Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin Leaves The Episcopal Church

"Saddle up your horses."

....Bonnie Anderson, President of the Episcopal House of Deputies to Fort Worth Episcopalians.

Stars of Brokeback Mountain who saddled up their horses.

Bishop John-David Schofield, was Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin until last weekend when he decided to take his marbles and run to join up with the Southern Cone. He says he's not an Episcopalian anymore, but an Anglican.

Cynic that I am, the first though to come to mind when I heard that the Diocese of San Joaquin, (CA) had voted to withdraw from The Episcopal Church and join up with some Anglican group in South America, my first thought was, "is Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, going to tell those Episcopalians in San Joaquin to "saddle up your horses?"  which is what she told the folks in Fort Worth a couple of months ago?  And the first thought to come to mind when she said that, was BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.

The answer to that question is a resounding, "NO!"  For those who don't understand Anglican politics,  our Presiding Bishop, the House of Bishops and our President of House of Deputies must follow canon law. It takes two meetings, each held yearly, to vote.  Pittsburgh and Fort Worth had their first votes in recent weeks so they won't be in the same position that the Diocese of San Joaquin is in until next fall.

During the year in between is where Episcopalians are in the lurch. Outside Bishops can't go into another territory and the diocese hasn't officially declared they are leaving the denomination yet. Therefore, their leadership can take no action during that period.

Here is the press release by the Episcopal News Service.  Below that is the press release by the Remain Episcopal, Diocese of San Joaquin. 

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Episcopal News Service] 

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has written to Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield saying that she assumes his declaration that he is now under the authority of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone "means you understand yourself to have departed the Episcopal Church and are no longer functioning as a member of the clergy in this Church."

In a December 14 letter which was emailed to Schofield, Jefferts Schori wrote that she was "deeply saddened" to hear of the San Joaquin convention's actions. "I would like to have confirmation from you of this understanding of your status," she wrote. "Many interrelated matters depend on that status -- for example, your membership in the House of Bishops and the acceptability of pension contributions on your behalf." read more: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_92860_ENG_HTM.htm

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News Release 

For Immediate Release 

Nov. 8, 2007 

San Joaquin Diocese Will Continue With or Without Bishop Schofield 

FRESNO, CA -- There's no such thing as squatter's rights in the Episcopal Church.  

That's the lesson Bishop John David Schofield will learn if he follows through with his 

threat to quit the Episcopal Church and take as many members of the San Joaquin 

Diocese with him as he can, according to national church officials.

  

Schofield claims that he will still be the diocesan bishop after the Dec. 7-8 convention in Fresno in which a majority of delegates are expected to vote to leave the church with him. But national 

church officials point out that, ecclesiastically speaking, he will be a bishop without a 

diocese. He can go, but the diocese remains. 

The national church's Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, has publicly notified 

Schofield, along with the handful of other bishops who are actively seeking to 

withdraw their dioceses from the Episcopal Church (TEC), of the theological, canonical 

and legal issues involved, as well as the ramifications of voting to leave the church. [Full 

text of this warning from TEC can be found at 

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91480_ENG_HTM.htm]  

If Bishop Schofield does quit the church, the 14-county Episcopal diocese in central 

California will continue. It will have the support of the national church, surrounding 

dioceses and those individuals, parishes and groups that remain with the church. 

Many of the latter are members of Remain Episcopal, a group of clergy and lay people formed 

in 2003 for the sole purpose of assuring that the Episcopal Church remains alive and 

well in this diocese. Speaking on behalf of the Remain Episcopal Board, President Cindy 

Smith said: 

We in Remain Episcopal choose to continue the long-established 

relationship and affiliation we have with the Episcopal Church in the United 

States. We are deeply troubled that Bishop John-David Schofield is aggressively 

pursuing leaving the church. Remain Episcopal admits that it does not 

know what his exact plans are, whether to set up his own denomination, 

affiliate with one or more American splinter groups, or even align with a 

group in Africa or South America. Even more troubling is his desire to take 

as many Episcopalians with him as he can. 

