An Episcopal diocese in central California voted Saturday [December 8th] to split with the national church over disagreements about the role of gays and lesbians in the church.

Clergy and lay members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin voted 173-22 at their annual convention to remove all references to the national church from the diocese’s constitution, according to spokeswoman Joan Gladstone.

The Fresno-based congregation is the first full diocese to secede because of a conservative-liberal rift that began decades ago and is now focused on whether the Bible condemns gay relationships.

David Steinmetz, professor of the History of Christianity at Duke University, talks to Andrea Seabrook about the rift.

Listen to it all and please note for the record that it is Bishop Martyn Minns, not Mims.

Via email:

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, our one and only Lord and Savior. By an overwhelming majority of nearly 90% (173 to 22), our Annual Convention voted Saturday, December 8th, to uphold the authority of Holy Scripture and thereby preserve our place in the worldwide Anglican Communion and with the See of Canterbury by realigning our Anglican identity through the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas under the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Archbishop and Primate.

This historic and momentous decision by our Annual Convention was the culmination of The Episcopal Church’s failure to heed the repeated calls for repentance issued by the Primates of the Anglican Communion and for the cessation of false teaching and sacramental actions explicitly contrary to Scripture.

However, we are no longer operating under the looming shadow of this institutional apostasy because our Annual Convention wisely and prayerfully accepted the gracious invitation for sanctuary from the Southern Cone. Under a plan developed with their House of Bishops and ultimately discussed between Archbishop Venables and a number of other Primates and Bishops we were offered hope by the Southern Cone. I wish to emphasize that Convention’s action is not a schism over secondary issues but a realignment necessitated by false teaching as well as unbiblical sacramental actions that continue to take place in The Episcopal Church. As our new Archbishop so succinctly put it: “Christianity is specific, definable and unchanging. We are not at liberty to deconstruct or rewrite it. If Jesus was the Son of God yesterday then so He is today and will be forever.” After our Annual Convention voted to accept the invitation from the Southern Cone, the first words to the Diocese of San Joaquin from our new Archbishop were these: “Welcome Home. And welcome back into full fellowship in the Anglican Communion. “But whatever things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. But no, rather, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death; if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I am pressing on, if I may lay hold of that for which I also was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. My brothers (and sisters), I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” [Philippians 3:7-13]’ Your Father in God. ++ Gregory” The orders of all Diocesan clergy have been recognized by the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and appropriate certificates have already been issued. A period of discernment for those who request it and agreed to by the bishop has been provided for those clergy who desire more time to consider whether or not to accept the invitation welcomed so heartily by the majority of Convention.

Likewise, all parishes will be given a similar discernment period. No one is being asked to act against his conscience. Surely, if there is one outstanding mark of this recent decision to realign with the Southern Cone it is freedom from oppression and threat. As your Bishop, I would ask you to treat those in the minority with graciousness and love and keep them in your prayers. It is a difficult time for all of us. We have to deal with a turn of events that no one wanted. For the majority who travel with the Diocese, however, nothing will change. The familiar ways in which you worship, your clergy, the Book of Common Prayer, Hymnal, lectionary and place of worship will all remain the same with one notable exception. In the Prayers of the People, “Gregory our Archbishop” is to appear where the Prayer Book offers intercession “For N. our Presiding Bishop”.

Among those things that will remain the same is the solid teaching of the word of God free from worldly compromise, giving priority to your spiritual well being, faith, and salvation along with a future in the Anglican Communion. You may well discover, too, what it is like to witness to your faith without having to apologize for or feel embarrassed by the decisions of a Church over which you had no control. All of this has been assured by the courage of your Annual Convention, which – in turn – could have done nothing without Archbishop Gregory Venables and his Province of the Southern Cone going before us first and by their taking the bold step of faith they did on our behalf. We shall be forever grateful to them and trust that we will prove as much a blessing to them as they have been for us.

While there may be a degree of uncertainty over the future of our material possessions, we are not to despair. We all know there are no guarantees in this life, only the next. Time and again God has provided us with what we have needed to do His work for the advancement of His Kingdom and the building up of His Church. Why would we question whether the One who identifies Himself as “the same yesterday, today, and forever” change now?

Faithfully yours, in our Lord Jesus Christ,

–(The Rt. Rev.) John-David Schofield is Bishop of San Joaquin

The Episcopal Church in the United States has said it is disappointed that a diocese in California has become the first to leave the Church in protest at its support for gay rights. San Joaquin, which is based in Fresno, last night voted overwhelmingly to secede. The row which has split the worldwide Anglican communion began in 2003, when the Episcopal Church consecrated the first openly gay bishop. Roger was joined on the phone by Mark Pinsky; religion writer and correspondent for the Orlando Sentinel.

