STOCKTON, CA: Episcopal Church fires 61 Central Valley priests

This kind of behavior from pecusa really is sad. These priests will continue to function as if pecusa did nothing since they are licensed through another province of the Anglican Communion. I was deposed by the Bishop of the DCNY and I continue to function under license from the Province of Nigeria. In the end, pecusa will play their petty church games, those of us bishops, priests and deacons who have left will continue to evangelize, preach, teach, pastor and otherwise discipline people. We'll let God sort it out in the end, and frankly, I would have some concerns if I were one of the bishops treating clergy and other Children of God in the pecusa manner. ed.

Via VirtueOnline:

Bishop Lamb says they quit when they aligned with conservative group

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=12078
May 27, 2009

The Episcopal Church has fired, or in its words "deposed," 61 priests and deacons in the Central Valley who followed former Bishop John David Schofield when he rebuked the national church and aligned with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, a conservative group based in South America.

"I find the actions I was forced to take last Friday and Tuesday to be heartbreaking," says the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb, Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin in written comments Wednesday. "I have known a few of these clergy personally and others by the stories I have heard about their ministry. But, the fact is, they chose to abandon their relationship with the Episcopal Church."

Bishop Schofield was deposed in March 2008.

He and the various priests and deacons objected to the Episcopal Church's ordination of women and gays to the priesthood, "refusing to recognize the authority of the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church and of the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church," as the church puts it.

The clergy who have been fired had six months to deny their abandonment, recant, or renounce their ministry in the Episcopal Church, according to the diocese.

"They declined to ask for a release from their ordination vows, and I had no option but to bring the charges of 'Abandonment of the Communion' to the Standing Committee last year and take these final steps today," says Mr. Lamb. "It is a sad day."

END