If Bishop Schofield and the majority of the delegates do vote in December 

to leave, the Episcopal Church will still be alive and well in San Joaquin, 

although somewhat smaller. The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin existed 

long before Bishop Schofield was elected and will continue to exist after 

he leaves. While he is a bishop, he is not the church, he is not the diocese, 

nor, by leaving, can he define whether or not the Episcopal Church will 

continue in this diocese.  

Episcopalians in San Joaquin will still gather to pray and worship and 

celebrate the Eucharist together as part of the Episcopal Church and the 

Anglican Communion.  

To get involved in assuring the continuance of the Episcopal Church in this area, contact Remain Episcopal at www.remainepiscopal.org or email contact@remainepiscopal.org 

Media Contact: Stef Donev, (661) 599-2871; email media@remainepiscopal.org 

Remain Episcopal Co-Founder: Nancy Key,  daytime (559) 244-0262; evening 559-269-9013; 

email nkey@keywritingconcepts.com 

  

 

Episcopal Conflict: A Grumpy Old Man VS A Smart and Skilled Woman Primate

Here is the ENS reporty on the Fort Worth diocesan convention. The outcome was no surprise to anyone. 

Bishop Iker is correct that this is just the beginning of this fight, but what is yet to come is extremely serious. 

Our primate, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori has already said that as "long as one" wants to remain in The Episcopal Church, those members will be able to do so.

Bishop Jack Iker might try to take the entire diocese out of The Episcopal Church, but I think he's in fantasy land. He acts like a bitter, angry man.                          ----Gordon

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91941_ENG_HTM.htm

Episcopal News Service

November 17, 2007

*Fort Worth convention approves first reading of constitutional changes

Diocese to explore invitation to join Southern Cone province *

By Matthew Davies and Jan Nunley

[Episcopal News Service]

The 25th annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth November

17 gave the first of two approvals needed to amend its constitution and

remove accession to the Constitution and Canons of General Convention, as

well as several canonical amendments that eliminate mention of the Episcopal

Church.

Speaking in a news conference following the convention's conclusion, Fort

Worth Bishop Jack Iker said the decisions "marked a firm resolve about

moving forward together, recognizing that there are parts that are not fully

behind the path we've chosen, but the debate is always characterized by

respect and honesty."

"It's important to note that the decisions made today are preliminary

decisions that need to be ratified by another convention," he added.

Meeting at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas, the

convention also thanked the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone for its

invitation offering the diocese membership "on an emergency and pastoral

basis." Iker and the diocesan Standing Committee are to prepare a report on

"the constitutional and canonical implications and means of accepting that

invitation." Attending the convention was Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia in

the Southern Cone.

The convention noted that the diocese wishes "to remain within the family of

the Anglican Communion while dissociating itself from the moral,

theological, and disciplinary innovations of the Episcopal Church…"

If the constitutional and canonical amendments pass a second reading,

presumably at the 2008 diocesan convention, they effectively would violate

the requirements of the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons. Article

V, Section 1 says that a diocese's constitution must include "an unqualified

accession" to the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sent a letter November 8 to Fort

Worth Bishop Jack Leo Iker, who has supported the amendments, notifying him

that his intentions to withdraw the diocese from the Episcopal Church could

result in her taking action to bring the diocese and its leadership into

line with the mandates of the national Church.

"Your statements and actions in recent months demonstrate an intention to

lead your diocese into a position that would purportedly permit it to depart

from the Episcopal Church," wrote Jefferts Schori to Iker on November 8.

"...If your course does not change, I shall regrettably be compelled to see

that appropriate canonical steps are promptly taken to consider whether you

have abandoned the Communion of this Church -- by actions and substantive

statements, however, they may be phrased -- and whether you have committed

canonical offences that warrant disciplinary action."

