The Pink Flamingo :: Another Conservative Attack on the Episcopal Church

I’ve just about had it with “Christian” conservatives who do nothing but rail against the Episcopal church and applaud the destruction of MY denomination via out of control conservative Episcopalians who have forgotten the teachings of Christ, but then they are mirroring today’s out of control Conservative. I’ve had it. I am angry. I am furious. But, Christ requires that we forgive, so I forgive. BUT, when are you people going to start using your heads.

If you want to know what Episcopalians believe, here is a link to The Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith of the Episcopal Church.We believe in Christ. Yes, there are liberal Episcopalians who believe very little, but guess what – I think the average Episcopalian believes just as strongly as the average Baptist or the average Presbyterian. Most of us are unapologetic in our quest to be Catholic, but have problems because the Catholic Church will not allow the ordination of women and will not allow priests to marry. We basically believe the same thing Catholics believe.

ACCEPTABLE EPISCOPALIAN BASHING
Funny thing. This week Mitt Romney was applauded for standing up for his faith. Conservative bigots are bending backward trying to prove they are not “Mormon-Bashers”. But – it is perfectly acceptable for these same people to do nothing but bash Episcopalians. Why? Are they jealous? I can’t think of a RATIONAL reason. But then again, when have conservatives been rational lately?

At American Thinker today Thomas Lifson fires another IGNORANT conservative hit at the Episcopal Church. Evidently because the Anglican Diocese use the word ‘CONSERVATIVE” they are goodThey are CONSERVATIVE, so they are good and pure, but the ECUSA has a LIBERAL Presiding Bishop so those of us who have chosen to remain Episcopalian and not destroy a church are EVIL. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

Lifson (in his abject ignorance of the situation wrote)

“…The Episcopal Church of the United States has lost its first diocese over its rejection of Scripture and embrace of politically correct positions. In California's fast-growing Central Valley…”

From the San Francisco Chronicle

“…The Diocese of San Joaquin, a conservative fold that serves California's Central Valley and has long chafed under what it considers the increasing liberalism of its fellow Episcopals, on Saturday became the first in the nation to separate from the U.S. Episcopal Church, voting overwhelmingly to take a strong and definitive stance against how the church deals with homosexuality and other controversial issues. The diocese, which serves nearly 9,000 parishioners in an area stretching from Lodi to Bakersfield, has effectively seceded from the American wing of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and has placed itself in the hands of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of America, which oversees the dioceses in six South American nations.
From now on, its officials say, the diocese, which operates out of offices in Fresno, will report to the Most Rev. Gregory James Venables, presiding bishop of the Southern Cone and of Argentina, in his office in Buenos Aires. In response to the vote, the bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church suggested the Diocese of San Joaquin will soon have new leadership, but did not elaborate on how that might take place.

It may seem like an odd situation for the seceding diocese's members - reporting to a higher authority in an office more than 7,000 miles away from Fresno - but it could not have come soon enough, according to the top official of the breakaway diocese.
"For 20 years and more we have watched the Episcopal Church lose its way," the bishop of San Joaquin, John-David Schofield, told a convention of his diocese's delegates - clergy and lay representatives. "In the end, it is all about freedom. It is about freedom to remain who we are in Christ "It is freedom to hold and practice the faith that the Episcopal Church received as a precious gift," he said. Delegates approved the decision 173-22 at their annual convention in Fresno on Friday and Saturday. The vote capped a dispute that had been sweeping through the Episcopal Church in the United States for decades, one that was highlighted in 2003, when the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, was ordained as bishop in New Hampshire.
His consecration has divided the nation's 2.5 million Episcopalians and threatens a greater split among the world's 77 million Anglican Communion members. Like the Diocese of San Joaquin, individual parishes and several dioceses across the United States have also sought to break from the national Episcopal Church, which they feel has become too liberal in ordaining gay and lesbian leaders and blessing same-sex unions, among other issues.

