An Episcopalian diocese in California on Saturday moved toward breaking with the U.S. church because of its position on issues including homosexuality. Reuters reports that clergy and lay representatives at the annual convention of the 10,000-member Diocese of San Joaquin voted 176-28 in favor of the step, according to the Rev. Van McCalister, a spokesman for the diocese that represents 48 parishes in central California's San Joaquin Valley.
If the measure passes again next year, according to Reuters, it would allow for the development of a new church that officials say would break from the leadership of the new head of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, while remaining part of the worldwide Anglican Church.
Individual parishes have left the church in recent years, but Saturday's move marks the first time since the Civil War that an entire diocese has voted to distance itself from the church, McCalister told Reuters.
Jefferts Schori, 52, condones the blessings of gay relationships and supported the church's 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire. Some in the church saw that event as a crack in its foundation, prompting at least one priest to resign.
"The national church has forced us to this point where we have to pick ó is our ultimate authority scripture or is our ultimate authority an institution that has run amok?" Rev. Russell VanRozeboom, the diocese's chancellor, told the Associated Press. "This diocese has always shown itself to be resistant to the heresies of the national church."
Bishop John-David Schofield, who refuses to ordain women and gays, has publicly accused the church's newly elected female leader of promoting "heresy." The AP reports that under his leadership, the Fresno-based diocese has stopped sending most funds to the national church and has considered a plan to affiliate with an Anglican diocese in Argentina.
"Homosexuality is just one symptom of how the church has lowered its view," said McCalister to Reuters. "The key issue, however, is the ecclesiastical structure that recognizes the authority of the Bible, as it has for about two millennium. We're not bringing in anything new."
The measure, an amendment to the diocese's constitution, seeks to "maintain solidarity with the rest of the Anglican Communion," or family, McCalister said. Other conservative U.S. Episcopal bishops have asked for placement under the jurisdiction of more orthodox overseas leaders.
Jefferts Schori has said the fact that she is a woman has added fuel to the fires of division in the church.
