This week’s announcement that breakaway Episcopal churches around North America are forming their own province prompted sharply contrasting reactions among San Diego-area worshippers. Members of the independent churches in San Diego County said this is a momentous shift, and a recognition that the Episcopal church has strayed too far from the faith’s core principles.
But the Right Rev. James R. Mathes, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, said there is no official recognition of the new province, or governing unit, and therefore no real change. “You can say you’re a province, but that doesn’t make it so,” Mathes said. “It doesn’t affect us.”