Episcopal Leaders Investigate Conflict After Diocesan Split

A conservative Episcopalian who has been asked to help reconcile the Diocese of San Joaquin says the conflict that has split the diocese is more complex than a conservative versus liberal one.

"It is a conflict about those who want to stay in The Episcopal Church and those who feel they can no longer do that," said the Rev. Canon Brian Cox to VirtueOnline, an online news site that describes itself as the voice for global orthodox Anglicanism.

"There has been a long history of an autocratic governing style that has pitted people against each other and left a legacy of broken relationships throughout the diocese. The estrangement between theological conservatives and the Remain Episcopal Movement is a potent example of the fruits of such an environment."

Cox was asked by the Episcopal head, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, to step in as a "pastoral presence" in the Diocese of San Joaquin and to offer his reconciling services to the diocese, according to VirtueOnline.

The Diocese overwhelmingly voted in December to sever ties with The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of the global Anglican Communion – and realign with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. It was the first time a full diocese in the church's history voted to separate.

The break came after years of conflict over what the diocese and other conservatives have contended is The Episcopal Church's departure from Scripture and traditional Anglicanism. The Episcopal Church had heightened controversy when it consecrated openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

In January, San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield was inhibited, banned from practicing all ministerial duties in The Episcopal Church. And on March 1, Schofield sent a letter of resignation as a member of the Episcopal House of Bishops. He says he is now a bishop in the House of Bishops of the Southern Cone and still the bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin.

In the letter addressed to Schori and the Episcopal House of Bishops, Schofield said his diocese was left with no choice but to separate from the U.S. body – a move he called "the Biblical answer to unrepentant and public false teaching and immorality."

"This drastic action was necessary because The Episcopal Church failed to heed years of warnings from all quarters of Christendom to turn back from false teaching and to accept Holy Scripture as the supreme authority for life," Schofield wrote.

Cox is investigating the conflict in the diocese to determine all the complex factors, according to VirtueOnline.

"We have spent a lot of time in the diocese listening to people there. Our hope is to contribute to a dynamic of healing and reconciliation among people: those who have decided to stay, those who are in the discernment process, and perhaps even those who have chosen to leave," he said.

And reconciliation isn't about changing people's theological convictions.

"Reconciliation is about changed hearts and relationships," said Cox.

Those who chose to remain in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin are scheduled elect a provisional bishop and new diocesan leaders on March 29.

According to Cox, one third of the diocese has committed to remain and another third is still in the discernment process.

But Canon to the Ordinary Bill Gandenberger disputed those numbers.

"It would be a real sleight of hand for a Convention to have such a huge vote in favor of such a realignment (173-22) and then to hear that Canon Cox believes that 'At the end of the day, probably no more than a third of the congregations will follow Bishop Schofield to the Southern Cone,'" Gandenberger told VirtueOnline.

Gandenberger says Schofield and the breakaway diocese is focusing on the future now, "moving on to mission for the growth of the kingdom."