Updated
The “Moving Forward, Welcoming All” gathering of Episcopalians in the Diocese of San Joaquin is being broadcast online, live today at 10 a.m. Pacific. The video stream will bring live coverage of the gathering at the Church of the Saviour in Hanford, California. It will also bring Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s greetings to continuing Episcopalians gathered at the Central
California Valley historic church, said Mike Collins, Episcopal Life Media Video/Multicast Unit director.
“The situation in the Diocese of San Joaquin is something that is on the minds of Episcopalians across the country,” Collins said. “We felt it was important to provide live streaming coverage to the wider church as well as to show support for those who remain in the diocese.”
A direct link to the webcast is here, or you can access it directly from the Episcopal Church website. A full release on the webcast is http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_94267_ENG_HTM.htm
Updated Saturday afternoon: More developments unfolding from the diocese, as Jefferts Schori has written to the members of the standing committee who unanimously voted to disaffiliate the diocese from the national church that she does not recognize them as the standing committee and is supporting those seeking to reconstitute the diocese:
“The Presiding Bishop has asked for the formulation of a broad based steering committee on the local level who will work with her and her Office in a variety of ways, including working with her on a process for the calling of a special convention,” said the Rev. Dr. Charles Robertson, canon to the Presiding Bishop.
“This convention will, among other things, elect a new Standing Committee and make provision for an interim Bishop. It is unclear when the special convention will be called,” Robertson said.
The response comes in part to earlier reports that Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin had closed mission congregations and fired vicars who did not support his move away from the Episcopal Church.
“The Episcopal Church is prepared to provide financial support to those mission priests who are dismissed and remain loyal to the Church and to assist in expenses related to the reorganization of the Diocese,” Robertson added.
More on that here.
The implication is that those Standing Committee members who were removed by Schofield as members of his standing committee (because they are members of congregations who are exercising the option to decide whether to follow Schofield out of the Episcopal Church) would not automatically be members of the standing committee of the Diocese of San Joaquin; the Anglican Communion Office listing for the Diocese of San Joaquin lists the diocese under The Episcopal Church, and states that the position of diocesan bishop is vacant. See also The Lead’s story from Thursday in which the seat of a member of TEC’s Excutive Council was declared vacant he reported he “had voted to amend canons and the constitution of the diocese” to realign with the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.