Iker responded November 12 to Jefferts Schori's letter declaring, "I have

abandoned nothing, and I have violated no canons." Iker termed Jefferts

Schori's letter "highly inappropriate" and "threatening," and claimed that

it "appears designed to intimidate" delegates to the diocesan convention.

"The posturing using public released letters added to the resolve that we

must do something firm," Iker told the media gathered at the November 17

news conference. "This is unfortunate -- I would hope the bishops of the

national church would actually try to make efforts of reconciliation."

In an October 20, 2007 address to the Forward in Faith International

Assembly in London, a recording of which is available on the group's

website, Iker stated that the three Forward in Faith dioceses -- Fort Worth,

San Joaquin, and Quincy -- intend to leave the Episcopal Church by 2009.

"There are three Forward in Faith dioceses in the United States, and the

three bishops of those dioceses have come to a common conclusion that we

have no future in the Episcopal Church," Iker reported to the London

meeting. "Our conventions in those three dioceses, Fort Worth, Quincy, and

San Joaquin, will be taking constitutional action to separate officially

from TEC. Because it is a constitutional change, it must be passed at two

successive annual conventions."

On the recording, Iker continued: "...Our plan is not only to disassociate,

then, from the Episcopal Church, but to officially, constitutionally

re-affiliate with an existing orthodox province of the communion that does

not ordain women to the priesthood. These conversations are very far along

but cannot be announced until the province that is considering our appeal

has made their final decision public."

The annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh November 2 gave

the first of two approvals needed to enact a constitutional change to remove

language in its diocesan constitution.

Jefferts Schori sent the first of several letters warning bishops of the

consequences of attempted secession to Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan on

October 31.

At its December 8-9 convention, the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin is

scheduled to hear the second and final reading of a similar amendment that

would delete from its constitution all references to the Episcopal Church

and state that the diocese is "a constituent member of the Anglican

Communion and in full communion with the See of Canterbury." San Joaquin

Bishop John-David M. Schofield has welcomed an invitation from the Anglican

Church of the Southern Cone, similar to the one received by Fort Worth, that

offers the diocese membership "on an emergency and pastoral basis."

In June, the Executive Council, the governing body of the Episcopal Church

between meetings of General Convention, warned that actions by Episcopal

Church dioceses that change their constitutions in an attempt to bypass the

Church's Constitution and Canons are "null and void."

In Resolution NAC023, the Council reminded dioceses that they are required

to "accede" to the Constitution and Canons, and declared that any diocesan

action that removes that accession from its constitution is "null and void."

That declaration, the resolution said, means that their constitutions "shall

be as they were as if such amendments had not been passed."

The Presiding Bishop could ask the Episcopal Church's Title IV Review

Committee to consider whether the bishops supporting those constitutional

changes have abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church. If the

committee agreed that abandonment had taken place, the bishops would have

two months to recant before the matter went to the full House of Bishops. If

the House concurred, the Presiding Bishop could depose the bishops and

declare the episcopates of those dioceses vacant. There is no appeal and no

right of formal trial outside of a hearing before the House of Bishops.

Members of congregations remaining in the Episcopal Church would be gathered

to organize a new diocesan convention and elect a replacement Standing

Committee, if necessary. An assisting bishop would be appointed until a

search process could be initiated and a new bishop elected and consecrated.

A lawsuit could be filed against the departed leadership and a

representative sample of departing congregations if they attempted to retain

Episcopal Church property.

The 2007-2009 Title IV Review Committee consists of Bishop Dorsey Henderson

of Upper South Carolina (president), Bishop Suffragan Bavi E. Rivera of

Olympia, Bishop Suffragan David C. Jones of Virginia, Bishop C. Wallis Ohl

Jr. of Northwest Texas, the Rev. Carolyn Kuhr of Montana, the Very Rev.

Scott Kirby of Eau Claire, J.P. Causey Jr. of Virginia and Deborah J. Stokes

of Southern Ohio.