The Diocese of San Joaquin, which does not ordain female priests, is made up of 47 parishes and 8,800 members in 14 counties.
In turning to South America for their new home - the Southern Cone includes conservative dioceses in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay - the Diocese of San Joaquin was clearly looking for an adherence to tradition, something they apparently weren't finding in the U.S. Episcopal Church. "We were interested in seeking leadership that held to a traditional interpretation of Christianity," said the Rev. Van McCalister, a spokesman for the Diocese of San Joaquin. It is unclear how the move by the Diocese of San Joaquin will affect its vast holdings in the Central Valley - churches, offices, and other property - and whether the U.S. Episcopal Church will sue the diocese to keep it. Indeed, the Diocese of San Joaquin said on Saturday it plans to retain its property, regardless of its new and geographically distant affiliation with a bishop in South America.

In a statement responding to Saturday's vote, Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, did not say whether the church plans to sue its dissident California diocese. "The Episcopal Church receives with sadness the news that some members of this church have made a decision to leave this church," she said. "We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness. We wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey. The Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese of San Joaquin, albeit with new leadership." Jefferts Schori had asked the Diocese of San Joaquin to reconsider its anticipated move in a letter earlier this month. To leave the Episcopal Church "would implicitly reject the Church's property and other canons," she said. "If you continue along this path, I believe it will be necessary to ascertain whether you have in fact abandoned the communion of this Church," she said. "I do not intend to threaten you, only to urge you to reconsider and draw back from this trajectory."

But Schofield replied in a letter, "It is the Episcopal Church that has isolated itself from the overwhelming majority of Christendom and more specifically from the Anglican Communion by denying Biblical truth."

The Rev. Rick Matters, co-founder of Remain Episcopal, a group that opposes Saturday's vote, and who has since left the Diocese of San Joaquin to lead a church in Carmel, compared the move to the state of California voting to leave the United States. "They can't, because they're part of that union," he said. Members of Remain Episcopal, which represents a small number of parishes in the San Joaquin County, plan to stay with the national Episcopal Church, Matters said….”

From Episcopal Life

“…San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield asked for a moment of silence in deference to those who opposed the change, reminding the gathering that he "knows what it feels like to be a minority" before the vote tallies were read. The results, by orders were: 70-12 clergy and 103-10 vote in the lay order to effectively 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."

"The Episcopal Church receives with sadness the news that some members of this church have made a decision to leave this church," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness. We wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey. The Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese of San Joaquin, albeit with new leadership."

"This is a historic moment...a vote for freedom," Schofield had told the gathering of about 88 clergy and 113 lay delegates meeting at St. James Cathedral in Fresno. He reminded the gathering that the diocese as a whole was realigning and said that clergy who rejected the move had time to discern whether or not to accept the invitation to join the Southern Cone.

The vote was taken after about 30 minutes of emotional debate, often interrupted by applause.

Samantha Bland, a parishioner at Christ the King Church in Riverbank called upon delegates to focus on teen pregnancy, soaring foreclosure rates, methamphetamine addiction and dwindling resources plaguing Central Valley congregations "instead of this distraction."

"I have yet to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury say the Episcopal Church is not part of the Anglican Communion. I have not heard that we as an Episcopal Church have not reported back" about the Windsor Report. "I ask for us to look into our hearts and take care of our communities and remember the parishioners we're here to represent."

Another congregant, who asked not to be named, said the vote was ironically "a good thing. We can get on with our ministry, now that this diocese is free of this poison," she said, referring to the rancor surrounding the issue of leaving.

To vote otherwise, Schofield told delegates in his convention address a day earlier, would effectively signal his retirement within two years, by General Convention 2009 "with no reasonable hope for an orthodox successor" and a return to "where we were before last December's convention. Canon laws will be introduced to make it impossible for dioceses and persons to leave."

Although the move makes San Joaquin the first diocese in the nation to complete a legislative process seeking separation from the Episcopal Church, Schofield predicted that more dioceses will follow. Flanked by Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan and Bolivia Bishop Frank Lyons from the Southern Cone province, Schofield told a gathering of reporters December 7 that the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003 was merely a "flashpoint" for those who had had "enough because of the liberal theology of the Episcopal Church."