Things get a bit muddled here, as the pronunciation of the diocese is not correct and Mr. Pinsky speaks of a diocese in Quincy, Massachusetts, whereas he means the one in Quincy, Illinois. In any event, listen to it all.

There are some topics – politics and religion – that families often find uncomfortable to discuss.

Matters of faith also can split a church and its denomination.

Just ask members of the 47 parishes in 14 counties that make up the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin.

They voted overwhelmingly on Dec. 8 to disassociate themselves from the Episcopal Church USA.

A third touchy topic, sex, prompted the breakup.

The split can be characterized as a contrast between conservative and liberal points of view. Or it can be viewed as a dispute between biblical authority and church tradition and modern interpretations and changing world views.

It’s the first such secession in the United States, although dioceses in Pittsburgh, Quincy, Ill., and Fort Worth, Texas, have taken initital steps in the same direction.

Read it all.

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.”

Delegates attending the 48th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin on December 8 voted overwhelmingly to leave the Episcopal Church and to align with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

Read it all.

This group believes the split may actually be a good thing, for group member Michael Gardner breaking away means saying goodbye to archaic thinking. Gardner says, “lets continue what the real tradition of the church not something that is 40 years old and hasn’t grown.” Other members of “Remain Episcopal” say they are offended by the misconceptions put forth by the San Joaquin Diocese. For example, Jan Dunlap, says the diocese often accuses the Episcopal Church of ignoring the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which she says just isn’t true. Dunlap reminds the other side that “every episcopalian says the Nicene creed and were not crossing our fingers.”

Read it all.

Local leaders, along with those from the wider church, are already making plans for the continuation of the Diocese of San Joaquin following a vote to disassociate from the Episcopal Church.
Michael Glass, a San Rafael, California-based attorney who represents congregations and individual Episcopalians who wish to remain in the Episcopal Church, told Episcopal News Service (ENS) December 11 that he, local leaders, Chancellor to the Presiding Bishop David Booth Beers, and leaders from Episcopal dioceses surrounding San Joaquin “are coming together very soon to finalize our coordinated efforts to provide for the leadership needs, the legal and pastoral issues, and the financial concerns of our brothers and sisters in San Joaquin, and to provide for the continuation of the diocese.”

The Rev. Robert Moore will meet with the group as well. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori appointed Moore “to provide an ongoing pastoral presence to the continuing Episcopalians in the Diocese of San Joaquin,” said the Rev. Charles Robertson, canon to the Presiding Bishop.

Moore is the husband of Bishop Suffragan Bavi Edna “Nedi” Rivera of Olympia, the daughter of San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield’s predecessor, Bishop Victor Rivera.

“The Presiding Bishop wants the people of San Joaquin to be assured of her prayers and also of her support in the coming days,” Robertson said.

Read the entire article.

We’ve unstickied the long San Joaquin discussion thread. You can find it here.

[i]Remain Episcopal is the Via Media chapter in the Diocese of San Joaquin and opposes the San Joaquin vote. Here is their statement on today’s vote:[/i]

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:

[blockquote]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.[/blockquote]

The press release can be found here.

[i]The second half of the latest article in the TLC on the Diocese of San Joaquin vote today highlights the legal complexities that are likely to arise following today’s decision[/i]

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.

The whole article is here.

Here’s an excerpt:

Today we stand at a critical juncture in history. It would be myopic to imagine that the rest of
Christendom, let alone the Anglican Communion, is not watching and praying as we deliberate.
Pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us in the momentous decisions that lie before us.

It is only natural to experience fear, for what we are considering takes the Diocese of San Joaquin
into unchartered waters. The leaders of the General Convention have expended enormous energy
to spread their mantra: “Individuals may the leave the Church, but Parishes and Dioceses cannot.”
No one seems to know who dreamed up this idea. What we DO know is that it is simply not true!
During the time of the Civil War in the 1860’s when this nation was torn apart, dioceses in those
states called the Confederacy withdrew from what was then known as The Protestant Episcopal
Church. During the war years they held their own conventions, developed their own Constitution,
had there own House of Bishops, elected a Presiding Bishop, and consecrated a bishop for one of
their dioceses. Nothing could be clearer. The southern dioceses had departed and had created a
separate church. Today we might call it their own Province.

