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The New York Times
U.S.
Episcopal Church Bans
Bishop for 2 Mos.
By AP from
nytimes.com on the Web, January 12, 2008
FRESNO, Calif. Jan 11. -- The
Episcopal Church banned a California bishop Friday from practicing his religious
duties until March after he led his congregants to secede from the national
church.
Bishop John-David Schofield drew sharp criticism from the U.S.-based
denomination when he urged his conservative diocese to sever its ties to the
church last month in a fight over the Bible and homosexuality.
Clergy and lay members of the Diocese of San Joaquin became the first full
diocese to break from the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican
family when they voted to secede Dec. 6.
Schofield cannot give sermons, do confirmations or perform any religious rites
until the national denomination's leaders meet to determine a final judgment by
March 13, said the Rev. Canon Charles Robertson, canon to Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori.
''He was aware of the consequences of his action, warned repeatedly, and there
comes a time when it is important for the church to hold its own leadership
accountable,'' Robertson said.
''This allows him time to recant and to steer off this course,'' he said.
The bishop gave no signs of changing direction in a statement issued late Friday
by the diocese.
''It is the primary duty of bishops to guard the faith and Bishop Schofield has
been continually discriminated against for having done so,'' the statement read.
''How is it that over 60 million Anglicans worldwide can be wrong and a few
hundred thousand in the American Church can claim to be right?''
Despite the secession vote, the national church considers the diocese and its
property to be still a part of the U.S. denomination, a claim Fresno leaders
reject.
''The holdings of the diocese are still holdings of the diocese unless the court
rules something differently,'' said the Rev. Van McCalister, a diocesan
spokesman, in an interview Thursday. ''There isn't any law to deal with
this because nobody foresaw that such a thing would happen.''
''There isn't any law to deal with this because nobody foresaw that such a thing
would happen,'' he said.
Their decision to affiliate with the like-minded Anglican Province of the
Southern Cone, based in Buenos Aires, will likely kick off a legal brawl over
the diocese's multimillion dollar estate.
The Fresno-based congregation had explored breaking ties with the American
church since 2003, the year Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay
bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Schofield and other conservatives believe Scripture bars same-sex relationships,
and the Fresno bishop counseled his flock that they risked moral decay by
staying within the church.
The diocese serves about 8,500 parishioners in 47 congregations in central
California
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