Episcopal Diocese Secedes From Church

[pepperbear]

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/episcopal-diocese-secedes-from-church/20071208173309990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

FRESNO, Calif. (Dec. 8) - The Diocese of San Joaquin voted on Saturday to cut ties with the Episcopal Church, the first time in the church's history a diocese has done so over theological issues and the biggest leap so far by dissident Episcopalians hoping to form a rival national church in the United States.

Fissures have moved through the Episcopal Church, the American arm of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members, and through the Communion itself since the church ordained V. Gene Robinson, a gay man in a long-term relationship, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.



Another relatively unattractive man in a hideous shirt decides to take his toys and go home.

[yardwork]

1. Laugh out loud! You said it.....so well.

[XemaSab]

2. This is in Fresno, FWIW.

This diocese also refuses to ordain women.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3095101&mesg_id=3095101

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. O joy. So like my surrounding neighborhood of towns here in the valley

Red, Repug, and blatantly proud of their bigoted stupidity.

Was just up in Fresno today to take three more stupid NCLB teacher certification tests to add to my CA credentials.
Seven friggin' hours of testing. Total of 150 questions and four two-page each essay responses.


more o whee o joy. damn I'm tired...

Hi Xema! :hi:

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Where in the Valley do you live?

I have family in Visalia and Hanford. :hi:

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. Am in Hanford!

Golly!
(and you know how small this town is! ;) )

Hey! Are they Democrats?

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. Darn right they are

I would not call them family if they were Republickers.

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. PM me if you are comfortable about

letting me know who they are...so few Dems here...would love to meet them for coffee at Panera Bread sometime.

You ever come down here to visit?

[alfredo]

3. So a guy who plays dress up on Sunday's thinks he has the inside

track on what God wants.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. That it in a nutter

Excuse me, a nut shell. :hi:

The Diocese of the San Joaquin has always been extremely conservative. Schofield's predecessor, Victor Rivera, was so strongly against women clergy that he refused to participate in the ordination of his own daughter Nedi; while he was bishop, NO women were allowed to excercise their priestly office within the diocese, period, no exceptions. (He did relent a bit after he left that office, and took part in his daughter's consecration when she was made Suffragan Bishop of Olympia.) Schofield has kept that rule in place, even though he (unlike Rivera) was not grandfathered in; ever since he became the diocesan bishop, he has been in direct violation of his vows to uphold the Canons of the church.

I am not at all surprised that he leads the first entire diocese to leave PECUSA. Good riddance to bad rubbish, and I hope the General Convention makes him leave behind the millions of dollars of church property.

[xchrom]

9. i hardly think the church is going to ley go of the pension money and property

to that crew.

nothing was ever good enough for them -- now this.

so why should the church bargain? -- nothing to be gained.

[annabanana]

18. They have decided to LEAVE the Episcopal Church. .

We will be appointing a new Bishop for that Diocese..

They're going to have to find some new digs.

[TechBear_Seattle]

19. Hopefully the remaining parishes will elect someone who keeps his vows

Unlike Schofield.

I assume that there are parishes who have elected to stay? And how will the GC manage properties where there are no more people in communion with PECUSA?

[JerseygirlCT]

24. Yes, thank you, exactly!

The diocese exists. A diocese cannot leave.

Some *people* (I use the term loosely) have voted to leave. Good, go. But they leave the property behind. It belongs to TEC.

[alfredo]

12. He probably made sure that they had enough in their coffers to

build another church.

I was raised in the Episcopal church. I liked the wine but never believed.

http://www.adventlouky.com/pages.php?id=2

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. Sacre merde!

THAT is Bishop Schofield? I was confirmed by him back in 1990. He has really let himself slip.

[xchrom]

10. see also this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3095101

[progdonkey]

11. "moral decay"

According to the caption, the church risks moral decay if they don't secede from the larger church.

So says Mr. Gluttony and Sloth up there....

[annabanana]

13. re: your last line. . . Actually, he has to leave the toys and go

without them.

[gratuitous]

14. 20 centuries of persecution

Not a peep out of San Joaquin. One gay man is made a bishop clear across the country, and the little whiny ass titty babies can't handle it.

[Rydz777]

17. Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople. Yes, it's Istanbul, not

Constantinople. Why's it Istanbul, not Constantinople? That's nobody's business but the Turks.

[sendero]

20. Gee that dude should go bi...

.. he could double his chances of getting laid from 0.0001% to 0.0002

[DemoTex]

21. Will the arch-conservative Episcopal Dioceses of Texas be next?

My good friend the Rev. Dr. Mark A_____, the esteemed Episcopal clergyman and great liberal mind, lost his church in Dallas's posh Highland Park (St. Michael and All Angels) over his vote in favor of the ordination of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. Rev. Dr. A. was the only member of the delegation from the various Episcopal Dioceses of Texas, lay and clergy, to vote to ordain Gene Robinson.

Take a look at a brief CV of Mark A. that I have compiled:

Drury University in 1966 - Bachelor of Arts in United States History.
Yale's Berkeley Divinity School 1969 - Master of Sacred Theology
Andover-Newton Theological School - Doctor of Ministry 1976.

He continued to receive academic honors, receiving Drury's Young Distinguished Alumni Award in 1978 and an Honorary Doctorate in 1997 from University of the South.

He served as Rector of Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia for fourteen years, during which time the parish grew from 450 to 3,300 members. In 1992 he moved and served as Rector of St. James Church in New York City. Four years later he moved to Saint Michael and All Angels Church in Dallas, Texas.

It could be argued that A_____ should have stayed at St. James Church in NYC. Perhaps. But he heeded the "call" and went to Dallas, where he became loved by many - indeed. But the majority of his parishioners were aghast by his vote to ordain an openly gay man as a bishop in the Episcopal hierarchy.

That turning against Mark by some in his church was very ironic, and many of those parishioners don't even know it. Mark and I (and his wonderful wife) often walked our dogs (their "Mystic" and my "Sirius") together through the beautiful parks along Turtle Creek in Highland Park. We would talk of anti-war, political, and social issues - among other things. Mark once said to me that many of the kids of some his most prominent and wealthy parishioners were gay. Those kids came to Mark in droves for advice because they could not talk to their parents.

Mark retired before he was ready. The Episcopal Dioceses of Texas ran him out of Dallas on the metaphorical, if not proverbial, cross. But his departure was their loss. And what a big loss it was.

[DemoTex]

22. BTW: I really must kick this thread.

I could care less what the neo-Anglicans do to themselves. But it bothers me that: 1. Some good Episcopal clergy have gone out on limbs and have been sawed-off, and; 2. A high percentage of my gay friends who DO church, DO the Episcopal church (expecting the tolerance that one who drinks liquor might get).

:kick:

[JerseygirlCT]

23. I'm tired of these inaccurate headlines...

A diocese can't leave. A renegade, bigoted Bishop decided to leave and a group of priests under his "care" decided to go along.

The diocese continues to exist, although I imagine in a messy state, which will take a while to sort out.

Headlines like this give the people abandoning TEC more stature than they deserve.

[HughMoran]

25. Good Christian BIGOTS excercising their God-given right to HATRED

Most of my liberal friends are good Christians in their acts. Most of my Republican associates tell me they are good Christians.