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The New York Times
Historic Split For
U.S. Episcopals
By REUTERS from
nytimes.com on the Web, December 8, 2007
FRESNO, California -- An
entire California diocese of the U.S. Episcopal Church voted to secede on
Saturday in a historic split following years of disagreement over the church's
expanding support for gay and women's rights.
Clergy and lay representatives of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, based in
Fresno in central California, voted to leave the church, which has been in
significant upheaval since 2003 when U.S. Episcopals consecrated their first
openly gay bishop.
The vote on the key secession amendment was 173 delegates in favor, with 22
against, far more than the two-thirds majority needed. After later voting
to align itself with the conservative Anglican Church of the Southern Cone,
based in South America, delegates rose and applauded enthusiastically.
Amid the dissent of recent years, the Episcopal Church said 32 of its 7,600
congregations had left, with another 23 voting to leave but not taking the final
step. San Joaquin is the first of the church's 110 dioceses to complete
the split.
Last year, the 8,800-member Diocese of San Joaquin -- with 47 churches in 14
counties -- overwhelmingly voted at their annual convention to split with the
U.S. church, but held off on a final decision until Saturday's meeting.
"This is the first time, I believe, that a diocese has finally said 'enough' in
terms of the liberal theology of the Episcopal Church," Bishop John-David
Schofield of the Diocese of San Joaquin said on the eve of the vote.
Divisions and schisms have plagued Christianity since its earliest days, but the
airing of differences through the media and Internet on hot-button societal
issues such as gay rights and the role of women have given prominence to
disputes once debated behind closed church doors.
In recent years the Episcopal Church has faced dissent over the consecration of
Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire and the blessing of gay unions practiced
in some congregations.
There is also disagreement over the role of women. San Joaquin is one of
only three U.S. dioceses that do not consecrate women priests. The U.S.
Episcopal Church is led by a woman, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
CHURCH OF THE ELITE
With 2.4 million members, the more than 400-year-old Episcopal Church represents
less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, yet its members have long had a
disproportionate influence on American political and societal life.
Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas
Jefferson went to Episcopal churches, and in the 20th century, Franklin
Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, the father of the current U.S. president, and
Gerald Ford were Episcopalians.
Dioceses in Pittsburgh and Fort Worth, Texas, have also taken preliminary votes
to leave, but their final decisions are a year away.
"They are going to be watching this quite closely to see what the Episcopal
Church does," said Rev. Ian Douglas, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity
School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "I don't see this as suddenly becoming
a landslide."
Saturday's key vote consisted of clergy standing on opposite sides of a
gymnasium on church grounds and then lay delegates walking to either side to be
counted. The delegates were overwhelmingly white and elderly.
A few liberal parishes within the diocese are expected to stay with the church
amid sometimes bitter dissent.
"It's a giant step toward the past," said Rev. Charles Ramsden, a vice president
of the church-owned Church Pension Group who was a non-voting observer.
"It's about property, it's about millions of dollars and it's about power."
Both sides expect a protracted and expensive legal battle over church assets and
other issues. "Some may be joyful but others in great pain," Schofield
said after the vote.
Episcopal dioceses in the American South seceded during the Civil War but
returned afterward.
(Editing by Eric Beech)
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