In a public
rebuke of the Episcopal Church, a conservative diocese voted
Saturday to affirm its membership in the worldwide Anglican
Communion after distancing itself from the national
church over the ordination of gays and women. San
Joaquin, Calif., bishop John-David Schofield
called it a first step toward a formal break with the U.S.
Anglican denomination, though the proposal makes just
minor changes to the diocese's status.
''We have given a signal as to what direction we
intend to take,'' Schofield said Saturday. ''We are
now in a position to take seriously any offer the
archbishops around the world should come up with.''
Delegates also approved rewriting the San
Joaquin diocese's constitution to bring its trust fund
under the bishop's control, a move immediately
questioned by Episcopal leaders. The denomination's canons
don't give local dioceses sole ownership of church
property, said Robert Williams, a spokesman for the
Episcopal Church. ''The hope of many is that
reconciling dialogue will continue,'' he said.
Divisions erupted in 2003 when the Episcopal
Church, the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member
Anglican family, consecrated the first openly gay
bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Traditionalists
contend that gay partnerships violate Scripture.
Schofield, who refuses to ordain women and gays,
has publicly accused the church's first female leader,
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, of
promoting ''heresy.'' Under his leadership, the Fresno-based
diocese has cut back funds sent to the national church
and considered a plan to affiliate with an Anglican
diocese in Argentina.
The San Joaquin diocese's proposal to distance
itself from the American denomination was approved by
a majority of the 204 clergy and lay delegates. It
formalizes the diocese's identity as a member of the
Anglican Communion, rather than a member of the Episcopal
Church, but it and other resolutions approved Saturday
won't become final unless they receive a two-thirds
majority vote at a meeting at a diocesan convention
next year.
The amendment was noticeably weaker than one
pulled this week that proposed a formal split with the
U.S. denomination, which would have set off a legal
battle over the diocese's millions of dollars in real estate
in central California.
National church leaders had been putting
pressure on Schofield and other conservatives to ease
off their threats to break with the denomination. They
proposed creating a leadership position called a ''primatial
vicar,'' who would work with conservative dioceses
performing functions that normally fall to Jefferts
Schori, including consecrating local bishops.
Schofield called that offer ''absolutely inadequate'' but
suggested a truce was not off the table.
Six other conservative dioceses also have
rejected Jefferts Schori's authority but have stopped
short of secession. The 2.2 million-member Episcopal
Church estimates that nearly 115,000 people left the church
from 2003 to 2005. At least one third of those departures
stemmed from parish conflicts over Robinson. (Garance
Burke, AP)
