Diocese Asks Court for All San Joaquin Assets

April 28, 2008

A lawyer for the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin has asked a Fresno County Superior Court to award it all property and assets now claimed by the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.

“While it is regrettable that legal action is necessary, the diocese and The Episcopal Church have no other viable option but to seek the intervention of the court to recover the property and assets of the diocese,” said the Rt. Rev. Jerry A. Lamb, provisional Bishop of San Joaquin.

Last December, a majority of delegates to the convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin voted to leave The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. “Such actions are contrary to the Canons and Constitution of The Episcopal Church and the diocese,” the media statement from the Episcopal diocese said.

The filing of the lawsuit comes about a week before the scheduled visit to the Anglican diocese by Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone. Bishop Lamb sent a letter of protest to Bishop Venables on April 22 that informed him that his planned visit was a violation of the traditions of the Anglican Communion and of the recommendations of the Windsor Report.

In a statement recently published on its diocesan website, Anglican Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin described the filing of the lawsuit by his former denomination as unsettling, but not surprising. the rest