquin. They were scheduled to meet at Holy Family, Fresno, at the conclusion of convention.
After the results to affiliate with the Southern Cone were announced, a lay delegate from Holy Family Church, Fresno, rose on a point of personal privilege to ask who the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese would be if Bishop Schofield were to be inhibited. One of the two diocesan chancellors responded that since the convention no longer recognized the authority of The Episcopal Church, Bishop Schofield could only be inhibited by the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. Toward the conclusion of convention, Bishop Schofield announced that certificates from the Southern Cone were available for clergy to display in their offices.
Just how complicated the legal environment is likely to become was highlighted toward the end of the meeting during debate over a motion to permit Holy Family, Fresno, to begin the process to file incorporation paperwork with the State of California. One of the diocesan chancellors left the convention podium and from one of the microphones set up for delegates inquired whether the convention had the authority to grant the parish’s request given the fact that Holy Family had already stated that it wished to incorporate as an Episcopal parish.
Despite some misgivings that approval of the request would add to the complex legal situation the votes had created, delegates approved the request after one of the delegates reminded the convention that Bishop Schofield had previously said both he and the diocese would do all in their power to assist any congregation or member of the clergy who wanted to remain with The Episcopal Church.
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According to this story, "Some members of the minority have organized as Remain Episcopal San Joaquin." The implication is that this is a recent development. As can be discovered from its Web site, however, Remain Episcopal was formed in 2003 and is one of the founders, in 2004, of Via Media USA.
Rusty VanRozeboom, our Chancellor, was in fact the person who reminded us that we had declared our intention to treat the minority within our Diocese with grace. It was Rusty who advised us to allow the Incorporation of Holy Family to go forward. Please correct this article.
The Episcopal Church saddens me in many ways. I read recently on this website of one of our parishes turning to astrology as part of its Advent preparations for Christmas--as if gazing upon the Sun of Righteousness were not more than abundantly enough. And then there is this sort of thing in San Joaquin and other places. The church, I am led to believe, is being torn apart because of theological and social liberalism and the traditionalist responses to it.
Liberal or conservative, the Episcopal Church is sick and, I worry, dying. We have lost thousands of members over the past many years. Our response? It is because we are educated and aren't having as many children as Evangelicals and Catholics do. We are educated and don't attract uneducated people. And there are so few truly educated people in America these days. Such snobbery and arrogance--from the Presiding Bishop no less!
All the while, the world needs to know about a little baby, born in the City of David over 2000 years ago. This baby can forgive our sins and heal our church--if we repent and turn from our wicked ways.
A Bishop once said to me "The Episcopal Church is a dying Church. It needs to die and be resurrected." How long is it going to take for this sick Church to die?
What will the resurrected Church look like?