SAN JOAQUIN: Pastoral letter says diocese is no longer part of Episcopal Church
Episcopal News Service. December 17, 2007 [121707-04]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
In a pastoral letter intended to be read December 16 in the congregations of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, Bishop John-David Schofield said that since the December 8 diocesan convention the diocese is "no longer operating under the looming shadow" of the Episcopal Church's "institutional apostasy."
Schofield wrote in his letter that this "institutional apostasy" stems from what he calls 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."
Schofield's letter has not yet been posted on the diocesan website.
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.
On December 14, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sent a short letter to Schofield asking him to confirm 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." Schofield has not yet responded to the Presiding Bishop's request.
Congregations and individual Episcopalians who wish to remain in the Episcopal Church are making plans for the continuation of the Diocese of San Joaquin. Continuing Episcopalians and their supporters are exchanging information and resources via the Remain Episcopal website.
The San Joaquin convention also voted to 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."
Schofield said in his December 16 letter that "the orders of all Diocesan clergy have been recognized by the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and appropriate certificates have already been issued." Clergy "who desire more time to consider whether or not to accept the invitation welcomed so heartily by the majority of Convention" may request "a period of discernment" from him and he must agree to that request. "Likewise, all parishes will be given a similar discernment period," Schofield said in the letter.
"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," he wrote. "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'."
Because the diocesan convention "had the courage" to act as it did, Schofield wrote, members of the diocese who agree to join the Southern Cone can "witness to your faith without having to apologize for or feel embarrassed by the decisions of a Church over which you had no control."
The Southern Cone has about 22,000 members and encompasses Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Its provincial synod, meeting in Valparaiso, Chile, November 5-7, agreed to welcome into the province "on an emergency and pastoral basis" Episcopal Church dioceses "taking appropriate action to separate from The Episcopal Church."
Schofield said in his letter that the plan for the Diocese of San Joaquin to join the Southern Cone was "developed with their House of Bishops and ultimately discussed between Archbishop [Gregory] Venables and a number of other Primates and Bishops."
He refers to Venables in the letter as "our new Archbishop."
Two days after the diocesan convention's vote, a spokesman for the Anglican Communion said that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams had "not in any way endorsed the actions of the Primate of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables, in his welcoming of dioceses, such as San Joaquin in the Episcopal Church, to become part of his province in South America." Schofield and Bolivia Bishop Frank Lyons had both implied before the December 8 vote that Williams had said the Southern Cone's offer was "a sensible way forward."
During an exchange of letters prior to convention, Jefferts Schori had advised Schofield that approval of the constitutional changes would "implicitly reject the Church's property and other canons."
Regarding the diocese's intention to affiliate with the Southern Cone, she said, "If you continue along this path…it will be necessary to ascertain whether you have in fact abandoned the communion of this church, and violated your own vows to uphold the doctrine, discipline, and worship of this Church."
If Schofield is considered to have abandoned the communion of the church, he would have two months to recant his position. Failing to do so, the matter would be referred to the full House of Bishops. If the House were to concur, the Presiding Bishop would depose the bishop and declare the episcopates of those dioceses vacant. Those remaining in the Episcopal Church would be gathered to organize a new diocesan convention and elect a replacement Standing Committee, if necessary.
An assisting bishop would be appointed to provide episcopal ministry until a new diocesan bishop search process could be initiated and a new bishop elected and consecrated.
A lawsuit would be filed against the departed leadership and a representative sample of departing congregations if they attempted to retain Episcopal Church property. Schofield noted in his letter a "degree of uncertainty over the future of our material possessions."