What’s Next?: After Last Saturday’s Vote, Questions Remain for Episcopalians.

By Ron Orozco, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Dec. 14–Last Saturday, the Fresno-based Diocese of San Joaquin made a landmark decision to leave the U.S. Episcopal Church.

No diocese had done so since the Civil War, although individual churches have left the U.S. church. Dioceses in Pittsburgh and Fort Worth, Texas, are taking steps to leave next year.

The U.S. Episcopal Church has confronted growing division in recent years amid debate over same-sex blessings, the ordination of gay bishops and the role of women in church as well as how to interpret the Bible when addressing such issues.

The gap widened in 2003, when the U.S. church consecrated the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as its first openly gay bishop. The act was condemned by the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the U.S. church is a member.

The Diocese of San Joaquin, made up of about 9,000 members in 14 counties, also decided at its annual convention in Fresno to align with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of South Amer- ica, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as an emergency and temporary solution.

These decisions now raise a number of questions:

Can parishes that voted to secede change their minds?

The Rev. William Gandenberger, assistant to Bishop John-David Schofield of the Diocese of San Joaquin, says parishes now are going through a “period of discernment” to determine if they are comfortable with the decisions made by their delegates.

If a parish-wide vote shows a large number of members are not comfortable with the decision, the parish can appeal to Schofield to be released from its delegates’ vote and retain its U.S. Episcopal Church affiliation. It’s not clear how much time will be allotted for parishes to decide.

Mission congregations — tiny congregations, usually in rural areas — aren’t eligible for the process.

What changes will the person in the pew of seceding churches see?

Little in these first few weeks, Gandenberger says.

The day after the vote, Gandenberger preached at St. Paul’s in Bakersfield. He asked parishioners to look around and see if anything had changed.

The simple act, Gandenberger says, helped give parishioners a sense of assurance. “People walked out and felt, ‘OK, we can move on.’ “

Will people worship in the same buildings as before the vote?

Yes, Gandenberger says.

People also can move to congregations where they feel comfortable with a similar viewpoint, particularly when they don’t agree with how delegates from their parish voted.

The day after the historic vote, Holy Family Episcopal Church in northeast Fresno had increased attendance. The size of congregation, which had opposed the split, jumped nearly a third — from the usual 130 people at two services to 192.

“If they move, I count them,” says the Rev. Keith Axberg, pastor of Holy Family. “There was an attitude of relief. We knew the things were coming down the pike — and now we can move on.”

Will the same priests be officiating at local churches?

Yes.

Will there be any changes in how services are conducted?

The same liturgy and Book of Common Prayer will be used, Gandenberger says. Parishioners need assurance that the recent decisions aren’t going to radically change who they are, he says.

Parishioners eventually can expect to see a difference in how clergy members proclaim “without reservation” the saving knowledge of Jesus, he says. Before, clergy members felt the U.S. Episcopal Church sent mixed signals about them being free to talk about Jesus and Holy Scripture.

“Sometimes, we felt nipping dogs at our heels as we worked to express the Gospel,” Gan- denberger says.

Is there still a Diocese of San Joaquin in the U.S. church’s eyes?

Yes, says Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, one of the two orders in the U.S. Episcopal Church. The parishes that voted not to secede — Holy Family, St. John the Baptist in Lodi, St. Anne in Stockton, Church of the Saviour in Hanford and St. Matthew in San Andreas — now make up the Diocese of San Joaquin as far as the U.S. church is concerned. That’s because people can choose to leave the U.S. church, but dioceses can’t withdraw, Anderson says.

The U.S. church has assigned the Rev. Robert Moore, an expert in canon laws, to meet with leaders of the churches that did not secede to discuss their leadership needs, financial concerns, and legal and pastoral issues, Anderson says.

“We’ll work to get them up and running again,” she says.

The meeting likely will be held in January in Fresno.

In Bishop Schofield’s and the seceding churches’ eyes, is there still a Diocese of San Joaquin?

Yes. The diocese remains intact but now is affiliated with the South American province of the Anglican church.

What must Holy Family and other parishes that voted not to secede do to officially lose their affiliation with Schofield’s diocese?

Each parish’s entire congregation must agree to appeal to Schofield, Gandenberger says. A vestry — a group of members who handle the church’s temporal affairs — can’t act for them.

Schofield says parishes can leave on the condition they don’t leave any debt to the diocese.

Does the affiliation with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of South America have an immediate impact on the parishes?

The realignment brings a sense of relief to some people, Gandenberger says, and a sense of concern to others.

Those congregations wanting to leave the U.S. church will have to change bulletins, documents, flags and Web sites to let others know about the realignment.

The diocese made up of the seceding churches made some recent changes to its Web site, www.sanjoaquin.anglican.org, including posting a photo and short biography of Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone of South America.

“There’s a general sense of wanting to present ourselves in the best possible way to the local community where we live,” Gandenberger says.

Who voted no last Saturday — and why?

Among the diocese’s 48 congregations in 14 counties, those who voted no were mainly clergy and lay delegates from Holy Family, St. John the Baptist in Lodi, St. Anne in Stockton, Church of the Saviour in Hanford and St. Matthew in San Andreas.

Axberg, who has been part of the U.S. church for 40 years, including 23 as a priest, says he voted no because any action to change the diocese’s constitution is a violation of national church law.

“I consider it blatantly illegal in my church walk — no way could I agree to do that,” he says.

He added that the vote to leave won’t help solve the problems the U.S. church faces.

“We really need one another,” he says, comparing the diocesan situation to a marriage. “I have blind spots that I don’t see. But my wife sees them.”

Nancy Key, spokeswoman for Remain Episcopal, a Fresno-based organization that opposed the split, agrees.

“We believe that schism is not what will move us forward, [but] staying together will,” she says. “We need those voting to leave as much as they need us.”

Will the U.S. church do anything to turn back the decision?

No, Anderson says.

Who now owns the churches, other buildings, property and land that made up the Diocese of San Joaquin before last weekend’s vote?

Both the U.S. church and officials of the seceding parishes say that property belongs to them. According to Anderson and Gandenberger, each side has not determined how or when they will dispute the other’s claim of ownership.

The reporter can be reached at rorozco@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6304.

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