House of Deputies president promises support to San Joaquin Episcopalians
Episcopal News Service. February 11, 2007 [021107-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Bonnie Anderson, president of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies, assured a February 10 gathering of Episcopalians in the Diocese of San Joaquin -- most of whom are committed to remaining within the Episcopal Church -- that the wider church supports them.
"I want you to know that you are part of the Episcopal Church," Anderson told the gathering. "You will be supported and defended, and prayed for. You are loved as sisters and brothers in Christ. You will not be left alone. We have God's mission to do together in the world and we need to get past these distractions."
"Our mission is reconciliation in the world," Anderson said. "It is the mission of the Episcopal Church; it is the mission of every Christian."
The diocesan-wide gathering, "Celebrating and Proclaiming the Gracious Love of Jesus Christ in and through the Episcopal Church," was held at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in Lodi, California, which sponsored the event along with several local Episcopal churches and the group Remain Episcopal. About 350 people attended the event.
San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield attended as a spectator, along with some members of the diocese who support his efforts to distance the diocese from the Episcopal Church. He did not speak during the presentations.
Anderson made her comments during her keynote presentation titled "I Will, With God's Help: Our Mission and Ministry in the World." She drew sustained applause and a standing ovation when she began her presentation by saying, "I am Bonnie Anderson and I am an Episcopalian."
She described the Episcopal Church's commitment to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals as its top mission priority for the next three years. She anchored that priority in the baptismal covenant, in which all Episcopalians promise "to seek and serve Christ in all people … to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being."
"I want to assure you that the Episcopal Church is alive and well and is engaged in important work in the name of Jesus Christ, and we are building the Church both here and in other parts of the Anglican Communion," she told the gathering.
Anderson reiterated the Episcopal Church's stance on the desire of some members to separate from the denomination.
"People are free to leave the Episcopal Church and to come back to the Episcopal Church at any time. However, while individuals have the right and privilege to depart or return at any time, parishes and dioceses do not," Anderson said. "Parishes cannot unilaterally disestablish themselves or remove themselves from a diocese. Diocesan bishops are in communion with the Presiding Bishop and with the other bishops of the Episcopal Church. They cannot leave the Episcopal Church and take ‘their diocese' with them."
Only the Episcopal Church's General Convention creates or dissolves dioceses and only dioceses create or dissolve parishes within their geographic boundaries, she said.
Anderson drew loud applause when she told the gathering that there is a "fiduciary and moral duty" to preserve the property held in trust by parishes "for generations to come and the ministries to be served both now and in the future."
The event began with Holy Eucharist, at which Anderson preached. During her homily, Anderson said that responding to the call of Jesus that comes at baptism is not an easy job.
"It can be dangerous and frightening," she said. "But do not be dissuaded from the reconciling mission of Christ Jesus in this world."
"Have no doubt about it, doing the work of Jesus Christ in the world is the most important thing we will do in our lives," she said. "Promises made and promises kept will be the mark of our commitment to Jesus."
During its 47th annual Convention, meeting December 1-2, 2006, the Diocese of San Joaquin approved the first reading of constitutional amendments which would, among other things, remove references to the Episcopal Church and identify the diocese specifically as a "constituent member of the Anglican Communion and in full communion with the See of Canterbury" and permit the diocese unilaterally to extend itself beyond its current geographic boundaries.
The constitutional amendments would not take effect until a second vote is taken at another annual convention meeting, scheduled for October 2007. The second reading would require a two-thirds majority in order for the amendments to pass.
The convention also passed a resolution directing the bishop, council, and standing committee "to assess the means of our affiliation with a recognized Ecclesiastical structure of the Anglican Communion."
Anderson told the Lodi gathering that she was sorry that the diocesan convention took those actions.
"When one part of the body says ‘I have no need of you,' there are grave consequences to the Episcopal Church community and the fulfilling of God's mission of reconciliation in the world," she said. "This is a distraction from our common mission."
The Remain Episcopal event also included a question-and-answer session on the current state of the diocese and the Episcopal Church, and time for sharing stories of how God is working in and through the Episcopal Church in the diocese.
During the question-and-answer session, a number of people spoke about the pain they feel over the divisions in the diocese. Some spoke about how their congregations are losing members who have a wide range of opinions about the actions of the Episcopal Church, Schofield and the diocesan convention.
"I will tell the bishop you are breaking my heart," said Carol Dyer from Church of Our Savior in Hanford who stood at the microphone wiping tears from her eyes. "I have told you in letters and now I will tell you in person."
"Many people in our diocese feel the Episcopal Church has left the Anglican Communion and many feel [the Episcopal Church] has left Christianity," said Tom Melry of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Fresno. "I don't feel the Lord wants us to separate."
Questions were asked about possible litigation dealing with ownership of congregational property and whether the wider Episcopal Church is prepared to help those who want to remain in the Episcopal Church retain that property. While the panel participants did not elaborate, they assured the gathering that the church's leadership is aware of those concerns.
Michael Glass, a San Francisco-area attorney who works with the House of Bishops Task Force on Property Disputes, told the gathering that the task force was a blend of bishops and legal experts available to help with both pastoral and legal concerns in such disputes.
"I hear the hoofbeats of the cavalry coming around the bend," he said to loud applause.
Cindy Smith, president of Remain Episcopal, told the gathering that the organization is making plans to "go forward into the continuing Diocese of San Joaquin" and that they all had Episcopal neighbors who were willing to help them.
Schofield said after the gathering ended that he was in favor of meetings that encourage people in the diocese. However, he said he found it "unhelpful" that some are spreading "phantom rumors about what this wicked bishop is going to do," calling such efforts "character-assassinating things."
He said that he would never depose a priest for disagreeing with him, and has told his clergy and congregations that any who do not agree with him can leave the diocese and take their property and other assets with them, or he will work with them to have another bishop give them pastoral care. No one has acted on his offer, he said, because "they've got it good" in the diocese.
As part of her visit to the Diocese of San Joaquin, Anderson preached during Sunday morning worship February 11 at Holy Family Episcopal Church in Fresno.
"The real Jesus, the Jesus that died for us is, the Jesus that gives us glimpses into our hearts and the hearts of others, the Jesus that draws us near even when we accuse him of leaving us, the real Jesus is doing things so unusual, so new, so outrageous, so scandalous every day that we have to open our hearts, we have to clean those scales from our eyes and ears," Anderson said. "We have to watch carefully for him as he moves among us and in us."
"We have to really expect new truths to be revealed to us in unconventional, unexpected ways from unexpected, unconventional sources because Jesus is full of surprises," she said. "He turns things upside down. Watch out. Expect miracles."
During one of two question-and-answer sessions after the services at Holy Family, Anderson answered questions about how the Episcopal Church makes decisions. She urged the congregation to not demonize people whom they feel may be marginalizing them.
"You don't need to do that," she said. "Be careful of that."
Her remarks echoed those made by Nancy Key, a representative of Via Media USA, at the Lodi event when she urged people to "not marginalize any of us, any of us." Her remark was greeted with loud applause.
Dyer, who spoke at the event in Lodi, said during a session at Holy Family that "what happened yesterday was cathartic for all of us who are so sad."
"You could feel the Holy Spirit in that place yesterday. I had not felt it in years," she said.
The Diocese of San Joaquin comprises about 10,000 Episcopalians worshipping in 48 congregations in the California counties of San Joaquin, Alpine, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Mono, Merced, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern and Inyo.