Anglican Bishop to Appeal Calif. Court's Pro-Episcopal Ruling

By Joshua A. Goldberg
Christian Post Reporter
Sat, Aug. 08 2009

Attorneys for a bishop deposed by The Episcopal Church say they plan to appeal a judge's ruling recognizing another bishop as the head of the Diocese of San Joaquin.

Though Episcopal leaders say they removed John-David Schofield as the head of the Fresno, Calif.-based diocese last year after he and other conservative church members attempted to remove the diocese from the American arm of Anglicanism, the bishop maintains that he possesses continuing authority as the leader of the diocese, which he claimed simply realigned itself with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

The Episcopal Church, however, disputes the ability of a diocese to transfer from one province to another without the consent of its original province.

Furthermore, as the Superior Court of Fresno County ruled last month, The Episcopal Church maintains that the Diocese of San Joaquin being led by the TEC-elected Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb is "not a new organization" but that it is "the older organization from which ([defendant] Schofield and the other) defendants removed themselves." the rest