Anglicans United & Latimer Press

In consultation with the Presiding Bishop, the Archbishop of Canterbury proposed that a number of bishops from the Episcopal Church meet to explore a way forward. A first meeting took place in September, and a second meeting in November developed the following proposal that seeks to address the concerns of those parishes and dioceses which for serious theological reasons feel a need for space, and to encourage them to remain within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

Taking seriously the concerns of the petitioning bishops and dioceses, the Presiding Bishop, in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, will appoint a Primatial Vicar in episcopal orders to serve as the Presiding Bishop's designated pastor in such dioceses. The Primatial Vicar could preside at consecrations of bishops in these dioceses. The
Primatial Vicar could also serve the dioceses involved on any other appropriate matters either at the initiative of the Presiding Bishop or at the request of the petitioning dioceses.

The Primatial Vicar would be accountable to the Presiding Bishop and would report to an Advisory Panel that would consist of the designee of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Presiding Bishop's designee, a bishop of The Episcopal Church selected by the petitioning dioceses, and the President of the House of Deputies (or designee).

This arrangement for a Primatial Vicar does not affect the administrative or other canonical duties of the Presiding Bishop except to the degree that the Presiding Bishop may wish to delegate, when appropriate, some of those duties to the Primatial Vicar. The Primatial Vicar and the Advisory Panel shall function in accordance with the
Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church.

Individual congregations who dissent from the decisions of their diocesan leadership are reminded of the availability of Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight and its process of appeal.

This arrangement is provisional in nature, in effect for three years, beginning January 1, 2007. During that time, the Presiding Bishop is asked to monitor its efficacy and to consult with the House of Bishops and the Executive Council regarding this arrangement and possible future developments.

Statement

A group of bishops, including the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, gathered at the initiative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has developed a proposal for the appointment of a Primatial Vicar in response to those bishops and dioceses that have requested what they termed "alternative primatial oversight" or an "alternative primatial relationship."

Those present at the September meeting, in addition to Bishops Griswold and Jefferts Schori, included Bishops Peter James Lee of Virginia, and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida, as co-conveners, and Bishops James Stanton of Dallas, Edward Salmon of South Carolina, Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Dorsey Henderson of Upper South Carolina, Robert O'Neill of Colorado, and Mark Sisk of New York. Bishop Don Wimberly of Texas was invited but did not attend. The Rev. Canon
Kenneth Kearon, Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion was also present at the September meeting.

The same bishops and Canon Kearon were invited to the November meeting with the exception of Bishop Griswold who had completed his tenure as Presiding Bishop. Bishop Don Johnson of West Tennessee joined the group in November. Bishops Salmon, Stanton, Iker, Duncan and Wimberly did not attend the November meeting. Bishop Lipscomb, who had been involved in the planning of the meeting, was unexpectedly hospitalized at the time of the November meeting, sent his sincere regrets, and was briefed on the meeting at its conclusion.

The proposal provides for the appointment by the Presiding Bishop, in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury of a Primatial Vicar as the Presiding Bishop's designated pastor to bishops and dioceses that have requested such oversight. The Primatial Vicar, in episcopal orders, could preside at consecrations of bishops in those dioceses. The Primatial Vicar, accountable to the Presiding Bishop, would report to an advisory panel that would include the designees of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Presiding Bishop, the President of the House of Deputies, and a bishop of the Episcopal Church selected by the dioceses petitioning for pastoral care by the Primatial Vicar.

The response makes clear that the arrangement does not affect the administrative or other canonical duties of the Presiding Bishop except to the degree that the Presiding Bishop may wish to delegate some of those duties to the Primatial Vicar. The response also specifies that the Primatial Vicar and the Advisory Panel shall function in accordance
with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church.

The response drafted at the New York November 27th meeting is provisional in nature, beginning January 1, 2007 and continuing for three years. The New York group asked the Presiding Bishop to monitor its efficacy, and to consult with the House of Bishops and the Executive Council regarding the arrangement and possible future developments.

The response has been submitted to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the bishops of the petitioning dioceses.

Bishop Lee of Virginia, co-convenor of the meetings that drafted the response said: "The group was conscious of the need to respond quickly to the needs of parishes and dioceses which felt themselves to be under pressure and sought a proposal which could be put into place without delay. Accordingly, this is a provisional measure that is entirely within the discretion of the Presiding Bishop and requires no canonical change nor any action by the General Convention. It is intended to provide some space for dioceses and congregations that feel they need it while the Anglican Communion sorts out more lasting measures to deal with differences. Those of us who drafted it hope it will be received and used in good faith."

Episcopal News Service - http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens/

At my consecration, I vowed to "guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church of God." I was charged
by my chief consecrator to "Feed the flock of Christ committed to [my] charge, guard and defend them in his truth, and be a faithful steward of his holy Word and Sacraments." I carry out my vow by defending and propagating "the historic Faith and Order" which The Episcopal Church commits to upholding in the preamble of its own Constitution.

In 2003, the General Convention committed itself to a theological path that is irreconcilable with the Anglican faith this Church has received and has torn the fabric of the entire Communion. The Primates repeated calls for repentance have not been heeded. More than half of the Primates and Provinces of the Anglican Communion have declared themselves to be in impaired or broken communion with The Episcopal Church. Beyond our Anglican Communion, relations throughout Christendom have been profoundly strained. With obvious reference to innovations and novelties introduced by the
Episcopal Church, last week Pope Benedict XVI publicly stated to Archbishop Rowan Williams that recent developments, "especially concerning ordained ministry and certain moral teachings," have affected not only the internal relations within the Anglican Communion but also relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church.

The Episcopal Church, as an institution, is walking a path of apostasy and those faithful to God's Word are forced to make painful choices.

At a diocesan level, the choice is between continuing membership in an unrepentant, apostate institution or following Holy Scripture and the Anglican faith. Whether or not the Diocese of San Joaquin will continue its institutional membership in The Episcopal Church is a choice that will be made by the people and the clergy and not by me. They will express their collective will as provided in the diocesan governing documents which were approved by the General Convention when the diocese was first admitted to
membership.

It is important to point out that the vote at the Diocesan Convention in December 2006 is neither final nor irrevocable. Should the Constitutional amendments being proposed pass the "first reading," then the diocese will simply have positioned itself to make a final decision at a second consecutive Annual Convention in 2007 if that proves God's call.

Under our diocesan constitution, the second and final reading is automatically scheduled for October 2007. The setting of the exact date may be advanced or delayed by the bishop. There are some significant factors
that would influence such a decision.

First, at the meeting with the leading Primates of the Global South in Virginia, November 15-17 this year, the Global South Primates Steering Committee encouraged us by supporting our faithful stand and commitment to Christ, and they expressed a desire to be of help to us to relieve our untenable position. They have promised assistance, the form of which they will bring to the entire Primates meeting scheduled for Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in February 2007. In the meantime, in keeping with the goals of the Windsor Report and positioning ourselves to accept the Primates' help, we are responding to the Primates who called upon us to remain flexible until the details are worked out.

An additional consideration was your letter to me. I believe you have shown wisdom and restraint by not issuing an ultimatum. Instead, you have invited further discussion which could possibly lead to some degree of reconciliation. In recognition of what you have proposed, I, too, will exercise restraint by not advancing the date of what could be an historic and final act. However, should proceedings be instituted against me as threatened in your letter, I would not feel obliged to exercise restraint. My prayer is that neither of us takes action which upsets the delicate balance which now exists until the Primates have given us direction at their February 2007 meeting. Until then, powerful forces will be at work that will ultimately shape the future.

I pray that God's will be revealed to us all.

You may be assured of my prayers for the Holy Spirit's wisdom and guidance.

In Christ,

The Rt. Rev. John-David M. Schofield, SSC
Bishop of San Joaquin

JDS/jw

He is, for most of us, an unlikely source of insight not only because he was born 390 years ago (we think only our own generation truly understands), but also because his writing was filled with the old-school “thees” and “thous” that made us so glad to see modern translations of the Bible.