Unlike many of the Protestant denominations, however, it didn’t make sense to Episcopalians to
maintain the separation when the war ended. Not only were the southern bishops and their dioceses
welcomed back, the newly consecrated bishop was recognized, and no punitive action was taken
against anyone. Presumably the southerners had taken their property with them when they left.
And, they would not have been the first to do this.

Centuries before, King Henry VIII, with the help of Parliament prevented all English money from
going to Rome. This action was followed up by taking all the property of the churches, including
the monasteries and shrines ”“many of which he dismantled and sold. Today, were you to go to
Ireland in search of a name or a tombstone of anyone buried before 1540, your search would have
to be in Anglican ”“not Roman Catholic”“ churches and cathedrals. Somehow the Pope never asked
that they be returned to him…and they weren’t.

Colonial churches, especially those in Virginia, whose existence pre-date not only The Episcopal
Church but the United States itself, were never given back to the Lord Bishop of London nor to the
Archbishop of Canterbury when, after the American Revolution, Anglicans identified themselves
as Episcopalians. They took their property with them.

History is replete with instances in which dioceses, too, have moved from one Province to another
”“ no matter how it was accomplished. Liberia moved from The Episcopal Church to the Province
of West Africa, Venezuela moved from the West Indies to The Episcopal Church. Mexico has
moved back and forth from The Episcopal Church more than once.

Historically, Provinces, such as The Episcopal Church, are not, and never have been, an essential
part of Catholic Order. On October 14th this year, Rowan Williams, our present Archbishop of
Canterbury, wrote to Bishop John Howe of Central Florida: “…Without forestalling what the
Primates might say, I would repeat what I’ve said several times before ”“ that any Diocese compliant
with Windsor remains clearly in communion with Canterbury and the mainstream of the
Communion, whatever may be the longer-term result for others in The Episcopal Church. The
organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and the Diocese rather than the Provincial
structure as such.” Later, in the same letter, Archbishop Williams strengthened what he had said
already by adding: “I should feel a great deal happier, I must say, if those who were most eloquent
for a traditionalist view in the United States showed a fuller understanding of the need to regard the
Bishop and the Diocese as the primary locus of ecclesial identity rather than the abstract reality
of the ”˜national church’.” (Emphasis added) Abstract realities do not own, nor have they ever
owned, property.

There is no question that what we are considering today will be called Schism. We will be told that
unity trumps theology. We shall be told that we are doing is destructive and against history and
Catholic Order. Once again, the words of J.I. Packer are most helpful. He notes: “Schism means
unwarrantable and unjustifiable dividing of organized church bodies, by the separating of one group
within the structure from the rest of the membership. Schism, as such, is sin, for it is a needless and
indefensible breach of visible unity. But withdrawal from a unitary set-up that has become
unorthodox and distorts the gospel in a major way and will not put its house in order as for instance
when the English church withdrew from the Church of Rome in the sixteenth century, should be
called not schism but realignment, doubly so when the withdrawal leads to links with a set-up that
is faithful to the truth, as in the sixteenth century the Church of England entered into fellowship
with the Lutheran and Reformed churches of Europe, and as now we propose gratefully to accept
the offer of full fellowship with the Province of the Southern Cone. Any who calls such a move
schism should be told they do not know what schism is.”

For those of us who are facing the unknown, Provinces and Property seem to be among the top
concerns. As bishop, I would like to suggest to you that a ”˜NO’ vote at this convention will not
provide the imagined protection needed to get on with our lives uninterrupted. Many do not realize
that for 40 years, with the first twenty under Bishop Victor Rivera, and now nearly twenty years
with me, as bishops we have been able to provide a buffer for our people from the innovations that
abound in dioceses all around us. A quick trip north, south, east or west is all that it takes to wonder
if we’re in the same church with those folks. Years ago, it was the moderate Bishop John
MacArthur of West Texas who first stated clearly that “we are two churches under one roof.”

The full text is here.

If I heard the announcement correctly, the vote on the three amendments was as follows:

clergy 88 present, 72 yes, 12 no
laity 113 present, 103 yes, 10 no

You can follow the live video with discussion here.

NOTE: We’re making this entry “sticky” — it will stay at the top of the blog for awhile. Look for new entries below. We will use this post as a “roundup” of links for the news on the San Joaquin vote.

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno in central California, voted to leave the church, which has been in significant upheaval since 2003 when U.S. Episcopals consecrated the first openly gay bishop in the church’s more than four centuries of history.

The vote was 173 lay and clergy convention delegates in favor, with 22 against.

Read it all.

Update: A Fresno Bee story is there also.

The unofficial vote tally is here.

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Update 2: The ENS article is here. Here’s the opening. But DO read it all.