"Those who want to remain Episcopalians but reject the biblical standards of morality, the ultimate authority of the Bible, and the biblical revelation of God to us in His Son the only savior of mankind, will in the end be left solely with a name and a bureaucratic structure," he said.

The central California-based diocese represents about 8,500 Episcopalians in 47 congregations, at least five of whom Schofield predicted will opt to remain with the Episcopal Church.

Nancy Key, a co-founder of 'Remain Episcopal,' said those who wished to remain in the Episcopal Church have felt marginalized and maligned.

"It feels like spiritual violence," said Key, a parishioner at Holy Family Church in Fresno, which has chosen to remain within the Episcopal Church. "All we want to do is be in the Episcopal Church that actively ordains women and is inclusive," she said. San Joaquin is among three dioceses that refuse to ordain or deploy women priests. The others are Fort Worth and the Peoria, Illinois-based Diocese of Quincy.

Schofield characterized Venables' invitation to align with the Province of the Southern Cone as a "Godsend" for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, allowing for disagreeing factions to still remain within the Anglican Communion. The Province of the Southern Cone has about 22,000 members and encompasses Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

Lyons also told reporters that Williams approved of the new affiliation and described it as "a sensible way forward."

But, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, Anglican Communion secretary general, disagreed. "I would be surprised to hear that the Archbishop would formally support such a development which is contrary to the Windsor Report," he said in a November 27, 2007 letter to a Fort Worth delegate who had asked for verification of similar assertions Lyons made during the Texas diocese's November 17 convention.

Delegates to the Fort Worth diocese's 25th convention also gave the first of two approvals to dissociate from the Episcopal Church. Similarly, Pittsburgh delegates on November 2 voted for realignment. Delegates at Quincy's October 20-21 annual synod, however, chose to remain with the Episcopal Church, at least for the immediate future.

Schofield said San Joaquin congregations wishing to remain with the national church may retain their property, as long as they don't owe the diocese money. "I just wish the Episcopal Church was as generous in the other direction," he said.

He said that nothing will change immediately as the diocese waits to see what, if any, action the Presiding Bishop will take. "On Monday, the doors won't be locked."

After chancellor Kenneth VanRozeboom's lengthy report to convention detailing the legal implications of the move, Schofield said the diocese is monitoring the decision in the property disputes between the Diocese of Los Angeles and four breakaway churches, awaiting a hearing before the California Supreme Court.

He characterized such litigation as being "like cannibalism, like Christians eating each other. Christians should not be taking Christians to court," he said. Regardless of the outcome in Los Angeles, the future remains murky because that decision involves "churches, not dioceses." Schofield concluded that any litigation "will be a fairly long, drawn-out process."

In June, the Executive Council, the governing body of the Episcopal Church between meetings of General Convention, warned that actions by Episcopal Church dioceses that change their constitutions in an attempt to bypass the Church's Constitution and Canons are "null and void."

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 bishops 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.

And that's how Nancy Key and other "loyalists" intend to proceed, she said. The group, "Remain Episcopal" will convene immediately after the close of San Joaquin's convention to strategize….”

About that “conservative” i.e. “Good” diocese in South America from Remaining Episcopal

“…Rt. Rev. Sergio Carranza, (former Bishop of the Diocese of Mexico) - "Our domestic conspirators and their financial sponsors keep telling everybody that Latin America is part of the conservative faction, and therefore part of the complot, but that is a misrepresentation, because the only renegade province in Latin America is the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, which is the least numerous, the least Anglican and the least Latin American. The Anglican/Episcopal Church of Brazil, the Anglican Church of the Central Region of America, and the Anglican Church of Mexico, are loyal members of the Anglican Communion and find themselves in good terms with ECUSA and the Canadian Church, respecting their polity and autonomy. . . It is very sad indeed to see how our beloved Anglican Communion is being rent asunder by an unholy combination of gross ambition, bad hermeneutics, poor ecclesiology, conservative money and plain homophobia." from The Insurrection of the Chieftains, The Angelus, October 2005..."