Now two intrepid editors have “translated” Owen for our generation, publishing three of his classic works in one volume, under the title "Overcoming Sin and Temptation" (Crossway Books, 2006). The reading still is a challenge, but the result is that now I have benefited from the profound insights of a spiritual giant almost no one remembers -– on a topic our generation almost completely ignores.

Owen pointed me to Isaiah 58, in which God says that although his people “seek me day after day and delight to know my ways,” the Lord nonetheless turns a deaf ear because the people otherwise do what they please and society is filled with injustice. If the people would humble themselves before God and help the hungry and homeless, then God would give healing and cause their light “to break out like the dawn.”

The problem, Owen says, is that, like the Israelites, many of us worship God out of self love and our obedience to Him is incomplete. The insight I found so intriguing is that God may refuse to give us victory over one sin, in Owen’s words, “to admonish us, and to humble us, perhaps to chasten and correct us for our general loose and careless walking.”

Owen writes: “God says, ‘Here is one, if he could get rid of this lust I should never hear from him again; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost.” Owen suggests that perhaps the reason I plead with God to free me from that sin is more because it distresses me, than the fact it grieves the Lord who died to set me free. Because some areas of my life are not lived God’s way, my soul remains weak and selfish and constantly provokes God, Owen says.

"Without sincerity and diligence in a universality of obedience, there is no mortification of any one perplexing lust to be obtained," Owen asserts.

Those are challenging words for any individual whose culture tells him the goal of life is self-fulfillment, rather than serving God’s purposes. We all know how difficult it is to be completely obedient when society bombards us from every side with promises of money, power and sex. We want to honor God, but we also want to be accepted by others and to enjoy the good things our society offers. We find reasons to “go along and get along” -- convincing ourselves it doesn’t really matter.

Obedience, however, is complete or it is not obedience. The apostle who most struggled with his impulses wrote: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct" (1 Peter 1:14-15 ESV emphasis added). Those impulses, Peter said, “wage war against your soul.” (2:11)

When we teach and preach about salvation, we do not often mention obedience. In a society that places ultimate value on individual freedom, the Bible’s teaching that we are slaves goes against the grain. But the truth is that we all obey someone –- either God or his enemy -– and that obedience makes us slaves of one or the other. (Romans 6:16) Like a slave, I do not belong to myself, because I was bought with a price. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

It is not enough to cultivate private devotion and give ourselves to church work, to participate in whole-hearted worship, even to witness to others and participate in missions projects. If we in other areas of life are still pleasing ourselves or following our society, God rejects our religious activity, however well-intentioned. If we are ignoring the needs of the hungry and homeless, we will hear Jesus say, “Depart from me.”

That’s not easy to hear -– and God knows our hearts –- but if I want to experience freedom from that unrelenting sin, I have to give myself completely to living life God’s way -– and thoroughly root out the accommodations I have made for a culture that rejects the one who died so I could be free.
"Overcoming Sin and Temptation" is available online at www.LifeWayStores.com.

The proposed meeting was scheduled to begin today. The first Summit, convened at the request of the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, was held in September at the offices of the Church Pension Group in New York City. Bishop Iker enumerated the reasons for the decision in a reply he sent to Bishop Lee on Tuesday, Nov. 21, on behalf of Bishop Duncan and himself.

The full text of the reply is as follows:

Dear Peter,

I am responding to your e-mail from yesterday on behalf of Bob Duncan and myself regarding the proposed meeting for November 27th. He and I have agreed that the following points must be made at this time:

Our position has been the same since the last day of our New York meeting back in September. We will not attend another meeting “to continue the conversation” unless there is a specific proposal on the table to provide APO. Apparently this is not the case for next Monday. You speak of a skeleton, but nothing has been shared with either of us. We assume the other side has seen your proposal.

We made a specific proposal to the Archbishop of Canterbury back in July, and we shared this document with you and John Lipscomb as the conveners of the September meeting. You did not share it with all of the other participants at that time, and it was never discussed.

We note that David Booth Beers has been quoted in the press as telling the meeting of The Episcopal Majority several days ago that Alternative Primatial Oversight is not going to be provided. The Presiding Bishop’s office has not denied his claim, and we have concluded that she agrees with David’s assertion.

We agree that mediation is required at this time to move toward a negotiated settlement. The time frame you propose for the 27th is insufficient for significant progress to be made in this regard, and we would need additional parties in attendance in order to participate in such negotiations.

We believe the situation has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks with threats of lawsuits against bishops appealing for APO and of declaring “vacant sees.” We note that we are now tagged as “problem dioceses” and that we will continue to be monitored by the property task force headed by Bishop Sauls. We also note that this task force is going to cultivate relationships with persons in our dioceses who oppose the position taken by our diocesan conventions. Such posturing is meant to intimidate us and does not promote dialogue and conversation about the matters before us. I have been advised that legal counsel should accompany me to any future meetings with representatives from 815 or the General Convention.

Should you elect to proceed with your meeting on Monday, please know that you will be in our prayers and that Bob and I wish you good success.

Sincerely, +Jack L. Iker

Contact: Suzanne Gill Director of Communications The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth sgill@fwepiscopal.org

Peter Frank Director of Communications The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh frank@pgh.anglican.org

Schofield blasted what he called the "liberal agenda" of the American church, which he believes has endorsed homosexuality and same sex unions.

He hopes to make history this weekend when the Diocese of San Joaquin votes at its convention whether to fully break from the national denomination.

If the convention votes yes, it will be the first Episcopal diocese in the nation to split from the U.S. church.

The conservative local diocese, based in Fresno, includes parishes in Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Merced, Calaveras, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern, Alpine and Inyo counties.

"It would be an incredible freedom from a kind of apologetic stigma of the Episcopalian church," Schofield said.

The "major schism" in the church occurred when V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was consecrated as the first openly gay bishop in 2003, Schofield said.

That was followed by the installation this month of the denomination's first female presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori.

The problem began in the late 1950s, Schofield said, when seminaries began adopting a more "liberal" attitude toward Scripture.

But he spent the vast majority of his more than two-hour talk decrying what he believes is the church's endorsement of homosexuality.

Schofield is prominent in the network, which includes dioceses in Pittsburgh, Albany, N.Y., and Fort Worth, Texas, moving toward a break with the denomination's leaders.

The 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the global Anglican Communion.

One audience member stood to criticize what she called a "politicizing" of her longtime faith.

But many lauded Schofield's ideas.

"You gotta stand up and do what's right," said Richard Wharton, a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Modesto for more than 10 years. "I'm becoming more politically aware of things. It's absurd, but we're moving on."

Barbara Odegaard, one of four delegates who will vote on behalf of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Mariposa, said she hopes to "grow old" supporting Schofield.

"I've been Episcopalian since I was 8 years old and, frankly, a lot of things have changed," said Odegaard, 70. "But as I get older, going back to church fills a big hole."

Bee staff writer Merrill Balassone can be reached at 578-2337 or mbalassone@modbee.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHAT IT MEANS

ISSUE: Right Rev. John-David Schofield, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, is one of several conservative leaders who want to split from the national church following the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, and the installation this month of the denomination's first female presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: The Diocese of San Joaquin would be the first Episcopal diocese in the nation to split from the U.S.church.

WHAT'S NEXT: The diocese will vote at its annual convention this weekend on whether to fully break from the national denomination.

The controversial new leader of the Episcopal Church in the United States provided a prime example of these alienating attitudes in a startling interview in the New York Times Magazine on November 19th with Deborah Solomon. When Solomon asked about the current numbers of Episcopalians, for instance, Bishop Jefferts Schori took it as a point of pride that her church experienced declining membership.

Q: How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?

A: About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but Episcopalians tend to be better educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than other denominations.
In other words, it’s just those uneducated, unsophisticated Evangelicals and Catholics and Mormons and Orthodox Jews who are bothering with the messy, dirty work of producing and raising kids. Naturally, the Presiding Bishop defends the low Episcopal birthrate as a sign of enlightenment:

Q: Episcopalians aren’t interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?

