This week's announcement that breakaway Episcopal churches around North America are forming their own province prompted sharply contrasting reactions among San Diego-area worshippers.
Members of the independent churches in San Diego County said this is a momentous shift, and a recognition that the Episcopal church has strayed too far from the faith's core principles.
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OVERVIEW
Background: Hundreds of congregations have seceded from the Episcopal Church in recent years as church leaders have permitted women to be ordained and an openly gay man to serve as a bishop.
What's changing: Leaders of the breakaway churches have drafted a constitution to govern the new Anglican Church in North America, a proposed province of 700 or so congregations in the United States and Canada.
The future: The province must be sanctioned by leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Also, the California Supreme Court is expected to rule by early January on lawsuits over ownership of church property.
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But the Right Rev. James R. Mathes, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, said there is no official recognition of the new province, or governing unit, and therefore no real change.
“You can say you're a province, but that doesn't make it so,” Mathes said. “It doesn't affect us.”
In Wheaton, Ill., on Wednesday, leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a group that has grown disillusioned with the direction of the Episcopal Church in the United States, announced they had completed a draft constitution.
The document will govern the newly forming Anglican Church in North America, which includes about 700 congregations in the U.S. and Canada with a membership of about 100,000, church officials said.
The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican Communion, an association of 38 self-governing provinces worldwide that combined have some 77 million members.
Formal establishment of the new province requires the approval of the Anglican Communion, a process that can take months or even years.
In the United States, a rift between conservative Anglicans and the Episcopal Church has widened as church leaders have voted to allow the ordination of women and its first openly gay bishop.
Congregations that left the church aligned themselves with provinces outside the U.S., meaning parishioners' money is sent to bishops overseas and the congregation adheres to their guidelines and standards.
Members of the handful of San Diego County churches that broke from the Episcopal Church in recent years hailed this week's news as historic, the first step in what they expect to become a vibrant fellowship.
“It's absolutely wonderful,” said Jane Rost of Oceanside, who worships at St. Anne's Anglican Church in Oceanside, which left the Episcopal Church in 2006. “It's a wonderful thing for those of us who want to go back to the orthodox Anglican Church.”
The Rev. Lawrence Bausch of Holy Trinity Parish in Ocean Beach, which has been aligned with the Anglican province in Argentina since it broke from the Episcopal Church in 2006, said a North American province would streamline operations and save resources for their missionary work.
“There are things we can do together to address these global problems,” said Bausch, whose congregation has about 120 people.
Meanwhile, a fight over the actual churches and other property may be resolved by early January, when the California Supreme Court rules on lawsuits involving several Southern California parishes.
The Episcopal Church adopted the legal position that congregations are free to leave, but the real estate stays with the church.
Peg Marston, who attends services at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Bankers Hill, said the relatively small number of parishes leaving will not have a significant impact on the church.
“We expected them to probably take this step, but I don't think it's going to make that much difference,” she said. “The church can go on from here.”
Jeff McDonald: (619) 542-4585; jeff.mcdonald@uniontrib.com
