New York — For the first time since the American Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, an entire diocese of the U.S. Episcopal (Anglican) Church has voted to leave the denomination.
The December 8 vote by the central California diocese of San Joaquin follows disagreement with the national church hierarchy, which in 2003 approved the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, a divorced man who lives in a same-sex relationship, as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.
“This is a historic moment … a vote for freedom,” John-David Schofield, the diocesan bishop, told the gathering of about 88 clergy and 113 lay delegates meeting at St. James Cathedral in Fresno, the Episcopal News Service reported.
But the presiding bishop of the 2.4-million-member national church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, said in a statement, the denomination had received the news of the diocesan vote “with sadness.” She added, “We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness.”
The San Joaquin diocese has 47 parishes and more than 8,000 members. It is one of only three of the U.S. church’s 110 dioceses not to ordain female priests.
The 70-12 vote by clergy and 103-10 by lay leaders had been expected, as the diocese had taken an initial vote to leave the U.S. church in December 2006.
The diocese plans to align with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of South America, whose bishop, Greg Venables, has been a strong critic of the U.S. church’s decision to approve the consecration of Robinson.
Dioceses in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Fort Worth, Texas, have taken preliminary votes to leave the Episcopal Church, but their decisions have not been finalized.
At a news conference the day before the San Joaquin vote, Bishop Schofield said he expected a protracted legal battle over property and other issues, but he foresaw few changes in the day-to-day operation of local parishes within the diocese. “Those who want to remain Episcopalians but reject the biblical standards of morality, the ultimate authority of the Bible, and the biblical revelation of God to us in his son the only savior of mankind, will in the end be left solely with a name and a bureaucratic structure,” Schofield stated.
Among those opposing the move within the diocese was Nancy Key, a co-founder of a group calling itself “Remain Episcopal.” “It feels like spiritual violence,” said Key, from a local parish that has opted to remain with the Episcopal Church. “All we want to do is be in the Episcopal Church that actively ordains women and is inclusive,” she said, quoted by Episcopal News Service.
