http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/429921.html
BY LOUIS MEDINA, Californian staff writer
email: lmedina@bakersfield.com | Monday, Apr 28 2008 5:01 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Apr 28 2008 5:01 PM
The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin’s deposed bishop, the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, said Friday he is not surprised he is being sued by his former church for allegedly unrelinquished property and funds.
On Monday a spokesman for the lawsuit’s plaintiff called the attitude of Schofield and others who chose to follow him slightly insane.
“We have been expecting this litigation and the contents contain no surprises,” Schofield wrote in a statement meant to assuage the concerns of clergy and parishioners loyal to him.
The statement was released after the local Episcopal diocese filed suit against Schofield in Fresno County Superior Court, asking the court to remove Schofield from diocesan property, return land and funds to the diocese, and declare provisional bishop the Rt. Rev. Jerry A. Lamb head of the diocese with control of assets.
In December, Schofield led a majority of valley churches in an unprecedented secession from the Episcopal Church over doctrinal differences. He is now conducting church business as bishop of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, having placed himself under the authority of the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, whose bishop has welcomed him wholeheartedly.
But he and seceding parishes have continued to occupy physical properties to which the Episcopal Church still lays claim.
“They can’t start their own church with property and money that was given to the Episcopal Church,” said Stockton-based Rev. Mark H. Hall, canon to the provisional bishop.
“The Episcopal church of the United States is the American version of the Anglican church,” he said. “When Schofield was deposed (in March) under the Episcopal Church, he no longer has any standing in the Anglican Communion.
“San Joaquin is not part of the Southern Cone; San Joaquin is part of the Episcopal Church of the United States,” Hall said.
The Anglican Communion’s official Web site, anglicancommunion.org, recognizes Lamb, not Schofield, as the provisional bishop of the local diocese, and does not list the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin as part of the Province of the Southern Cone.
“Anybody in the United States can have their own church,” Hall said, “that’s freedom of religion and that’s perfectly reasonable. But if you’re going to be a part of an official church you have to follow the rules of the official church.” Schofield, however, does not appear fazed.
“Please know that our legal team has been at work for some time,” Schofield said in his statement to his followers, adding that such legal preparation “is already proving most helpful in defense of property and assets.”
“Furthermore,” he wrote, “I want to remind you that in spite of the claims by The Episcopal Church, nothing in their current Constitution and Canons prohibits a diocese from leaving one province and moving to another.”
Hall, however, said the seceding clergy and congregations may not have realized what they were getting themselves into when they chose to disregard church law and split from the Episcopal church, and called their actions “a slight form of insanity.”
Attempts to reach Schofield and other Anglican diocesan representatives for further comment Monday were unsuccessful.