Delegates attending the 48th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin on Saturday, December 8, overwhelmingly voted to leave the Episcopal Church and to align with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield asked for a moment of silence in deference to those who opposed the change, reminding the gathering that he “knows what it feels like to be a minority” before the vote tallies were read. The results, by orders were: 70-12 clergy and 103-10 vote in the lay order to effectively remove all references to the Episcopal Church from its constitution and describe the diocese as “a constituent member of the Anglican Communion and in full communion with the See of Canterbury.”

“The Episcopal Church receives with sadness the news that some members of this church have made a decision to leave this church,” said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. “We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness. We wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey. The Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese of San Joaquin, albeit with new leadership.”

==========
Update 3 The stories are now flying fast & furious.

[b]New York Times:[/b] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/us/09episcopal.html?hp
Episcopal Diocese Votes to Secede, By NEELA BANERJEE
[also carried by the International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/08/america/09episcopal.php ]

FRESNO, Calif., Dec. 8 ”” The Diocese of San Joaquin voted on Saturday to cut ties with the Episcopal Church, the first time in the church’s history a diocese has done so over theological issues and the biggest leap so far by dissident Episcopalians hoping to form a rival national church in the United States.

——
[b]The Associated Press[/b]: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jDZX3K59yZ25znkruveYwlCs3VmgD8TDFV502
Diocese Breaks With Episcopal Church, By JORDAN ROBERTSON

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (AP) ”” An Episcopal diocese in central California voted Saturday to split with the national denomination over disagreements about the role of gays and lesbians in the church.

Clergy and lay members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin voted 173-22 at their annual convention to remove all references to the national church from the diocese’s constitution, according to spokeswoman Joan Gladstone.

——
[b]BBC[/b]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7134835.stm
US Church splits over gay rights

A Californian diocese has voted to become the first to break away from the US Episcopal Church in protest at its support for gays in the Church.

Delegates of the San Joaquin diocese in Fresno voted 173-22 to secede. It follows years of disagreement with Church authorities triggered by the consecration of a gay bishop in 2003.

——
[b]Radio New Zealand:[/b] http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200712090956/california_diocese_leaves_episcopal_church_over_gay_rights
An entire California diocese has voted to leave the American Episcopal Church in an historic split over the church’s expanding support for gay and women’s rights.

——
[b]KCBS, San Francisco[/b]: http://www.kcbs.com/Rift-in-California-Episcopal-Church/1306022
SAN JOAQUIN, Calif. (KCBS) — An historic religious vote took place in the Central Valley today, where the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin has voted to remove all references to the national church from the diocese’s constitution.

——
[b]Christianity Today[/b]: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2007/12/entire_diocese.html
Entire diocese jumps out of Episcopal Church, by Ted Olsen

Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin votes 173-22 to remove all references to the national body from its constitution.

Dozens of churches and groups have left the Episcopal Church in recent years. Today is the first time that an entire diocese has voted to officially split from the national body. The votes weren’t close: the clergy in California’s Diocese of San Joaquin voted 70-12 to withdraw, and laity voted 103-10.

——
[b]Los Angeles Times[/b]: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-episcopal9dec09,1,1604034.story?coll=la-headlines-california
Episcopal diocese secedes in rift over gays

The Diocese of San Joaquin in Central California is the first to break from the U.S. church over its relatively liberal views on homosexuality and biblical authority.
By Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

FRESNO — The Central California Diocese of San Joaquin today became the first in the nation to secede from the Episcopal Church, taking the historic, risky step as part of a years-long struggle within the church and global Anglican Communion over homosexuality and biblical authority.

Delegates to San Joaquin’s annual convention then also formally accepted an invitation to align the largely rural 14-county diocese with a conservative Anglican leader overseas, Archbishop Gregory James Venables of Argentina.

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[i]I’m sure there will be MANY more stories. Stay tuned![/i]

——–

[b]UPDATE 4 (11:30 p.m. Eastern)[/b] [i]This will be our final update for the night. In the morning, we will unsticky this post and it will drop way down the blog. It might be worth bookmarking if you want to continue to follow the discussion here. There are now two new SJ-related threads below this one as well. –elfgirl[/i]

Here are some of the most important new links:

Press Release from “Remain Episcopal” (the Via Media chapter in San Joaquin). Note: Posted as a separate entry below.

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The Living Church: Presiding Bishop Eyes New Leadership for Diocese of San Joaquin (also posted as a separate entry below)

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The Telegraph (UK)

Diocese splits from Church in gay row
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s hopes of averting a schism have been left in tatters following a historic split in the Anglican Communion in its row over homosexuality.

