Presiding
Bishop seeking quicker way to intervene before
other dioceses leave
by Timothy Roberts
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori made it clear Friday night that
she will direct The Episcopal Church to move ahead to reconstitute the Diocese
of San Joaquin and to establish control over church property swiftly. In addition,
she said, she intends to begin the process of revising the denomination's
canons to allow it to deal more expeditiously with breakaway bishops.
"I expect to see revisions to the canons to deal with situations like the one that you have been living with in San Joaquin for several years," she said.
The Presiding Bishop spoke at a question-and-answer session at St. Anne's Church, Stockton, Calif., on March 28 after taking part in a service. The first day of the special convention meeting she has called began with an Order of Worship for the Evening With Prayers for Healing. She read the Litany for Healing.
Saturday, March 29 Bishop Jefferts Schori presided at the opening of a special convention at St. John the Baptist Church in Lodi to reconstitute an Episcopal diocese with the see city located in Stockton. The convention is intended to undo the actions in December at the diocesan convention led by Bishop John-David Schofield of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. Delegates to that convention amended the constitution and canons to allow the central California diocese to leave The Episcopal Church and join the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone.
A majority of bishops present at a session of the House of Bishops on March 12 voted to depose Bishop Schofield and the Rt. Rev'd William J. Cox, retired Bishop Suffragan of Maryland, although questions have been raised about the legality of that vote under church law. The questions were first raised in a Living Church News Service article.
Earlier on March 28, Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina and the diocesan standing committee made public a letter asking Bishop Jefferts Schori not to go ahead with the special convention meeting until the issue of the deposition is resolved.
The Presiding Bishop said the House of Bishops' vote to depose Bishop Schofield was proper in response to a question from the audience.
"A majority of the House
of Bishops voted," she said. Moreover, she added, any protest of a parliamentary
action must be made at the time of the action by someone present at the meeting.
"That did not happen."
—Timothy Roberts
is a contributor to The Living Church. From the Web site of that publication.