A: No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth, and not use more than their portion.
In other responses, Bishop Jefferts Schori showed far more sympathy for Muslim extremists than she did for “fundamentalists” within the Christian tradition:

Q: As a scientist with a Ph.D., what do you make of the Christian fundamentalists who say the earth was created in six days and dismiss evolution as a lot of bunk?

A: I think it’s a horrendous misunderstanding of both science and active faith tradition…

Q: Pope Benedict…became embroiled in controversy this fall after suggesting that Muslims have a history of violence.

A: So do Christians! They have a terrible history… I think Muslims are poorly understood by the West, and it is easy to latch onto that which we do not understand and demonize it.

Note that when the good Bishop speaks of the shameful record of violence by Christians, she says “they have a terrible history” – not we. In other words, she instinctively excludes herself when she talks of Christian tradition.
At a time when Muslim fanatics seek to influence politics and mores around the world, conducting tireless conversionary efforts in the European and North American heartland of Christendom, it’s deeply disturbing that the leader of one of the most influential Christian denominations refuses to recognize what many thoughtful Muslims freely acknowledge—that Islamic culture, today and yesterday, has been marred by uniquely warlike and violent elements. The idea that Christians (or even Muslim reformers) who seek to identify and confront those ugly influences merely “latch onto that which we do not understand and demonize it” is to diminish the significance of the worldwide Islamic terror campaign that’s claimed literally tens of thousands of victims from Mumbai to Madrid, from Nairobi to New York.

Finally, Bishop Jefferts Schori casually dismisses the familial and marital norms that most believers embrace and defend as the very essence of Judeo-Christian faith. Instead of traditional pride in a husband and wife building a home together, making heroic efforts and even significant sacrifices to share a life, the Bishop happily announces that she and her spouse occupy opposite ends of the continent.

Q: You were previously bishop of Nevada, but your new position requires you to live in New York City. Do you and your husband like it here?

A: He is actually in Nevada. He is a retired mathematician. He will be here in New York when it makes sense.
In other words, it doesn’t “make sense” for a retired mathematician to be at his wife’s side when she takes on the leadership of one of the nation’s most significant Christian denominations? It doesn’t make sense for the first female Bishop to head this denomination to try to model marital togetherness?

The questions and answers with Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori eloquently (if inadvertently) demonstrate the bankruptcy of the Religious Left. If the movement’s attitudes toward marriage and child-bearing reflect the trendy ideas of secular environmentalists rather than timeless Biblical truth, then who needs religion? Most Americans understand that the purpose of organized faith is to bring unchanging values to bear in challenging and modifying the fads and temptations of the moment. Religion means nothing if we rather begin with fashionable contemporary ideas and use them to alter the fundamentals of faith. Moreover, what’s the point of maintaining any sort of organized Christianity if one of its most prominent leaders will instinctively condemn her own faith tradition while excusing or dismissing the violent excesses of the deadly Muslim enemies of the Christian world?

As with most leaders of the Christian Left, Bishop Jefferts Schori appears be very Left, but not very Christian. Her example shows the way that this new movement of religious liberals amounts to little more than a desperate effort to use the language of faith to repackage the tired ideas of secular, utopian leftism and moral relativism that have failed so spectacularly wherever they’ve been tried around the world

Minimal information has been provided on the deliberations which were led by archbishops Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Justice Akrofi of West Africa and Drexel Gomez of the West Indies. U.S. participants in the gathering told TLC they had been asked to refrain from commenting and that all public statements would be made by the visitors, the Global South Steering Committee. Meeting participants did say the discussions included testimony about the problems of The Episcopal Church, and discussions of structural solutions to these problems that could implemented by overseas primates.

The committee released a statement Nov. 20, stating they met with representatives from the dioceses of Central Florida, Dallas, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy, San Joaquin, South Carolina, and Springfield, as well as with “representatives of other Windsor-compliant dioceses” and of congregations separated from The Episcopal Church.

The primates said they heard presentations on the political and theological state of The Episcopal Church, and noted they were “distressed” to learn of the “legalistic and autocratic environment” facing some “faithful Anglicans.” They said they felt “morally and spiritually compelled” to assert their solidarity with those present, and would report their findings to the wider leadership of the Global South Primates coalition, pledging to do “all in our power to bring about the desired outcome of the Windsor process.”

Detailed discussion was held over proposals outlined in the Global South’s Sept. 22 communiqué from Kigali, Rwanda, in which Global South primates called for the creation of a “separate ecclesiastical structure of the Anglican Communion in the U.S.A.” Various possible structures for creating a 39th province in the Anglican Communion for traditionalist dioceses and congregations were also proposed.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote an open letter on Nov. 1 to the four primates, inviting them to “pay a call on me” to begin building a “missional relationship,” noting that The Episcopal Church and the Global South primates had a “common interest” in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In the statement issued before the meeting, Archbishop John Chew, secretary of the Global South Steering Committee, said the primates would respond to the invitation from the Presiding Bishop in “due course.” But Bishop Jefferts Schori has yet to receive a response from any of the primates, according to Canon Bob Williams, director of communications at the Episcopal Church Center.

(The Rev.) George Conger

November 20, 2006

The Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield
Diocese of San Joaquin
4159 E. Dakota Avenue
Fresno, California 93726

My dear brother:

I have seen reports of your letter to parishes in the Diocese of San Joaquin, which apparently urges delegates to your upcoming Diocesan Convention to take action to leave the Episcopal Church. I would ask you to confirm the accuracy of those reports. If true, you must be aware that such action would likely be seen as a violation of your ordination vows to "uphold the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them." I
must strongly urge you to consider the consequences of such action, not only for yourself but especially for all of the Episcopalians under your pastoral charge and care.

I certainly understand that you personally disagree with decisions by General Conventions over the past 30 and more years. You have, however, taken vows three times over that period to uphold the "doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church." If you now feel that you can no longer do so, the more honorable course would be to renounce your orders in this Church and seek a home elsewhere. Your public assertion that your duty is to violate those vows puts many, many people at hazard of profound spiritual violence. I urge you, as a pastor, to consider that hazard with the utmost gravity.

As you contemplate this action I would also remind you of the trust which you and I both hold for those who have come before and those who will come after us. None of us has received the property held by the Church today to use as we will. We have received it as stewards, for those who enjoy it today and those who will be blessed by the ministry its use will permit in the future. Our forebears did not build churches or give memorials with the intent that they be removed from the Episcopal Church. Nor did our forebears give liberally to fund endowments
with the intent that they be consumed by litigation.

The Church will endure whatever decision you make in San Joaquin. The people who are its members, however, will suffer in the midst of this conflict, and probably suffer unnecessarily. Jesus calls us to take up our crosses daily, but not in the service of division and antagonism. He calls us to take up our crosses in his service of reconciling the world to God. Would that you might lead the people of San Joaquin toward decisions that build
up the Body, that bring abundant life to those within and beyond our Church, that restore us to oneness.

I stand ready for conversation and reconciliation. May God bless your deliberation.

I remain

Your servant in Christ,

+Katharine

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate

The split could mean protracted lawsuits over church property within the diocese and general harassment by leaders of the national body, Schofield said.

"You people need to be prepared for the battle of a lifetime," Schofield said.

The bishop was scheduled to meet with leaders of the Anglican Communion this week at an undisclosed location on the East Coast to discuss the possibility of the diocese aligning with an Anglican province.

The schism is the culmination of 40 years of internal bickering between Episcopal conservatives, who view the Bible as unerring, and the progressives, who view God's word as a continuing revelation.

When in June at the Episcopal General Convention the church elected Katharine Jefferts Schori as presiding bishop, conservative bishops were outraged, citing her support of gay unions and liberal interpretations of Scripture.

At the time, the San Joaquin and several other dioceses asked the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, to place their diocese under the authority of someone other than Schori.

In recent months, Schofield realized that the theological differences between the two groups were insurmountable, he said.

Schofield said worship services would not change drastically with the impending realignment and the same priests would remain in the pulpit.