A diocese yesterday voted to break away from the US Episcopal Church following years of disagreement over the church’s support for gay clergy.

It is the first diocese in the Anglican Church to take such drastic action and the move seriously dents the attempts of Dr Rowan Williams to keep the communion together.

——–
San Francisco Chronicle

Episcopal fold loses 1st diocese – in valley
Ellen Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

The Diocese of San Joaquin, a conservative fold that serves California’s Central Valley and has long chafed under what it considers the increasing liberalism of its fellow Episcopals, on Saturday became the first in the nation to separate from the U.S. Episcopal Church, voting overwhelmingly to take a strong and definitive stance against how the church deals with homosexuality and other controversial issues.

The diocese, which serves nearly 9,000 parishioners in an area stretching from Lodi to Bakersfield, has effectively seceded from the American wing of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and has placed itself in the hands of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of America, which oversees the dioceses in six South American nations.

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[b]Bakersfield Californian[/b]

Diocese votes to split from church
Decades-long rift caused by national sect’s liberal views

The central California Episcopal diocese voted Saturday to split with the national denomination over disagreements of interpretation of Scripture, most recently regarding homosexuality.

Clergy and lay members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin voted 173-22 at their annual convention in Fresno to remove all references to the national church from the diocese’s constitution, according to the Rev. Van McCalister, a diocesan spokesman.

In a later vote, it accepted an invitation to join a conservative South American congregation of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is the U.S. member.

The Fresno-based unit is the first full diocese to secede because of a conservative-liberal rift that began decades ago over the interpretation of core Christian beliefs, McCalister said. Recently, that divide has widened over differences of opinion of what the Bible says about homosexuality.

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And last but not least, [b]Get Religion’s[/b] Terry Mattingly has a brief blog entry here where he touches on some of the early coverage.

[i]More tomorrow. Twelve hours of blogging is enough for one day![/i]

OOPS: Forgot to mention, somehow we’d not had a “TEC Conflicts: San Joaquin” category (don’t know how on earth we missed that one!). We’ve rectified our category lapse. You can now find all the recent San Joaquin stories going back to September here.

Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh is in Fresno this weekend to watch the outcome of this vote. So is Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia, part of the Anglican Southern Cone (South America), which has agreed to provide emergency oversight for the diocese if it passes the amendments and requests it.

“I’m for disassociating from the Episcopal Church,” Krismanits said. “My sense is that they’ve come up with a new religion. In fact, it’s antagonistic toward the Christian faith. It’s clear from leadership that the authority of Scripture isn’t maintained. I guess it’s not God’s word anymore. It’s been thrown by the wayside.

“I believe with all my heart that a vote in favor to take a step to disassociate from the Episcopal Church will be better than if we don’t. I believe there would be bleeding either way. But in our diocese, the fallout of priests and parishes leaving the diocese would be greater if the vote would fail.”

Others, of course, disagree, and Schofield has said that if the vote succeeds, parishes that wish to take their church prop-erty and leave the diocese to remain with the ECUSA may do so if they are not in debt to the diocese. Some churches, for example, have large mortgages held by the diocese and would have to pay them off in order to leave.

Read it all.

Deacons, priests and several lay people of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin – which includes 47 churches from San Joaquin County in the north to Kern County in the south and the Nevada border in the east – will cast ballots in Fresno over whether to disassociate with the ECUSA because of its liberal theological bent, and issues such as blessing same-sex unions and ordaining openly homosexual priests and bishops.

“Frankly, we as Christians have to come to some conclusion if the Bible is the inspired word of God or if it’s just a bunch of campfire stories,” said the Rev. Van McCalister, spokesman for the San Joaquin Diocese. “Most of us believe it to be the word of God.”

If diocesan voters approve the measure by a two-thirds majority of lay people and clerics, it would confirm a similar vote taken at the 2006 convention and ostensibly break the diocese away from the ECUSA. Diocesan rules force any bylaws change of this magnitude to be passed in two consecutive conventions before taking effect.

Read it all.

Anglican TV and Stand Firm will be live streaming the San Joaquin Diocesan Convention.

Here’s the Anglican TV thread.

Here’s the Stand Firm thread:

If you watch and appreciate the availability of the livestream, please consider contributing to Kevin Kallsen’s expenses. Go to the Anglican TV site and look for the “Chip In” link in the upper right corner. Kevin is currently raising money to cover Mark Lawrence’s consecration, but we understand he is still short in terms of having his expenses for San Joaquin covered.

