Episcopal Press and News
In San Joaquin, conflicting responses to bishop's inhibition issued on his behalf
Episcopal News Service. January 14, 2008 [011408-03]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Conflicting statements about Bishop John-David Schofield's understanding of his place in the Episcopal Church were issued on his behalf the day after Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori inhibited him from the exercise of episcopal duties in the Diocese of San Joaquin.
In the end, Schofield claims that since he is no longer a member of the Episcopal Church, its canons do not apply to him or his actions.
The first statement, emailed to various websites and bloggers by a southern California public relations firm during the morning of January 12, said in part that "Bishop Schofield is currently a member of both the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church and the House of Bishops of the Southern Cone, a position not prohibited by either house."
A few hours later, Schofield's canon to the ordinary, the Rev. Canon Bill Gandenberger, emailed a "point of clarification" that said the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal House of Bishops have no jurisdiction over Schofield because he is no longer a member of that House or of the Episcopal Church.
"There is no confusion on the part of the Bishop of San Joaquin or the clergy, people, leadership, and convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin of their status," the clarification said. "The claims of the Episcopal Church to have oversight or jurisdiction are not correct. The fact is that neither the Diocese nor Bishop John-David Schofield are part of The Episcopal Church. The Bishop is a member of the House of Bishops of the Southern Cone as of December 8th, 2007. The Diocese is a part of the Southern Cone. Neither the Presiding Bishop or the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church have any further jurisdiction. Bishop Schofield is no longer a member of the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church."
At about the same time, Archbishop Gregory Venables, bishop of Argentina and primate of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, issued his own statement saying: "As of December the 8th, 2007 Bishop John-David Schofield is not under the authority or jurisdiction of The Episcopal Church or the Presiding Bishop. He is, therefore, not answerable to their national canon law but is a member of the House of Bishops of the Southern Cone and under our authority."
Diocese of Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker issued a statement January 12 claiming that since Schofield and the diocese have left the Episcopal Church they are beyond its jurisdiction.
"Disciplinary actions cannot be taken by this Province against a Bishop who is a member of another Province of the Anglican Communion," Iker said. "The House of Bishops of TEC can indeed prevent Bishop Schofield from functioning as a Bishop in congregations of The Episcopal Church. However, they cannot invalidate his consecration as a Bishop in the Church of God, nor prevent him from functioning as such in congregations that welcome and affirm his ministry as their Bishop."
Fort Worth's convention in November 2007 gave the first of two approvals necessary to amend its constitution and remove accession to the Constitution and Canons of General Convention, as well as several canonical amendments that eliminate mention of the Episcopal Church. Its actions were similar to those to which San Joaquin's convention gave final approval December 8.
All of the statements came in response to Jefferts Schori's action January 11 to inhibit Schofield following certification by the church's Title IV Review Committee that the bishop had abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church, according to the terms of Title IV, Canon 9.
At Schofield's urging, the convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin voted December 8 to leave the Episcopal Church and to align with the Province of the Southern Cone.
The Southern Cone has about 22,000 members and encompasses Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Its provincial synod, meeting in Valparaiso, Chile, November 5-7, agreed to welcome into the province "on an emergency and pastoral basis" Episcopal Church dioceses "taking appropriate action to separate from The Episcopal Church."
Schofield told a television reporter January 13 that he is no longer a part of the Episcopal Church and thus the inhibition order does not apply to him.
The initial statement came from Gladstone International, a Laguna Beach, California-based organization that specializes in "issues management and crisis communications," according to its website. One of the five case studies of work the firm offers on its website is titled "Break Away" Church and describes its efforts in 2004 to assist attorneys for St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, California, and St. David's Episcopal Church in North Hollywood in the efforts of the parishes' leadership to leave the Episcopal Church.
Gladstone's statement on the inhibition has been removed from many websites, leaving only Gandenberger's and Venables' statements. The original statement is included in this post from a blogger.
The first section of Title IV, Canon 9 says that a bishop abandons the communion of the Episcopal Church if he or she takes one of the following actions:
- open renunciation of the Doctrine, Discipline, or Worship of the Church;
- formal admission into any religious body not in communion with the same; or
- exercising episcopal acts [which include primarily Holy Orders and Confirmation] in and for a religious body other than the Episcopal Church or another Church in communion with the Church so as to extend to such body Holy Orders as this Church holds them, or to administer on behalf of such religious body Confirmation without the express consent and commission of the proper authority in this Church.
Schofield has between now until the House of Bishops' next meeting, scheduled for March 7-13 at Camp Allen outside Houston in the Diocese of Texas, to recant his position or renounce his orders by way of Title IV, Canon 8, Sec. 2 or Title III, Canon 12, Sec. 7. He can also declare that the review committee's assertions are false.
"The House of Bishops will review and vote on the findings of the review committee," said the Rev. Dr. Charles Robertson, canon to the Presiding Bishop. If a majority of the House concurs, the Presiding Bishop must depose Schofield and declare the episcopate of the diocese vacant. There is no appeal and no right of formal trial outside of a hearing before the House of Bishops. A proposed revision to all of Title IV would have changed that, but those provisions were not passed by General Convention 2006.
Meanwhile, Diocese of Utah Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish said January 13 she "deeply regret[ed] the necessity of this inhibition."
"Yet I am in full support of our Presiding Bishop's actions. When the Body of Christ is broken by the departure of any of its members, we are all diminished," the bishop said in a statement emailed to Episcopal News Service. "Yet I know that our Presiding Bishop has taken courageous steps to ensure the long-term future of our beloved Church, whose structure must be respected as we live out our common life. Bishop Schofield has chosen to violate the authority and canons (church law) of the Church that called him into the ministry of bishop. We cannot do otherwise than to hold him accountable to the vows he took the day he was ordained."
Irish said in her statement that Episcopal bishops from western U.S. dioceses who concluded a three-day meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, on January 10 were unanimous in their support of Jefferts Schori's action.
"While we have tried over the years to be in collegial fellowship with Bishop Schofield and to work productively with the Diocese of San Joaquin, he has consistently refused to join in our conversations," Irish said. "The Episcopal Church is actively supporting and ministering to those persons who wish to remain members in San Joaquin, and our prayers and thoughts are with them as they suffer abandonment by their bishop and fellow Christians. We trust good things will come for them through the comforting ministry of the Holy Spirit at this challenging time."