This week's Christian Century reports on legal moves by the Diocese of San Joaquin, California that could permit it to successfully break away from the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) over opposition to the ordination of women. The major hurdle that a breakaway diocese faces is the legal doctrine that requires civil courts to permit the internal machinery of hierarchical churches to resolve theological disputes within the denomination. San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield has has taken steps to make his diocese sufficiently independent of ECUSA that it can argue that it is not part of an hierarchical church. In October 2005, the San Joaquin diocese convention amended its constitution to provide that it takes precedence of national church policy. Then in March 2006, the diocese amended its bylaws to provide that ECUSA no longer has to approve San Joaquin's choice of bishop.
Fearing the impact of these moves on all California dioceses, four other bishops filed charges in an ecclesiastical tribunal against Bishop Schofield, seeking to remove him from the Church. A letter from one of those who filed the charges, San Francisco bishop William Swing, and a response from the Chancellor of the San Joaquin diocese, are available in full text from Virtue Online. Bishop Swing's letter argues that Schofield "has taken actions that put all Episcopal dioceses in the State of California in jeopardy" by undercutting the argument that ECUSA is an hierarchical church. In response, San Joaquin Chancellor Russell VanRozeboom argued that Canon IV.9. under which charges have been brought against Schofield only applies when there is an attempt to affiliate with a religious body that is not in communion with the Episcopal Church. He says that San Joaquin, if it breaks away, will remain in communion with the broader, more conservative world-wide Anglican Church.
VanRozeboom also argues that Bishop Schofield cannot be disciplined for action taken by the the Diocese Convention to amend its constitution, and that the October 2005 amendment only impacts the civil law issue of who is chief officer of the Diocese under California's Corporation Code, not the ecclesiastical issue of who should be Bishop.
Christian Century reports that meanwhile, the conservative Anglican Communion Network (ACN), that claims 900 parishes as members, has taken further steps toward its ultimate goal of becoming a separate Anglican province, with its own seminaries, churches and hierarchy. ACN was formed in 2004 after more conservative Episcopalians became upset with the ordination of a gay man as a bishop in New Hampshire.