No timetable has been set for realignment.

The San Joaquin diocese oversees 50 Episcopal churches in the Central Valley, including three in Bakersfield. It's part of the U.S. arm of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members.

The Anglican Communion is made up mostly of Bible-believing conservatives, while the majority of Episcopal parishes are characterized as liberal. The Episcopal Church has lost thousands of members over the years. Once 4 million strong, the church now has 870,000 parishioners, Schofield said.

During questions and answers with the bishop, Bakersfield resident Louis Wildean objected to the split. "We need to maintain the integrity of the diocese," he said. "I think it's a big mistake."

Still, many in attendance supported the bishop.

"I think of myself as an Anglican," Cathi Chrisco of Bakersfield said after the event. "I will follow (Schofield) because he's firm in the faith and true to Scripture."

Denise Irvin, who attends St. Paul's, said: "We're going to be Anglican again, praise God."

The eight dioceses that will be monitored are Dallas, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy, Rio Grande, San Diego, San Joaquin, and Springfield.

The task force began its work in fall 2005. To date the committee has developed a bank of court filings and research memoranda to aid dioceses with litigation, and identified potential expert witnesses. It also introduced General Convention Resolution B032 stating that none of the Windsor Report-related responses established or contemplated by various dioceses “is intended to affect either the historic separate and independent status of the churches of the Anglican Communion or the legal identity of The Episcopal Church.”

The report said the task force is now developing a position paper “setting forth possible common grounds which could be sought so that the split in The Episcopal Church which is feared by the task force might be avoided.” It also is preparing filings to be used “in certain very limited situations” to institute presentments or lawsuits against any “entity which has affirmatively undertaken conduct to separate from The Episcopal Church.”

Episcopal News Service contributed to this report.

Monday night, the vestry of the Falls Churc h, an equally historic Virginia congregation in the city of Falls Church, voted 15-2, with one abstention, to leave the Episcopal Church, a denomination it has called home for more than 200 years.

Its rector, the Rev. John Yates, called the process a series of "terribly hard decisions" in a Nov. 14 letter to church members. His church sits on $17 million worth of prime real estate; Truro's property is worth about $10 million.

Tom Wilson, senior warden of the Falls Church's vestry, pointed to a parish meeting this past Sunday as a defining moment.

"The message we got from the congregation was that sadly, the theological disconnect between biblical Christianity and the road the [Episcopal] Church had chosen to walk was so profound, the time had come to separate from the denomination," he said.

Jim Oakes, senior warden of Truro's vestry, said the congregation was asked not to applaud when the vestry's vote was announced during Sunday services.

"This is not a cause for celebration," he said. "This is a time of sadness and resolve. We're asking the congregation to join with us in affirming the decision, but it's not a time of popping champagne corks."

The vestries' decisions must be ratified by a majority of each parish's members during a congregational vote the second week of December. However, the trend among conservatives in the 90,000-member Diocese of Virginia is not to stay. Last week, the vestry of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Woodbridge recommended their church also leave, and within the past year, three mission churches have split from the diocese.

Mr. Oakes said Truro's vestry informed Virginia Bishop Peter J. Lee of its decision Tuesday afternoon by phone. As for the bishop's reaction, "We had a candid conversation, we'll just leave it at that," the senior warden said.

The diocese released a short statement yesterday.

"We are very, very sad that the vestries are going to recommend to the congregations that they sever ties to the Episcopal Church," Bishop Lee said.

But when asked during a 2004 press conference how he'd respond to an exodus of some of the most valuable and historic properties in his diocese, he referred to a private letter he once wrote on the matter.

"I said that I believe that I had a responsibility to the Episcopalians of the past," he said, "who built the church, and to the Episcopalians of the future, who will use the church, not to stand by and let a current generation walk away with their property."

Representatives from both parishes and the diocese have had secret negotiations for the past year over how to conduct an amicable split. Although Mr. Yates' letter said a protocol had been agreed to by both sides, the diocese said yesterday no such agreement had been reached.

Truro and the Falls Churc h both intend to retain their property. The vestries have proposed joining the Anglican District of Virginia, a newly formed group of churches culled from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

It will be led by the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, the rector of Truro who was consecrated Aug. 20 in Abuja, Nigeria, as a bishop with the Anglican Province of Nigeria. Currently, he leads a new group set up by the Nigerian province called the Convocation for Anglicans in North America (CANA).

The Anglican District of Virginia will be part of CANA. The group's offices are across the street from Truro and its Web site, www.canaconvocation.org, already has application forms for parishes to join up.

As we have gone through our discernment period seeking to hear the will of the Lord regarding our relationship with the Episcopal Church, the vestry has met in a series of retreats considering these issues, hearing from many of you, and praying together.

Our last retreat occurred this past Saturday. We heard from John Yates, the Rector of The Falls Church, about their progress in facing these same questions. We wrestled with alternatives. And then, after another time of prayer and repentance, we voted unanimously to recommend to the Truro congregation that we sever our ties with The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican District of Virginia, an association of Virginia churches who are joining together to realign traditional Anglicans in Virginia. The district is part of CANA (the Convocation of Anglicans in North America), a branch of the Anglican Communion within the Church of Nigeria.

After an extraordinary period of prayer, conversation, study, listening, and reflection, the Truro vestry made some momentous decisions this past weekend. I’m writing to give you more information about those decisions, and to talk about the steps that now lie before us.

As we have gone through our discernment period seeking to hear the will of the Lord regarding our relationship with the Episcopal Church, the vestry has met in a series of retreats considering these issues, hearing from many of you, and praying together.

Our last retreat occurred this past Saturday. We heard from John Yates, the Rector of The Falls Church, about their progress in facing these same questions. We wrestled with alternatives. And then, after another time of prayer and repentance, we voted unanimously to recommend to the Truro congregation that we sever our ties with The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican District of Virginia, an association of Virginia churches who are joining together to realign traditional Anglicans in Virginia. The district is part of CANA (the Convocation of Anglicans in North America), a branch of the Anglican Communion within the Church of Nigeria.

We have informed the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, of the vestry's decision. As a congregation, we are following a protocol, approved by both the Diocese’s Standing Committee and Executive Board, that sets out a procedure for congregations who are considering whether to sever ties with The Episcopal Church.

It is with great sadness that this step has been taken. For us, as well as you, this has been a time of suffering, as though watching a loved one slowly perish. But it is a necessary step, and it is time to take it.

In the end, the vestry cannot make this decision alone - the congregation must do that. In order to hear the will of the congregation on this question, we have called a congregational meeting to take place beginning on December 10, at which you will be asked to approve this recommendation by the vestry. If the recommendation is approved, we will then take immediate steps to carry out this decision and to align ourselves with CANA.

This is an historic point in the life of Christ’s church. We ask that you make serious plans to vote on what may be the most important decision that most of us will ever make about our future as the Truro family. Please be assured your vote counts. I have been greatly encouraged to hear of seminarians and overseas mission partners who are planning to make special trips home to cast their vote on this question, and I truly hope that we will all take this responsibility just as seriously.

We will be providing you with a great deal of additional information about our recommendation, and are scheduling a number of rector/warden forums to give you an opportunity to discuss this issue with your leaders face-to-face. Please take advantage of these opportunities, and please continue to pray as we prepare for this important next step in our life together.

To God be the glory!

Jim Oakes
Senior Warden

The decision of the vestry, as we met last night, was to recommend to the congregation that The Falls Church disaffiliate with The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican District of Virginia, an association of Virginia churches who are joining together to realign traditional Anglicans in Virginia. The district is part of CANA (the Convocation of Anglicans in North America), a branch of the Anglican Communion within the Church of Nigeria that has The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns as its Bishop. The vote was 15 aye, 2 nay, and 1 abstention.

The Vestry and I will be providing you with as much information as we can about the Anglican District of Virginia and CANA in the next few weeks. We will have two congregational informational meetings to explain and discuss these matters, as well as to go over the resolution and ballot, which we expect to use in the congregation-wide vote on this matter. The first meeting will be next Monday Nov. 20 at 7:30 pm in the Main Sanctuary. The next will be on December 3rd, when the 9:00 am & 11:00 am services will be shortened to have a meeting after each of those services. Please plan to attend! I may also be sending out additional information via email.

