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.
We apparently need to call out the bluecoats. Since the bishop is citing the example of the southern dioceses leaving PECUSA while they were not part of the USA, I assume he is calling for Central California to secede from the Union and become a part of Argentina.
Seriously, the two examples are simply not comparable, except, of course, that both involve unilateral actions taken without reference to the larger community (and I am talking about the Anglican Communion, not TEC).
“Seriously, the two examples are simply not comparable, except, of course, that both involve unilateral actions taken without reference to the larger community (and I am talking about the Anglican Communion, not TEC).”
Dale, it is TEC that has been taking unilateral actions taken without reference to the larger community (and I am talking about the Anglican Communion). That’s why this has all happened.
#3 Anthony–That is a common perception, but wholly mistaken. True, the Bishop of San Joaquin in conscientiously opposed to the ordination of women as priests and bishops. Hence, he does not ordain or deploy women as priests in the diocese. A good number of the clergy share his view, but I would be surprised if it were a majority, or anywhere near it. As long as ten years ago, it it was pretty clear to me (I served there from 1994 until earlier this year) that the next Bishop of San Joaquin would be one who ordains and deploys women, and that this would happen naturally, without any “encouragement” from 815 or GC. This makes San Joaquin quite a different animal than Fort Worth, or even Quincy. Those are true Anglo-Catholic dioceses. San Joaquin is an evangelical/charismatic diocese with an Anglo-Catholic Charismatic bishop. I should add that–perhaps only until quite recently–the Bishop has enjoyed an enormous reservoir of goodwill even among those who do not share his convictions on the W.O. issue.