Episcopal Church leader says defections will have little effect
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says that conservatives' creation of new Anglican Church in North America is painful, but that she thinks 'we're past the worst of it.'
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church predicted Thursday that an initiative by hundreds of conservative congregations to form their own church in North America had largely run its course and would not trigger further large-scale defections from the denomination long divided over issues related to homosexuality.
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, making her first public comments since a coalition of breakaway congregations declared their intention Wednesday, said the departures were personally painful but would have little effect on the 2.4-million-member Episcopal Church. The new Anglican Church in North America represents about 100,000 people.
"I think we're on the downhill side," Jefferts Schori said in a meeting with Times reporters. "I think by far the majority of those who are going to seek a spiritual home elsewhere have done it. I don't see any other diocesan leaders on the sideline about to do this. I think we're past the worst of it."
Along with other Protestant denominations, the Episcopal Church in recent years has struggled to hold together theologically disparate factions at odds over issues involving sexuality and Biblical authority. The current crisis in the church was sparked by the ordination of an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
Jefferts Schori said that she had tried unsuccessfully to persuade leaders of the newly formed church not to break with the Episcopal Church, but that the traditionalist bishops showed no interest in the overtures.
She said that four former Episcopal dioceses, including one in the San Joaquin Valley that one year ago became the first to secede, had stopped contributing to the national church, in some cases years earlier. The Episcopal Church is the American arm of the 77-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion.
"They are no longer Episcopalians," she said of those who had left. "They have made that very clear in their departures.
"Those who were formally bishops in the Episcopal Church are no longer understood to be bishops in the Episcopal Church," she added. "They are free to associate with whom they wish."
Jefferts Schori emphasized that all were welcome in Episcopal churches -- "if they want to be part of a diverse church. The doors are open and the porch light's on, and we're ready to welcome people home. But the expectation has to be that we are not a single-issue church. We're not a church that says you have to believe this one thing in this one way and there is no room for difference of opinion."
The Episcopal leader also said that although those who chose to leave the church were free to do so, they were not free to take its property with them. The national church and its dioceses, including in Los Angeles, have filed numerous lawsuits over church buildings and other property claimed by breakaway parishes. A key case, involving several Southern California congregations, is before the state Supreme Court, with a decision expected by early January.
"The property that belongs to the Episcopal Church, to congregations and to dioceses is the product of legacies of generations before us, given . . . in the name of the Episcopal Church," the presiding bishop said. "Leaders in the church do not have the right to give it away for other purposes."
Helfand is a Times staff writer.
duke.helfand@latimes.com