The congregation will decide this matter at a meeting that begins Sunday morning Dec. 10. Please do make plans to vote; I am sure you can appreciate how important that vote - and your individual vote! - will be. This is likely the most important vote that this congregation will take in any of our lifetimes, perhaps ever. The voting times will be stretched over a week to enable those who may be traveling on Sunday to vote. The polls will be open from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm and from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Sunday, December 10th, as well as a couple of hours Tuesday evening, Wednesday afternoon, and mid-day on Saturday the 16th. The results will be announced on Sunday, December 17.

We have informed the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, of the vestry's decision. As a congregation, we are following a protocol, approved by the Diocese, that sets out a procedure for congregations considering whether to sever ties with The Episcopal Church.

At the outset of last night's meeting we prayed for the wisdom of God as described in James 4:17-"But the wisdom from above is first pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere." Those qualities characterized the tone and conversation all night long. At the end of the evening, the sentiments of this prayer were in our hearts as we gathered at the chancel rail for prayer:

"Direct us, oh Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favor, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy name, and finally, by thy mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen." (BCP, p. 832)

Please continue to keep this a matter of earnest and heartfelt prayer.

Sincerely,

John Yates, Rector of The Falls Church

In dismissing a lawsuit by the diocese against All Saints’ and another breakaway church, St. David’s in North Hollywood, Orange County Superior Court Judge David Velasquez found that the diocese had no right to the parish’s buildings and other properties in Long Beach.

The judge made a similar ruling in August concerning a third breakaway parish, St. James Church in Newport Beach.

All three announced the split in August 2004, citing differences over scriptural interpretation and the place of homosexuality in the church. The parishes aligned themselves with the conservative Ugandan Diocese of Luwero, a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes the U.S. Episcopal Church.

The Rev. William Thompson, rector of All Saints’ Church, said the congregation was pleased with the decision, thought not entirely surprised given earlier tentative rulings that favored the parishes.

“The congregation is encouraged,” he said. “Although the pending lawsuit did not take up a whole lot of our time on a day-to-day basis, it’s nice to have this round completed.”

The Diocese of Los Angeles has already appealed the St. James ruling to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, and expects to do the same in the All Saints’ and St. David’s cases, said John Shiner, attorney for the diocese.

“We have always felt that the resolution will be at the court of appeals level,” he said.

The legal wrangling began in September 2004, when the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles sued the three breakaway parishes seeking the return of church buildings and other property, including prayer books.

The diocese has maintained that church canons state that all parish property is held “in trust” by the diocese and national church.

The congregations have argued that they hold the individual deeds to the properties.

“The deeds to the local church properties are in the name of the local church corporations,” Velasquez wrote in his ruling issued Monday. “No trust is expressly stated on either of the deeds.”

The breakaway churches also made the case a matter of First Amendment rights. By filing anti-SLAPP (“strategic lawsuits against public participation”) motions — typically seen in cases involving freedom of speech — the churches claimed that the property dispute was an end run around religious freedom.

“Their purpose for filing the lawsuit was the split by All Saints’ and St. David’s from the diocese over differences in doctrinal issues,” said Lynn Moyer, attorney for All Saints’ and St. David’s. “The diocese had no basis in law for grabbing for the property, so to speak.”

The judge agreed that there was sufficient evidence that the lawsuit arose from the breakaway parish’s rejection of Episcopal Church views and public split from the church.

Shiner argued that the court misapplied the anti-SLAPP statute “in every conceivable way.”

“This is a real property issue,” he said. “It’s an issue over who owns parish property. That is the reason for the lawsuit.”

He added that there is no evidence that the diocese filed the lawsuit to interfere with religious freedom.

In addition to possible appellate action, a superior court ruling is expected Jan. 12 on an amended complaint by the national Episcopal Church against the three area breakaway parishes.

The split by the three area congregations mirrored a national fracturing of the 2.3-million member national Episcopal Church.

Some worshippers’ dissatisfaction with the national church culminated in the controversial August 2003 confirmation of openly gay Rev. V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

Thompson said the ranks of All Saints’ Church — now known as All Saints’ Anglican Church — have grown since the break, with disenfranchised Episcopalians returning to the Anglican congregation.

Moyer, who is also a 27-year congregant of All Saints’, said the ruling returned the church’s focus to its evangelical mission.

“I think a real heavy burden has been freed from us,” she said. “We are done having to struggle within the church with these issues and can continue our ministry without this distraction.”

The worldwide Anglican Communion will be watching to see how we vote. Do we recognize Holy Scripture as authoritative? Will we follow the Lord? Will we be leaders to disenfranchised Anglicans across the country? Our actions at the 47th Annual Convention will answer these questions for the entire world. As your Bishop, I ask you prayerfully to consider the information below and to prepare yourselves to vote your faith through your clergy and delegates to the Annual Convention on December 1-2, 2006.

The Spiritual Crisis in The Episcopal Church.

Much has been said and written about the controversy over the revisionist teachings of TEC. The truth is that TEC: (1) denies the unique divinity of Jesus Christ; and (2) takes a position on human sexuality which undercuts marriage and is destructive to the family unit designed by God and revealed in Scripture. These are not positions and teachings which are merely “revisionist” or “liberal.” These are positions of those who have abandoned the Christian faith.

Jesus says in the Bible that “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14.6). This is a cornerstone of the Christian faith and Anglican worship. It is what we believe in the Diocese of San Joaquin. It is our mission, and that of the Church, to bring all people into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

TEC at GC 2006 refused to pass a resolution endorsing John 14.6. By extension, TEC questions the validity and authority of Holy Scripture.

According to the leadership of TEC, Jesus simply represents one of many ways of coming to a relationship with the Father. According to the leadership of TEC, the mission of the Church is "social justice" and "world peace" and not the Great Commission as set forth in Matthew 28.

TEC's unrepentant adherence to these heresies has wrought havoc within the American Church and throughout the world-wide Communion. At least 22 of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion have declared impaired or broken communion with TEC. Vast numbers of faithful Anglicans have left and continue to leave TEC on a daily basis. Major parishes across the country have left and continue to leave in record numbers. (We are not immune in this Diocese having lost one parish already). The statistics are staggering and clearly demonstrate that TEC is disintegrating. This is not surprising given that TEC has chosen to walk apart from the Christian faith.

Does This Spiritual Crisis Really Affect Us?

You already know the answer to this question—it's “YES.” Heresy is insidious by nature and, over time, the victim becomes desensitized to its effects.

There are four recognizable stages from prolonged exposure: Initially, there is condemnation of the heresy; then it is tolerated; then it is accepted; and, finally, it is practiced. TEC is currently preaching and practicing heresy and the majority of TEC's leadership will not repent as evidenced by, among other things, TEC's refusal to comply with the Windsor Report.

Continuing in communion with TEC poses a clear and present danger to the spiritual health of the Diocese and its parishioners. TEC's continued membership in the Anglican Communion is tenuous and excommunication or isolation is a reality which, in turn, threatens the Diocese's place in the Anglican Communion. We must remember, we are Anglicans first and Episcopalians second.

What Does Scripture Tell Us To Do?

When faced with unrepentant and public false teaching, scripture is very, very clear. Christians are called to withdraw from Eucharistic fellowship.

There are many Biblical references directly on point, among them: “If anyone comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not receive him in your house or even give him a greeting. To greet him would make you a partner in his wicked work.” (1 John, 10-11; see also Matt. 8.17; 1 Cor. 5.11-13; Gal..

1.8; 2 Thess. 3.6; Rev. 2.20; 1979 Book of Common Prayer, p. 409.)

What Will The Constitutional Amendment Do?

