Since the Dec. 8 secession vote, competing diocesan structures -- one Anglican, one Episcopal -- have emerged in the sprawling territory of San Joaquin, which stretches from Sacramento to Bakersfield. There are now two diocesan headquarters, two diocesan websites and a number of painfully divided congregations, including St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Visalia and St. Mark's in Tracy.
Schofield has continued to work from his Fresno headquarters, celebrating the Eucharist, meeting with clergy and going about the business of the diocese, said his spokesman, the Rev. Van McCalister.
Wednesday's action was "kind of meaningless from our perspective," McCalister said. "Our feeling was let's just be done with it and move forward."
Although an overwhelming majority of delegates to San Joaquin's convention in December approved the break with the Episcopal Church, at least 2,300 of an estimated 8,800 parishioners in the diocese have chosen to remain with the national church, said the Rev. Mark Hall, rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Stockton.
Hall, who is acting as temporary administrator for the reconstituted Episcopal diocese from rented space in Stockton, said some or all members of 14 of the diocese's parishes have decided to stay with the Episcopal Church and have been joined by three newly formed congregations.
Jefferts Schori said she planned to travel to California at the end of March for a special diocesan convention, at which a retired Northern California bishop, Jerry A. Lamb, will be appointed San Joaquin's provisional bishop.
Lamb is expected to serve in the diocese for at least a year, Hall said.
Also Wednesday, Jefferts Schori said she expected most Episcopal bishops to attend a global gathering of Anglicans in England this summer, although V. Gene Robinson, the bishop from New Hampshire, will not be allowed to take part.
Robinson this week urged his fellow bishops to attend the Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade gathering of leaders of the Anglican Communion, even though he said he had declined an offer that would not have allowed him to play any meaningful role. Instead, Robinson said he would travel to the event on his own and planned to be available to anyone interested in speaking with him.
Jefferts Schori said Robinson’s statement had encouraged the bishops "to go and speak for him."
But on Wednesday, the group Integrity, a 30-year-old advocacy group for gay and lesbian Episcopalians, expressed its "profound disappointment and anger" that a way had not been found for Robinson to participate.
"Bishop Robinson's marginalization is symbolic of the discrimination experienced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender faithful daily throughout the Anglican Communion," said the Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena and the president of Integrity.
The Lambeth Conference is scheduled to be held for three weeks in July and August at the University of Kent in England.
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rebecca.trounson@latimes.com
