Don’t leave, or face the consequences: CEN 12.07.07 p 7. December 9, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Property Litigation, San Joaquin.trackback
US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has warned the Bishop of San Joaquin against allowing his diocese to quit the Episcopal Church, threatening him with legal and ecclesiastical sanctions.
In a letter published on Dec 3, Bishop Schori urged Bishop John-David Schofield to consider the cost “of the potential consequences” of his diocese’s potential secession.
On Dec 8, the San Joaquin synod will have the second reading of a Constitution amendment permitting it to quit the American Church.
Bishop Schori told Bishop Schofield that his support of the amendment would require her to “ascertain whether you have in fact abandoned the communion of this Church, and violated your vows to uphold the doctrine, discipline, and worship of this Church. I do not intend to threaten you, only to urge you to reconsider and draw back from this trajectory.”
Bishop Schori said she would continue to pray for Bishop Schofield, “I continue to be concerned for your health, and for your evident sense of isolation,” and added that she continued to welcome his participation as a “loyal opposition” within The Episcopal Church, “particularly as a sign of your faithfulness to your vow to share in the councils of the Church.”
However, the US Presiding Bishop declared it was not possible for the diocese to secede. “While you may believe that the Diocese of San Joaquin can be welcomed into another Province of the Anglican Communion, I believe you will find that few parts of the Communion will recognize such a proposal,” she wore.
On Nov 16, Bishop Schofield released a statement welcoming the invitation by the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone to affiliate with it. “The invitation assures the Diocese’s place in the Anglican Communion and full communion with the See of Canterbury,” he said.
Planting the diocese’s flag in South America was a “sensible way forward and is by no means irrevocable. During the 1860’s, the Dioceses of the Southern States left the Episcopal Church and then returned after the Civil War. As the Southern Cone invitation makes clear, the Diocese may return to full communion with the Episcopal Church when circumstances change and the Episcopal Church repents and adheres to the theological, moral and pastoral norms of the Anglican Communion, and when effective and acceptable alternative primatial oversight becomes available,” Bishop Schofield said.
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