The proposed constitutional amendment will reaffirm our commitment to the historic Anglican Faith and our membership in the Anglican Communion and our relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury without having any direct ties to The Episcopal Church. We will continue to worship in the historic Anglican tradition as we have for the past 100 years and without fear that the actions of TEC will disenfranchise us from the rest of the Communion

What Changes Will You See If The Amendment Passes?

First, you will be surprised by the changes you will not see. You will see no change in the worship services; they will follow the historic Anglican Faith as they always have. The prayer book and hymnals will remain the same.

You will worship and attend services in the same buildings. Your clergy will remain the same. Best of all, Holy Scripture will continue to be our ultimate authority. What will change? The flag; the word “Episcopal” will most likely be replaced with the word “Anglican;” Our delegates and clergy will not attend the TEC General Convention. On the other hand, the Diocese could experience rapid growth if the amendment passes. For example, there are many large parishes in southern California which have seceded from TEC and have expressed interest in affiliating with an Anglican diocese headed by an American bishop. Initial discussions with a number of priests and parishes indicate a desire to find a way to become part of an orthodox diocese in Communion with the rest of the Anglican world and with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Is Our Place In The Anglican Communion Assured?

Yes. First, we have a commitment from the Southern Cone (Archbishop Greg Venebles) that the bishops of his dioceses are open to our joining their Province. Second, the Global South, representing 80 percent of the Anglican Communion, issued a public statement known as “The Kigali Communiqué” in which it pledged to “take initial steps toward the formation of what will be recognized as a separate ecclesiastical structure of the Anglican Communion in the USA.” Diocesan representatives have been invited to meet with Primates of the Global South November 15-17, 2006, to begin work on this plan. The Diocese could be the vanguard of a new 39th Anglican Province in North America. At present, there are seven or more dioceses lined up behind us waiting to follow our leadership example.

Are There Risks?

Yes, of course. TEC is highly litigious and will likely file lawsuits in the California state courts seeking to take our property away. Our lawyers tell us we can successfully defend ourselves but there are risks inherent in any litigation. There will be significant costs of defending such lawsuits.

However, property considerations are, and should be, secondary to our spiritual salvation and well being. Ours is a spiritual decision which should not be driven by property issues. We can seek guidance from the parable of the rich young man in Matthew 19.16-22. Is there risk to our clergy? There has been considerable risk to me which is one reason why the release of this information comes just a few weeks before our Annual Convention. If you have been following the news, you know that standing strong for the Lord subjects one to reprisals and persecution from the leadership of TEC. I have been repeatedly threatened for my opposition to the heresy of the American Chu rch. Formal charges were levied against me this summer by four California bishops. Immediately after a clergy wide meeting this October about the proposed constitutional amendment, the chancellor to the Presiding Bishop, David Beers, phoned and threatened to take action against me and Diocese. Clergy concerns over pensions they have been accruing are real. Yet, those with pensions of five years or more have vested (or protected) insurance against losing anything that is already due to them. Those who have been with the Pension Plan of the Church fewer than five years may be surprised to learn that other financial institutions are prepared to offer similar plans with a vesting taking place from the first day of participation. Clergy already assured of pensions that could be capped at the present level would also be able to add to their pensions in a new plan.

Equally, medical insurance as well as dental plans will be made available to clergy and lay employees.

It is all of you who will be voting your faith on December 1 and 2.

+John-David

The Rev. Larry Benfield elected in Arkansas

A policy allowing individual parishes to offer same-sex blessings, recently enunciated by Arkansas Episcopal Bishop Larry Maze, looks set to be overturned by the cleric elected to succeed him today, according to a source in the diocese.
Chosen as the 13th Bishop of Arkansas from a field of five candidates was the Rev. Larry R. Benfield, 51, rector of Christ Church, Little Rock. Reportedly, he plans to ask clergy in the diocese to refrain from performing same-sex blessings at this time. Benfield says he wants to talk about marriage and not sex.
The bishop-elect himself is unmarried and has confirmed that he is celibate, according to the diocesan source.
Interestingly, clergy gave Benfield a majority of their votes before the laity did. Benfield was elected on the seventh ballot, with 57 lay votes and 57 clergy votes, with 44 of 87 and 55 of 108, respectively, needed to win. The election took place at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock.
Maze, 63, will retire at the end of the year. Assuming sufficient consents from the wider Episcopal Church are forthcoming, Benfield is scheduled to be consecrated January 6. Auburn Traycik, The Christian Challenge (Washington, DC)

The Rev. Thomas E. Breidenthal was elected November 11 as the 9th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. Breidenthal, 55, dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel at Princeton University in New Jersey, was elected out of a field of seven nominees on the third ballot. Breidenthal was elected with 151 lay votes and 86 clergy votes. An election on that ballot required 137 votes out of a total of 272 cast in the lay order and 77 of 152 in the clergy order.
Breidenthal will succeed Bishop Herbert Thompson Jr., 72, who retired at the end of 2005, and died unexpectedly August 16 while traveling in Italy. Bishop Suffragan Kenneth Price Jr., 63, also a nominee, has been serving as bishop in Southern Ohio. The last diocesan bishop election in Southern Ohio was in 1988.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1982, Breidenthal will bring a strong intellectual and academic background to the diocese. Prior to his position as dean at Princeton, he served for nearly a decade as the John Henry Hobart Professor of Christian Ethics and Moral Theology at General Theological Seminary in New York City. He was a senior chaplain at Harvard School in California and an Episcopal Church Foundation Fellow in Oxford, England. He also has served in two parishes, both in Oregon.
A noted author, Breidenthal has written about the issues of same-gender unions, what constitutes a Christian household and how to raise ethical children. His books include Sacred Unions: A New Guide to Life-Long Commitment, published in 2006, and Christian Households: The Sanctification of Nearness, published in 1997.
A member of ARCUSA (Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the USA), Breidenthal has served on the General Board of Examining Chaplains of the Episcopal Church from 1997-2001 and as director for the Center for Jewish-Christian Studies and Relations at General Theological Seminary from 1994-1997. He also was a member of the planning and facilitation team for the 1996 Conference on Third World Debt Relief sponsored by the Office of the U.N. Anglican Observer.
He is married to Margaret Ann Garner Breidenthal, and they have two daughters, Magdalene, 20, and Lucy, 17.
The Diocese of Southern Ohio represents more than 25,000 people in 40 counties. The Diocese of Southern Ohio hosted the Episcopal Church's 75th General Convention, which met June 13-21 in Columbus. The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg, Episcopal News Service

The church was an Episcopal congregation until a majority of members voted in July to break away from the denomination but keep the property and be overseen by an Anglican bishop in Africa.

The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego and St. John's members who didn't want to break away are suing to get possession of the building. They argue that the former officers lost their authority when they voted to leave the denomination.

But Judge Jacqueline Stern disagreed. “It is clear that plaintiffs have not met their burden of proof on this motion,” she wrote. However, she told both sides at yesterday's hearing that she wanted more time before issuing her final decision.

Two other churches that have left the diocese also are staying in their buildings, but Charles Dick, an attorney representing the diocese, said a decision has not yet been made on whether to pursue legal action against them.
Members of both congregations filled the gallery for the brief hearing. The remaining members of St. John's Episcopal have been meeting in Vista, but plan to look for new quarters in Fallbrook if they don't win the case.
On the other side, the Rev. Donald Kroeger, the former Episcopal rector who is now leading the renamed Anglican congregation, said he hopes the judge doesn't relent.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Michael Nee has become the seventh priest to break away from the diocese and align with a conservative jurisdiction elsewhere in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

Nee made the announcement during Sunday services at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Carlsbad. He will begin officiating at services this coming Sunday at the newly established Good Shepherd Anglican Church, which will meet at Congregation Shir Ami, a synagogue in Encinitas, under the oversight of a bishop in Bolivia.
Nee said he was approached by Holy Cross members who wanted to start a new church within the Anglican structure. “They felt the Episcopal Church had been separating itself from (the Anglican Communion),” Nee said.
Since 2003, dozens of congregations and priests across the country have realigned themselves with more conservative Anglican bishops in other countries.

