Episcopal diocese set to vote to depart
By Julia Duin
December 7, 2007

The 8,500-member Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin in Fresno, Calif., is expected to vote to secede from the Episcopal Church on Saturday, the first diocese in the country to do so in the civil war among Episcopalians over biblical authority and the ordination of an openly homosexual bishop.

Besides San Joaquin, three other dioceses — Pittsburgh; Fort Worth, Texas; and Quincy, Ind. — have all signaled their intent to depart.

In addition, four Episcopal bishops have left the denomination for the Roman Catholic Church, one of whom, the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey Steenson of the Diocese of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, was received into the Catholic faith last weekend at St. Mary Major Church in Rome. Former Boston Archbishop Bernard C. Law conducted the ceremony. the rest