First U. S. Episcopal Diocese Breaks With the Church

It appeared this was only a matter of time. Now the legal hassles and speculation about other dioceses to follow will begin in earnest, leaving a lot less time for worshiping God.

From the Washington Blade:

The conservative Diocese of San Joaquin voted Saturday to split from the
liberal-leaning Episcopal Church, becoming the first full diocese to secede from
the denomination in the debate over the Bible and homosexuality.

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, said the Rev. Van McCalister, a diocesan spokesman.

The diocese, based in Fresno, plans to align with the like-minded Anglican
Province of the Southern Cone, based in South America.

The decision is almost certain to spark a court fight over control of the
diocese's multimillion-dollar real estate holdings and other assets.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. member of the global Anglican Communion, a
77 million-member fellowship that traces its roots to the Church of England.

Anglicans have been moving toward a worldwide schism since 2003, when the
Episcopal Church consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of
New Hampshire. San Joaquin is also one of the three Episcopal dioceses that will
not ordain women.

The Episcopal rift over theology began decades ago and is now focused on
whether the Bible condemns gay relationships.

"We have leadership in the Episcopal Church that has drastically and
radically changed directions," McCalister said. "They have pulled the rug out
from under us. They've started teaching something very different, something very
new and novel, and it's impossible for us to follow a leadership that has so
drastically reinvented itself."

Episcopal and Anglican advocates for accepting gay relationships say they
are guided by biblical teachings on social justice and tolerance.
Traditionalists believe that gay relationships violate Scripture.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, elected last year as the first
woman to lead the church, had warned San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield
against secession but did not outline specific consequences. Jefferts Schori
supports ordaining partnered gays and lesbians.

"We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the
historical Anglican
understanding of comprehensiveness," she said in a statement after the
vote. "We wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey."

Clergy delegates at the convention voted 70-12 to break away and lay
delegates voted 103-10 in support of the move. The outcome leaves in question
the status of the five or so parishes in the San Joaquin diocese that wish to
remain aligned with the Episcopal Church. Local clergy who agree to leave could
lose their ministerial credentials and their pensions.

Jefferts Schori indicated in her statement that the national denomination
will not give up the diocese. "The Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese
of San Joaquin, albeit with new leadership," she said.

The diocese serves about 8,500 parishioners in 47 congregations in central
California.
Nancy Key, a member of Holy Family Episcopal Church in Fresno
and co-founder of Remain Episcopal, which fought the secession, said she was
"very disappointed."

"This has been threatening to split our diocese apart for a long time," she
said. "We feel like what we want to do is follow Christ, who included all, and
used all of us for his ministry. And that didn't happen today."

The Episcopal Church was divided along North-South lines during the Civil
War, as several other Protestant groups were, but the denomination was not
considered formally split over theological differences, making San Joaquin the
first full Episcopal diocese to break away.

Nationally, about 55 conservative Episcopal parishes, out of more than
7,000 around the country, have split off from the church in the last few years,
and some have affiliated directly with Anglican provinces overseas, according to
national church statistics. Courts have mostly ruled against allowing the
breakaway congregations to take their property when they go.

Three other dioceses have taken initial steps toward splitting from the
U.S. church. They are Fort Worth, Texas; Quincy, Ill.; and Pittsburgh.

In his address to the convention, Schofield said the vote was "all about
freedom."

"It is about freedom to remain who we are in Christ. It is freedom to honor
the authority of Scripture," he said. "It is freedom to worship with the Prayer
Book we know and freedom from innovations and services that are contrary to the
Word of God."