“A lot of Episcopalians are being lost in the Episcopal Church,” Nee said. “They are fleeing for one reason or another and I think it's God's call to go out and to minister to them.”

Nee, 55, was ordained in 2000. He said he is taking a risk by going to this new congregation. “I have no compensation package. No health care plan. I have no idea what they'll pay me for anything,” he said. However, he added, “It's a matter of principle.”

Nee would not speculate on how many of the 80 or so people who attend Holy Cross will follow him to Good Shepherd Anglican. “We're not relocating Holy Cross,” he added. “We're planting a new church.”
Diocese spokesman Howard Smith said another priest will be at Holy Cross to conduct services on Sunday.
Smith said he would not characterize this latest departure, coupled with the judge's tentative ruling, as setbacks for the diocese.

“I think it is a part of our ongoing work to preserve the church,” Smith said. “However, these ongoing distractions are keeping us from doing the work of the church, which is feeding the poor, taking care of the sick and spreading the gospel of Jesus.”

Sandi Dolbee: (619) 293-2082; sandi.dolbee@uniontrib.com

To his consternation, Mr. Beers feels a badly behaved and vocal minority has left some Episcopalians with the mistaken idea that their church is under siege. He made an exception to his long-standing policy against being quoted by journalists in order to lead a public workshop titled “Legal Issues Confronting Parishes and Dioceses” at an event sponsored by the organization Episcopal Majority. The Nov. 3-4 gathering was held at St. Columba's, Washington, D.C. and attracted about 200 attendees.

“You hear a lot about our being swamped by litigation,” Mr. Beers said. “It has been [former Presiding] Bishop [Frank] Griswold’s belief that this is not an epidemic. We’ll have some troubles. I think he’s been proven right.”

Mr. Beers went on to list and discuss briefly 10 cases that have been filed over property since 2000. The Episcopal Church has prevailed in all situations that have already been decided except for one in Los Angeles, although some pre-trial decisions have been unfavorable in San Diego, South Carolina and Central New York. Mr. Beers said he expects the Los Angeles decision to be overturned on appeal and a favorable final verdict in the other cases.

“That’s it,” he concluded. “It’s not an epidemic and it’s not a wave of victories for what I would call the ‘arch conservatives’.”

The cases he discussed have all involved a congregation seeking to leave The Episcopal Church with its property. A number of conference participants asked Mr. Beers what would happen if a diocese voted to cut its ties with the constitution and canons of the General Convention. Last week The Living Church reported that Mr. Beers had written to the chancellors of two Network dioceses – Fort Worth and Quincy – on Oct. 19 inquiring whether the dioceses they provide legal counsel to had qualified the supremacy of General Convention bylaws over their diocesan ones. The letters also threatened possible “action” by the Presiding Bishop if the diocese failed to make satisfactory changes.

Mr. Beers said he had written a similar letter to the chancellor of the Diocese of San Joaquin last summer and expressed annoyance that details concerning “private correspondence” had been published. He did not share a draft with either Bishop Griswold or Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who assumed office Nov. 1, prior to sending the letters, but they “didn’t come as a surprise to either one of them.” The letters, he said, were not meant to be taken as threats, merely a reminder that according to Episcopal Church polity, the diocese “is a creature of General Convention” and cannot change its status with respect to The Episcopal Church without General Convention approval.

Under the canons, Mr. Beers said the Presiding Bishop can declare a diocese “vacant” of leadership. A decision as to when legal action against a diocese would become necessary is nominally up to the Presiding Bishop, although presumably she could be overruled by General Convention, a precedent Mr. Beers cautioned against.

“What I urge you to think about is what ‘cross the line’ means,” he said. “What they say is that we’ll accede to the constitution and canons, but only in those things we think are consistent with the gospel, but they haven’t really acted. Are they going to pull out of the pension fund? I’ve got to have something to explain to a judge who already thinks we’re crazy.”

While concerned about legislative events in many Network dioceses, particularly San Joaquin, Mr. Beers does not anticipate that any diocese would actually attempt to leave.

“These conditional things don’t particularly trouble me, although the language used in San Joaquin is very blunt,” he said. “Where are they going to go? They seem to be positioning themselves for what? They seem to be preparing themselves for the day when the Archbishop of Canterbury recognizes them as a separate province, but I don’t see evidence of that happening and I don’t see [Bishop Jefferts Schori] suing bishops and diocesan leaders without a lot more evidence that they’re doing something to take property away from the national church or violating their ordination vows.”

Mr. Beers said there might be some symbolic gestures by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to distance The Episcopal Church from the rest of the Anglican Communion. But he does not expect any formal break in part because too much of the Communion’s funding comes from the United States, both directly from The Episcopal Church and also through the Compass Rose Society.

Even if formal action to recognize the Network dioceses as the legitimate Anglican Communion partner in the United States did come, Mr. Beers said it was unlikely that would change the outcome of a property dispute in U.S. court. Despite language in the preamble to the General Convention constitution which defines it as a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, the highest legislative body to which The Episcopal Church owes allegiance is General Convention. Communion ties are merely historical and symbolic, he said.

Steve Waring

Saints - the holy ones, the elect, the baptized, the heroes of our faith - they are understood in a variety of ways. Basil the Great said about them in the fourth century: "The Spirit is the dwelling place of the saints, and the Saints are a place for the Spirit to dwell, as in a home, since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called God's temple."

We might say that saints are those who find a home "on the way," in the course of following Jesus. And sometimes the encounter is very much like being seized by the throat. It must have seemed that way to Lazarus, and probably to the people standing around as he emerged from the tomb: "unbind him, and let him go!" Jesus' own experience was no less shocking, even though the words in translation seem a bit tame: Jesus was deeply moved. He was greatly disturbed. He began to weep. In the Greek it says something more like he was "gut-wrenched." Jesus was in breath-stopping agony at the death of his friend and the grief of his sisters.

Saints are those who are vulnerable to the gut-wrenching pain of this world. Some of us have to be seized by the throat or thrown into the tomb before we can begin to find that depth of compassion. And perhaps unless we are, we won't leave our comfortable narrow lives - or our remarkably nasty ones - to wake up and begin to answer that pain.

In the early church, baptism was meant to be that kind of life-altering encounter. New saints spent three years in the readying, and then were taken in the dead of night into the crypt, stripped naked, and drowned - only to emerge filled with new breath, doused with sweet-smelling oil, and given a new white robe. What you and I do on Sunday mornings today sometimes seems a pale imitation, yet it can have every bit the same effect. Two weeks ago I met a 40-something man I baptized and confirmed two years ago whose life has taken a remarkable turn - from ordinary daily dullness toward meaning and deep compassion and an awareness of God in every part of his life, and the willingness to change his community into something that looks a good deal more like the dream of God.

When we remember our baptisms in the sprinkling in a few minutes most of us will probably cringe. We don't like to get wet. But I hope and pray that you and I can welcome those surprising drops as a tiny reminder of what is meant to happen to us, over and over again, day after day after day. Die to the old, be unbound, come out into abundant life in service to the world. Wake up, and notice the suffering around us.

It is the willingness to experience that pain which more than anything else marks us as saints. The pain of the whole world - those who agree with us and those who might be called enemies. The pain of creation, abused for our pleasure. The pain of a six-year old child in Ghana, sold into slavery, to bail a fishing canoe and repair nets for 100 hours a week so that his parents might eat.

When Wisdom insists that souls of the righteous are at peace, it can only be in a world where those divisions and evils are ended. It is a dream of shalom, when all peoples and all creatures have come home at last. But it is also a dream that can be at least partially realized in our own day. Whenever two children make peace on the playground, the saints can rejoice. Whenever two or three fish-slaves are set free, shalom abounds. The hope of the saints is without bounds, for it insists that shalom is possible in this life, and not only at the end of all things.
There is a fascinating line in the midst of that Wisdom reading that says, "in the time of their visitation they will shine forth and run like sparks through the stubble."

