SAN JOAQUIN: Bishop makes his own moves

Posted by David Virtue at VirtueOnline on 2008/10/16 10:50:00

By Dave Newhouse
Oakland Tribune
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_10728427?source=email
10/16/2008

The bishop and I have known each other since we were children, and classmates, in Menlo Park. I still remember bobbing for apples, and only getting wet, at his 10th birthday party.

He was David Schofield then, but now he's John-David Schofield, having added another first name through his rise in the Episcopal Church to his current title as Bishop of San Joaquin.

The deposed Bishop of San Joaquin.

At least, that's how the U.S. church voted in March when its House of Bishops ousted Schofield as head of his Fresno-based diocese and replaced him with Bishop Jerry Lamb.

But it's possible to be deposed and not lose power, at least in the Episcopal Church. Schofield continues to sermonize throughout his vast diocese, which stretches from just below Sacramento to just above Los Angeles.

"That has never changed," he said Friday of his bishop's role. "I am doing just fine."

It's been some 10 months. Last December, pushed by Schofield, the Diocese of San Joaquin became the first diocese in 400 years of Anglican history to secede from the Episcopal Church, placing itself under the authority of the conservative Anglican leadership in South America that's known as the Southern Cone.

That commenced a semantics war. Schofield now is the Bishop of San Joaquin while Lamb has assumed Schofield's former title of Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin. However, Schofield believes he has the greater clout within the diocese.

This whole blowup began in 2003 when Schofield opposed the U.S. church consecrating a gay man, Gene Robinson, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Schofield cited the Holy Scripture's disapproval of homosexuality as his reasoning.

"As Anglicans, from the very founding of the Church of England, our basis of faith is the Bible," he said. "And what we have said is that you cannot teach anything based on faith that cannot be supported by the Holy Scripture. ... Scripture is against homosexuality. You cannot read Scripture and think any differently."

Despite his courageous, and controversial, stance, Schofield contends he has maintained 90 percent of the followers in his diocese.

"It wasn't even a matter of courage," he said. "It was a matter of my own conscience."

The bishop and I see each other occasionally, but we met last week in Fresno in an effort to visit another classmate who is struggling with Alzheimer's. We drove to Porterville, where our old friend lives with family. He said to us, "Do I know you?" Our hearts sank.

After lunch, we headed back to the bishop's swank home in Fresno, where I interviewed him about his role as a theological trailblazer, albeit somewhat maligned.

"Emotionally, it hurts to be deposed by a church I have served since 1963," he said. "They thought the Diocese of San Joaquin would collapse, and it didn't. In fact, they've strengthened the opposition of my clergy and my people to what they're doing."

Schofield contends he was deposed illegally, that there was less than the required two-thirds vote needed to remove a bishop. After the vote, he added, Katherine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, ordered him removed anyway.

"She's on a roll to get her own way," he said.

By that vote, he already had been accepted by the House of Bishops in the Southern Cone, which includes Chile, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay - and now San Joaquin.

It doesn't stop there. Last weekend, the Diocese of Pittsburgh (Pa.) joined the Southern Cone. And Schofield expects other dioceses from Quincy, Ill., and Fort Worth, Texas, to soon follow.

Lamb was recruited out of retirement to become the bishop of a new diocese. His acceptance has been "underwhelming," said Schofield, who feels "undermined" by the U.S. church.

He accused the church of ripping off his shield, letterhead and mailing list, and of painting him as a "closet homosexual," and of starting allegations that he stole $5 million to $7 million from church coffers. All lies, he said.

So, then, who is the real bishop of San Joaquin? Schofield sought and received a letter in July from the Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledging that he is, indeed, the official bishop.

The bishop, 70, weighs 300ish, twice his weight from high school. This week, he began a diet under doctor's orders to lose 40 pounds in three months. Health permitting, how much longer does he plan to remain a bishop?

"Until I choose to retire," he said, defiantly.

END