John David Schofield

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin has sued a deposed bishop who led a secession last year prompted by the church's ordination of women and gays, demanding he vacate his offices and turn over financial accounts. The diocese said in its lawsuit, filed Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court, that John-David Schofield breached his duties to the church. National church leaders removed Schofield as the head of the Fresno-based diocese after he led parishioners to align themselves with the conservative Province of the Southern Cone, an Argentina-based member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin has sued a deposed bishop who led a secession last year prompted by the church's ordination of women and gays, demanding he vacate his offices and turn over financial accounts. The diocese said in its lawsuit, filed Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court, that John-David Schofield breached his duties to the church. National church leaders removed Schofield as the head of the Fresno-based diocese after he led parishioners to align themselves with the conservative Province of the Southern Cone, an Argentina-based member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Bishop John-David Schofield's tone was urgent this month as he exhorted delegates from his Central California diocese to leave the Episcopal Church. For more than 20 years, Schofield said, he had watched in dismay as the national church strayed from Scripture and made controversial decisions about theology and sexuality, including the role of gays in the church. Now, he told delegates to his diocese's annual convention, it was time to act. "God's timing is essential!"

Leaders of the Episcopal Church formally ousted the bishop of California's breakaway Diocese of San Joaquin on Wednesday, saying John-David Schofield had abandoned the communion of the church in a bitter, years-long struggle over homosexuality and the Bible. In December, Schofield's Fresno-based diocese became the first in the nation to secede from the Episcopal Church over the issues, placing itself under the authority of a theologically conservative Anglican archbishop in South America.

Leaders of the Episcopal Church formally ousted the bishop of California's breakaway Diocese of San Joaquin on Wednesday, saying John-David Schofield had abandoned the communion of the church in a bitter, years-long struggle over homosexuality and the Bible. In December, Schofield's Fresno-based diocese became the first in the nation to secede from the Episcopal Church over the issues, placing itself under the authority of a theologically conservative Anglican archbishop in South America.

The nominee to replace a breakaway bishop ousted by Episcopal leaders is meeting with San Joaquin Valley congregations ahead of an upcoming vote. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the head of national church, has recommended Jerry A. Lamb to serve as the new bishop for the Diocese of San Joaquin. National church leaders on Wednesday removed Bishop John-David Schofield as the head of the Fresno-based diocese, which seceded last December over the Episcopal Church's ordination of women and gays.

National leaders of the Episcopal Church have ousted 61 clergy who aligned with a former bishop in California when he broke with the national church in a dispute over the Bible and homosexuality. Former Bishop John-David Schofield led the Diocese of San Joaquin to become the first full diocese to secede from the U.S. denomination in 2007. Four years earlier, Episcopalians consecrated their first openly gay bishop, setting off a wide-ranging debate within the church and upsetting conservative congregations.

Re "Episcopal unit may quit U.S. church," Jan. 28 Bishop John-David Schofield of the San Joaquin Diocese claims that the Episcopal Church no longer believes the Bible, and others who agree with him claim that the Episcopal Church has abandoned the traditional Christian faith. Schofield is wrong about this. Each Sunday, Episcopalians say together out loud, "Thanks be to God" when the Scripture is read and declared to be "the word of the Lord." Each Sunday, Episcopalians recite the Nicene Creed of their own free will, and at the conclusion of the Eucharistic prayer, which recounts the history of salvation that climaxes in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Episcopalians say "Amen."

In a public rebuke to the Episcopal Church, the Diocese of San Joaquin voted Saturday to affirm its membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion after distancing itself from the American denomination over issues of sexuality and the ordination of women. Some delegates to the convention called it a first step toward a formal break with the national church, although the proposal makes relatively minor changes to the conservative diocese's status.

The bishop whose Fresno-based diocese voted in December to leave the Episcopal Church was formally banned Friday from carrying out any ecclesiastical duties for the church, officials said. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori took the interim step after a review committee found that Bishop John-David Schofield had abandoned the communion of the church by leading his diocese to the recent secession vote, said the Rev. Charles Robertson, the presiding bishop's canon. On Dec.

Bishop John-David Schofield's tone was urgent this month as he exhorted delegates from his Central California diocese to leave the Episcopal Church. For more than 20 years, Schofield said, he had watched in dismay as the national church strayed from Scripture and made controversial decisions about theology and sexuality, including the role of gays in the church. Now, he told delegates to his diocese's annual convention, it was time to act. "God's timing is essential!"

A battle of church bulletins is brewing in the Episcopal Church, pitting inserts that use traditional male-oriented language against "inclusive language" inserts that use gender-free references to people. On Dec. 1, Episcopal parishes across the nation that obtain their bulletin inserts from Morehouse Publishing Co.

In a dramatic strengthening of church law permitting women priests, the Episcopal Church moved Friday to crack down on a handful of bishops who have refused to ordain qualified women in their dioceses. The vote by lay delegates and priests at the church's General Convention--its highest legislative body--followed a rousing farewell speech by outgoing Presiding Bishop Edmund L. Browning, who strongly endorsed making women's ordination mandatory.