–elfgirl

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest Christian denomination. Theological conservatives such as Schofield and his supporters are a minority within the Episcopal Church but a growing majority among Anglicans worldwide.

In recent years, the Episcopal Church has been at odds with much of the Anglican Communion over the American church’s relatively liberal views on homosexuality and scriptural interpretation. Tensions rose in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated a gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire.

A year ago, the San Joaquin diocese, which includes about 50 parishes, became the first in the country to begin the process of leaving the Episcopal Church, and it has since been followed by others in Pittsburgh and Fort Worth. With this week’s vote, it could become the first diocese to confirm that initial action and align itself with an overseas Anglican leader.

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Saturday’s vote will require two-thirds approval from San Joaquin’s 104 clergy and 154 laity delegates. They voted overwhelmingly last year, in the first of two votes, to amend the diocese’s constitution in a way that would allow it to leave the Episcopal Church.

Their decision will not only violate church law but lead to the defrocking of San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield, according to a Dec. 3 letter from Presiding Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefforts Schori. The denomination is expected to declare the diocese “vacant” and sue to recover all the property of its 50 churches.

“I do not need to remind you of the potential consequences,” Bishop Jefferts Schori wrote Bishop Schofield. “If you continue along this path, I believe it will be necessary to ascertain whether you have in fact abandoned the communion of this church, and violated your vows to uphold the doctrine, discipline, and worship of this church.

“I do not intend to threaten you, only to urge you to reconsider and draw back from this trajectory.”

Bishop Schofield’s Dec. 5 reply called the Episcopal Church “an apostate institution that has minted a new religion irreconcilable with the Anglican faith.”

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A yes vote also sets into motion a list of other issues and questions.

Realignment of the diocese: The Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of South America recently extended an invitation to the diocese for membership on a temporary and emergency basis, but nothing has been decided. The Church of the Southern Cone, which consists of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, is based in Buenos Aires.

The issue is likely to be added to the convention’s agenda for discussion and vote. The Right Rev. Frank Lyons, bishop of Bolivia, who extended the invitation in behalf of the Southern Cone, will be at the convention.

The parishes that don’t want to leave: Congregations such as Holy Family Episcopal Church in Fresno, St. John the Baptist Parish in Lodi and St. Anne Parish in Stockton, whose delegates voted last year against the split, plan to stay affiliated with the Episcopal Church, Smith said. They say they plan to remain as the Diocese of San Joaquin.

Distribution of church property: Schofield already has informed parishes not wanting to leave the Episcopal Church that they won’t be penalized. Schofield said those parishes can retain property on the condition they don’t leave debt with the Diocese of San Joaquin.

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Dear Bishop Schori:

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, our one and only Lord and Savior.

I have read your letter of December 3, 2007 and thank you for your prayers. There is a pastoral tone to this letter which is much appreciated. Informing me that you are not writing with any threats is most encouraging also. One would hope that this indicates your serious consideration of the Primates’ specific request that deposition and litigation under the present circumstances be abandoned as unacceptable behavior among Christians.

Please know I do not share your feelings that I am isolated. My understanding of the authority of the Holy Scriptures, as well as Catholic Faith and Order are shared by the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Churches and by some 60 million faithful Anglicans worldwide. It is The Episcopal Church that has isolated itself from the overwhelming majority of Christendom and more specifically from the Anglican Communion by denying Biblical truth and walking apart from the historic Faith and Order.

It is true that the House of Bishops has ignored my views for nearly twenty years. After this length of time, one wonders how genuine the offer of change for the Church can be by having the “loyal opposition” present at the table. Despite all of this, we are not pining away here in the Diocese of San Joaquin; we are rejoicing in the truth of God’s word!

The decision to be made by our Annual Convention this Saturday is the culmination of The Episcopal Church’s failure to heed the repeated calls for repentance issued by the Primates of the Anglican Communion and for the cessation of false teaching and sacramental actions explicitly contrary to Scripture. For years, I have tried in vain to obtain adequate Primatial oversight to protect the Diocese from an apostate institution that has minted a new religion irreconcilable with the Anglican faith. Hopes were raised in February 2007 when leaders of the Anglican Communion met in Dar es Salaam. The direction given by them for the formation of a pastoral council would have provided the protection we requested and would have averted the need for the Diocese to seek sanctuary from another Province. You were in Dar es Salaam, and in the presence of the assembled Primates you verbally signified your agreement to this direction. By the time you returned to the United States, however, you denied your public statement and declared you had only meant to bring it back for further consideration. It was no surprise, therefore, when the Executive Council and the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church later denounced the plan for a pastoral council that you went along with them. This was a clear signal that our religious freedom to practice the Historic Faith as this Church has received it would not be protected by The Episcopal Church. My Ordination vows require me to be a faithful steward of God’s holy Word and to defend His truth and “be ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s Word; and to use both public and private monitions and exhortations…” I can do no other.