In the time of their visitation - is this the visit of God among the righteous? Or is it an occasion when the saints show up? The word that's translated as visitation might also be translated oversight, or realm of service. In Greek, it is episkopeis. When the saints turn up, or when the Spirit makes a home in the saints, then the saints begin to burn and set the world alight. Their oversight, their ministry, their ability to see and influence and pastor the world, is set afire. All the saints are meant to run like sparks through the stubble, through that dead and no longer fruitful stuff, the dross of this world. You and I are supposed to get lit and set that flame to burning by our willingness to be vulnerable to the suffering around us.

In western Oregon for decades the usual way to clean up the fields after a crop of grass seed was harvested was to set the stubble afire. Clouds of noxious smoke filled the skies, and often drifted for dozens of miles. Air quality issues have led to other ways of controlling the smoke output, but burning is still the very best way to sanitize the fields and get rid of the stubble. What do you think? Can we make holy smoke?

The episkopeis of the saints, their ministry, cleans the fields of that which cannot survive in God's dream of shalom, it burns away whatever limits that dream or cannot contribute to it. The ministry of governance, whether in the legislature, the polling booth, or in raising a child, is meant to prepare the ground for a new and abundant crop of life. Most of us here this morning will have an opportunity to exercise that kind of ministry on Tuesday. Will you consider your vote as an act of "running through the stubble?" Would that we might all be able to answer, "I will, with God's help."

Let the pain of this world seize us by the throat. Listen for Jesus calling us all out of our tombs of despair and apathy. May the shock of baptismal dying once more set us afire. This place we call home is meant to be a new heaven, a new earth, a holy city, a new Jerusalem. It is the sparks in the stubble that will make it so.
Turn inward for a moment and greet the spirit planted within you. When we come to the peace, turn to your neighbors and greet the saints, the fire-lighters in this field. Welcome, saint! Burn brightly and transform this world into God's field for life, full measure, pressed down and overflowing, meant for all humanity and all creation. Burn!

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
Episcopal News Service 11-15-06

So where is home for you? Des Moines or Anchorage or Taipei or San Salvador or Port au Prince?

What makes it home? Familiar landscape, a quality of life, or the presence of particular people?

Some people who engage this journey we call Christianity discover that home is found on the road, whether literally the restless travel that occupies some of us, or the hodos that is the Way of following the one we call the Christ. The home we ultimately seek is found in relationship with creator, with redeemer, with spirit. When Augustine says "our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee, O Lord" he means that our natural home is in God.
The great journey stories of the Hebrew Bible begin with leaving our home in Eden, they tell of wandering for a very long time in search of a new home in the land of promise, and they tell later of returning home from exile. And eventually Israel begins to realize that they are meant to build a home that will draw all the nations to Mount Zion. Isaiah's great vision of a thanksgiving feast on a mountain, to which the whole world is invited, is part of that initial discovery of a universal home-building mission, meant for all. Jesus' inauguration and incarnation of the heavenly banquet is about a home that does not depend on place, but on community gathered in the conscious presence of God.

In Death of the Hired Man, Robert Frost said that "home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in." We all ache for a community that will take us in, with all our warts and quirks and petty meannesses – and yet they still celebrate when they see us coming! That vision of homegoing and homecoming that underlies our deepest spiritual yearnings is also the job assignment each one of us gets in baptism – go home, and while you're at it, help to build a home for everyone else on earth. For none of us can truly find our rest in God until all of our brothers and sisters have also been welcomed home like the prodigal.

There's a wonderful Hebrew word for that vision and work – shalom. It doesn't just mean the sort of peace that comes when we're no longer at war. It's that rich and multihued vision of a world where no one goes hungry because everyone is invited to a seat at the groaning board, it's a vision of a world where no one is sick or in prison because all sorts of disease have been healed, it's a vision of a world where every human being has the capacity to use every good gift that God has given, it is a vision of a world where no one enjoys abundance at the expense of another, it's a vision of a world where all enjoy Sabbath rest in the conscious presence of God. Shalom means that all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another and with God, and in right relationship with all of the rest of creation. It is that vision of the lion lying down with the lamb and the small child playing over the den of the adder, where the specter of death no longer holds sway. It is that vision to which Jesus points when he says, "today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." To say "shalom" is to know our own place and to invite and affirm the place of all of the rest of creation, once more at home in God.

You and I have been invited into that ministry of global peace-making that makes a place and affirms a welcome for all of God's creatures. But more than welcome, that ministry invites all to feast until they are filled with God's abundance. God has spoken that dream in our hearts – through the prophets, through the patriarchs and the mystics, in human flesh in Jesus, and in each one of us at baptism. All are welcome, all are fed, all are satisfied, all are healed of the wounds and lessenings that are part of the not-yet-ness of creation.

That homecoming of shalom is both destination and journey. We cannot embark on the journey without some vision of where we are going, even though we may not reach it this side of the grave. We are really charged with seeing everyplace and all places as home, and living in a way that makes that true for every other creature on the planet. None of us can be fully at home, at rest, enjoying shalom, unless all the world is as well. Shalom is the fruit of living that dream. We live in a day where there is a concrete possibility of making that dream reality for the most destitute, forgotten, and ignored of our fellow travelers – for the castaways, for those in peril or just barely afloat on life's restless sea.

This church has said that our larger vision will be framed and shaped in the coming years by the vision of shalom embedded in the Millennium Development Goals – a world where the hungry are fed, the ill are healed, the young educated, women and men treated equally, and where all have access to clean water and adequate sanitation, basic health care, and the promise of development that does not endanger the rest of creation. That vision of abundant life is achievable in our own day, but only with the passionate commitment of each and every one of us. It is God's vision of homecoming for all humanity. [Applause]

The ability of any of us to enjoy shalom depends on the health of our neighbors. If some do not have the opportunity for health or wholeness, then none of us can enjoy true and perfect holiness. The writer of Ephesians implores us to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace – to be at one in God's shalom. That is our baptismal task and hope, and unless each of the members of the body enjoys shalom we shall not live as one. That dream of God, that word of God spoken in each one of us at baptism also speaks hope of its realization.

The health of our neighbors, in its broadest understanding, is the mission that God has given us. We cannot love God if we fail to love our neighbors into a more whole and holy state of life. If some in this church feel wounded by recent decisions, then our salvation, our health as a body is at some hazard, and it becomes the duty of all of us to seek healing and wholeness. As long as children live exposed on the streets, while seniors go without food to pay for life-sustaining drugs, wherever peoples are sickened by industrial waste, the body suffers, and none of us can say we have finally come home.

What keeps us from the tireless search for that vision of shalom? There are probably only two answers, and they are connected – apathy and fear. One is the unwillingness to acknowledge the pain of other people, the other is an unwillingness to acknowledge that pain with enough courage to act. The cure for each is a deep and abiding hope. If God in Jesus has made captivity captive, has taken fear hostage, it is for the liberation and flourishing of hope. Augustine said that as Christians, we are prisoners of hope – a ridiculously assertive hope, a hope that unflinchingly assails the doors of heaven, a hope that will not cease until that dream of God has swallowed up death forever, a hope that has the audacity to join Jesus in saying, "today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

And how shall that scripture be fulfilled in our hearing? In the will to make peace with one who disdains our theological position – for his has merit, too, as the fruit of faithfulness. In the courage to challenge our legislators to make poverty history, to fund AIDS work in Africa, and the distribution of anti-malarial mosquito nets, and primary schools where all children are welcomed. In the will to look within our own hearts and confront the shadows that darken the dream that God has planted there.

That scripture is fulfilled each time we reach beyond our narrow self-interest to call another home.
That scripture is fulfilled in ways both small and large, in acts of individuals and of nations, whenever we seek the good of the other, ifor our own good and final homecoming is wrapped up in that.

God has spoken that dream in us, let us rejoice! Let us join the raucous throngs in creation, the sea creatures and the geological features who leap for joy at the vision of all creation restored, restored to proper relationship, to all creation come home at last. May that scripture be fulfilled in our hearing and in our doing.

Shalom, chaverim, shalom, my friends, shalom.
[Congregation responded: Shalom]
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church