New York, USA - An Episcopal diocese in California overwhelmingly passed a series of resolutions yesterday that position it to secede from the Episcopal Church and affiliate with conservatives in the global Anglican Communion.
If the Diocese of San Joaquin affirms the move in a second vote next year, the small diocese, with 48 parishes and 7,000 members, would be the first to try to break from the Episcopal Church, which has been torn by conflict since the consecration of a gay bishop in 2003. Until now, only individual parishes have severed ties.
The vote by the diocese is one more step in a carefully planned strategy by conservative Episcopalians in the United States and primates of Anglican provinces, many in the developing world, to unite the conservatives, claim the mantle of Anglicanism and isolate the Episcopal Church, the 2.3-million-member American branch in the Anglican communion, which claims 77 million members worldwide.
The San Joaquin diocese, which does not ordain women, has long been one of the most conservative of the church’s 110 dioceses. It is among seven dioceses that were so disturbed by the church’s decision to consecrate a gay bishop that they have refused to accept the authority of the church and its presiding bishop. They have also appealed for “alternative oversight” to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who as head of the Church of England is considered the “first among equals” among the Anglican primates.
“This is the separation,” said Craig Petz, a lay delegate to the diocese’s convention in Fresno, Calif., where the vote took place. “It’s done. There’s no equivocating.”
Mr. Petz, from St. Mary’s Church in Manteca, Calif., said he was delighted by the resolutions, but an active caucus of clergy members and laity who strongly oppose separation from the church were despondent.
“There is a schism, and it’s a sin,” said the Rev. Rick Matters, a co-founder of Remain Episcopal, the caucus favoring unity. “To secede, we are like one of the Southern states that led to the Civil War.”
The step is likely to provoke legal battles in civil and ecclesiastical courts over whether the diocese has the right to divorce itself from the denomination and over who owns the diocese’s assets. Another pressing issue is what will happen to parishes and clergy members in the diocese who do not want to disassociate from the church.
“This is unprecedented territory and will take the careful consideration of all parties involved,” a spokesman for the Episcopal Church, Bob Williams, said yesterday.
Mr. Williams said one possibility was that the church’s presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, could declare the diocese vacant, and have it elect a new bishop and other leaders.
One resolution passed yesterday changes the diocese’s constitution, removing a line about membership in the Episcopal Church and replacing it with, “The diocese shall be a constituent member of the Anglican Communion and in full communion with the See of Canterbury.”
Other references to the church throughout the diocese’s constitution are removed, and replaced with “the Anglican Communion.”
The Bishop of San Joaquin, John-David Schofield, told the convention on Thursday, “This amending process is the first step in the removal from our constitution of any reference to the Episcopal Church because, in our opinion, they have decided to walk apart from the Anglican Communion.”
The wording of the resolutions was changed at the last minute, leading to widespread confusion among the delegates. But Bishop Schofield told the convention that the wording was changed after a recent meeting in Virginia between conservative American bishops and other leaders and conservative primates from other provinces in the Anglican Communion. The global primates advised the Americans to “remain flexible and allow them to provide the necessary leadership for us,” by holding off on specifying what structure, or bishop or province, would replace the church’s relationship with the diocese.
One crucial amendment effectively erases the borders of the diocese so that it could eventually absorb parishes in other parts of the state or elsewhere in the country that wish to break with the church, Mr. Petz said.
Another amendment says that if the bishop and his coadjutor bishop are absent, unable to act or removed, the standing committee, a lay group, would become the “ecclesiastical authority.” The thinking behind this provision, Mr. Petz said, is that it could prevent the church from taking over the diocese by removing the bishop and coadjutor.
Last week, before the vote, the church offered a compromise for “alternative primatial oversight” to the seven disaffected dioceses. After lengthy talks, a committee of bishops proposed that these dioceses could answer to a “primatial vicar,” and not the presiding bishop, but that vicar would be appointed by and answerable to the presiding bishop.
The conservatives, however, immediately rejected the proposal and called it a ploy by Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori to give them an offer they would have to refuse.
“It’s dead on arrival,” said the Rev. Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council. “It’s a nonstarter. First of all, who picks the primatial vicar? She does.
“She holds onto all the power, all the authority, and the people who are finding her ministry impossible to remain under are left still under her total thumb.”
But the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, greeted the proposal for alternative oversight with cautious enthusiasm, saying it represents “a very significant development” and that he would give it “careful consideration.”