The Anglican Church of the Southern Cone has graciously offered the Diocese sanctuary on a temporary and emergency basis. This action is unprecedented but so, too, are the apostate actions of The Episcopal Church that make these protective measures necessary. The invitation of the Southern Cone is a matter of public record. In essence it embodies the solution agreed upon by you and the rest of the Anglican leaders at Dar es Salaam to provide adequate, acceptable Alternative Primatial Oversight. To endorse this as a way forward need not be a final nor irreconcilable commitment. Should it be the will of the Annual Convention to accept this most generous gift, I will welcome the opportunity implied in your letter to discuss how it impacts our relationship. In the event that the clergy and laity reject this offer from the Southern Cone, I would, of course, follow your recommendation to participate as a dissenter of the present unbiblical course of action being pursued by the House of Bishops. To do anything else would be to abandon God’s people of San Joaquin and, in the end, prove to be a hireling and not a shepherd. For me, at least, this is the honorable course the Lord would have me follow.

You will remain in my prayers,

Sincerely,

+John-David M. Schofield
Bishop of San Joaquin

As with previous letters to other disaffected bishops, the correspondence with Schofield notified him that such a step would force Jefferts Schori to act to bring the diocese and its leadership into line with the mandates of the national Church.

“You have been clear that you feel your views are dismissed or ignored within the Episcopal Church, yet you have ceased to participate in the councils of the Church. It is difficult to have dialogue with one who is absent,” Jefferts Schori wrote. “”¦The Church will never change if dissenters withdraw from the table. There is an ancient and honored tradition of loyal opposition, and many would welcome your participation.”

The first of the letters was sent to Bishop Robert Duncan of the Diocese of Pittsburgh on October 31. A second letter was sent to Bishop Jack Leo Iker of Fort Worth on November 8.

San Joaquin’s diocesan convention, meeting December 7-8, is set to consider second readings of four constitutional changes that implicitly reject property and other canons of General Convention.

Schofield, who was traveling at the time the letter was sent, has not yet issued a response, according to the Rev. William Gandenberger, Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of San Joaquin.

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On Dec. 8, clergy and lay delegates of the San Joaquin Diocese of the Episcopal Church will meet in Fresno for their 48th annual convention and to vote on whether or not to remain a part of the Episcopal Church of America.

“This is a landmark convention for us,” said the Rev. J.P. Wadlin of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Ridgecrest. “This is the second part of a two part process. Any move must be ratified by two successive conventions to become canon law. If it passes and we do remove ourselves from ECUSA, we have to belong to some branch of the Anglican Church. The Archbishops and Bishops of the Province of the Southern Cone in South America have extended an invitation to us to come under their protection. The move would be temporary, pastoral and reversible.”

If ratified, the Diocese of San Joaquin, under the leadership of Bishop John-David Schofield, would be the first to make the move. Prior to this, only individual parishes have broken away and joined themselves to provinces in Africa or South America. San Joaquin Diocese, which extends from Stockton to Bakersfield and Rosamond to Mammoth, would become part of the Southern Cone, along with up to five other conservative dioceses, which are expected to make the move in the next six months.

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Read it carefully and read it all.

Via email:

FRESNO, CA – November 16, 2007 ”“ The Diocese of San Joaquin today announced that the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of South America has extended an invitation to offer the Diocese membership on an emergency and pastoral basis.

The announcement comes three weeks before the Diocese is scheduled hear the second and final reading of Constitutional changes first adopted on December 2, 2006. Should the second reading of the Constitutional changes be approved at the Diocesan Convention on December 8, 2007, the Diocese is free to accept the invitation to align with the Province of the Southern Cone and remain a diocese with full membership within the Anglican Communion.

According to the Rt. Rev. John-David M. Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, “We welcome the invitation extended by the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. The invitation assures the Diocese’s place in the Anglican Communion and full communion with the See of Canterbury.”

He added, “This is a sensible way forward and is by no means irrevocable. During the 1860’s, the Dioceses of the Southern States left the Episcopal Church and then returned after the Civil War. As the Southern Cone invitation makes clear, the Diocese may return to full communion with the Episcopal Church when circumstances change and the Episcopal Church repents and adheres to the theological, moral and pastoral norms of the Anglican Communion, and when effective and acceptable alternative primatial oversight becomes available.”

The Bishop’s pastoral letter will be read in churches of the Diocese on Sunday, November 18, 2007. For a full text of the letter, visit www.sjoaquin.net or contact Joan Gladstone, jgladstone@gladstonepr.com.

The Diocese of San Joaquin was founded as a missionary diocese in 1911 and became a full autonomous diocese in 1961. The Diocese encompasses churches in the counties of San Joaquin, Alpine, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Mono, Merced, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern and Inyo.

Episcopal leaders instead affirmed that they will “exercise restraint” in approving another gay bishop and will not approve prayers to bless same-sex couples. The leaders were in New Orleans for the church’s House of Bishops’ semiannual meeting.

The statement mostly reiterated previous pledges made by church leaders and did not satisfy officials at the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. The local diocese would have considered pulling back its bid to split from the U.S. Episcopal Church if the bishops agreed to the Anglican Communion’s demand to stop consecrating gay bishops, said the Rev. Van McCalister, the diocese’s spokesman.

“I think they have used the exact terminology in the past, and it doesn’t change anything,” McCalister said. A change in doctrine was “what a lot of people were hoping and praying for.”

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One of the greatest problems the Church faces today is the willingness to ascribe motivations and “hidden agendas” to those who disagree with us. This escalates not only our suspicion of others but levels of anger. Actions based more upon rumors and fear rather than facts cause us to separate ourselves from one another. At this writing in early September we are all aware of momentous decisions that lie ahead. The American House of Bishops has been presented with the deadline of Sept. 30 to turn from unbiblical theology and practices. Those who plead for more time and dialogue claiming that even the worst rifts can be overcome with cool headed conversation and understanding now seem to be the very ones who know what the outcome will be and have moved into action. Two parishes within the diocese have already voted to leave the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and a third is prepared to vote in the same manner within days while neither the House of Bishops, the Primates of the Anglican Communion, nor the Archbishop of Canterbury himself have presumed to know what the future holds. Such premature and precipitous action can only have one interpretation. These folks know in their heart of hearts that there will be no turning back, no repentance and that the unilateral action of the American Church will bring about the break-up of the Anglican Communion as we have known it or the division of our own Church in the United States or, worse, the disintegration of both.

The cry of the majority of Episcopalians has been that UNITY trumps TRUTH, that ”” in fact ”” Anglicans have been famous for keeping the unity of the Church while recognizing serious differences of theology among ourselves. We have prided ourselves on the fact that even though we are a creedal church we are not bound by a single confessional statement of belief. Early Church Fathers are quoted on this point with such frequency that it appears history itself is neglected when our attention is directed to one bishop who was prepared to stand alone, suffer exile, and remain faithful to the Scriptures for truth’s sake, ultimately winning over the whole Church that was prepared to reject him. We are reminded of our English heritage when during the time of the Elizabethan Settlement in the 1500s Anglicans remained together as theologies looking to Protestant Geneva as well as to the Catholicism of Rome were both accommodated. Here in North America with hostilities tearing our nation apart, even Civil War could not break the unity found within the House of Bishops. Southern bishops, absent for four years, took their seats among their brothers where no mention of the separation was ever made. As far as the Episcopal Church was concerned, our unity did not have to be restored. . .it was never recognized nor ever broken. Yet, when it comes to the LARGER UNITY, namely that of the worldwide Anglican Communion, these same advocates of unity within the American Church, so far, have turned their backs. The fact that decisions made in the United States by us have had a profound ”” and, in some instances a fatal”” effect upon men and women ministering abroad seems of little consequence. Our “truth” for our society somehow takes precedence over unity beyond our borders. Are we to understand that unity with brother and sister Anglicans around the world can be sacrificed for our different “truth”?

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The Rev. Van McCalister, public relations officer for the diocese, said the change in date was primarily made to give the voting members of convention time for prayer and careful consideration of the unusually large number of important events scheduled this fall. These include the fall meeting of the House of Bishops, at which the bishops are expected to consider requests made of The Episcopal Church by the primates of the Anglican Communion.

“We are very aware of the fact that this is a very important transitional moment, no matter how the vote goes,” Fr. McCalister said. “We’re just in a ”˜wait-and-see’ mode right now, however.”

Last year diocesan clergy and lay delegates approved the first reading of controversial changes to remove language acknowledging the diocese as a constituent part of The Episcopal Church from its constitution and canons. In order to be approved, the changes must pass at two consecutive conventions. If approved it is possible that the diocese would face a legal challenge.

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