Welcome!

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin... a vision
becoming reality

What is before us at this moment is an opportunity of amazing magnitude. It is ours to celebrate the love of Jesus Christ through the Episcopal Church here, at home, in our diocese.  It is our vision, yours and mine, to create a diocese that welcomes all, blessed by the gifts of all, accepting – welcoming, actually! – our differences. We wish not to be known as rich or poor, clergy or laity, black or white, conservative or liberal: we wish to be people of God, here, all of us.

Join us! We wish to be in communion with one another, humbly thankful for one another as God’s beloved creation.

 

Letters of invitation sent to parishes that chose to leave the Episcopal Church.

On June 15, 2009, letters were sent to nine parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin inviting the leaders of the parishes to arrange the transition of all properties and assets back to the Episcopal Church. The nine parishes are St. Columba, Fresno; St. Francis, Turlock; St. John’s, Porterville; St. John’s, Stockton; St. Paul’s, Bakersfield; St. Paul’s, Visalia; St. James, Sonora; St. Michael’s, Ridgecrest; Redeemer and Hope, Delano. Bishop Jerry A. Lamb reflected, “I hope these churches will respond to this invitation, and that we can begin a conversation to move forward with this transition.”

Earlier this year, two landmark decisions were issued by the California Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal that clearly uphold the Episcopal Church and its Dioceses’ property rights. These cases held that a parish church’s disaffiliation with the general church caused parish property to revert to the general church. In other recent activity the Episcopal Church of St. John’s in Petaluma, California was returned to the Diocese of Northern California. St. Paul’s Church in Modesto has entered into agreement to return its property to the Diocese of San Joaquin on July 1, 2009

 

Letters of deposition sent to priests and deacons who chose to leave the Episcopal Church.

Final action was taken Friday, May 22 and Tuesday May 26, 2009 regarding sixty-one Episcopal clergy who went with former Bishop John David Schofield when he attempted to leave the Episcopal Church and align with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. Schofield and these clergy refused 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. Schofield was deposed (removed from office) in March of 2008. The clergy who followed Schofield refused to acknowledge the Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin, the Rt. Rev. Jerry A. Lamb, and were determined to have abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church in October and November 2008. The clergy had six months to deny their abandonment, recant, or renounce their ministry in the Episcopal Church or face removal or deposition from the ministry of the Episcopal Church. The action taken by Bishop Lamb on Friday and Tuesday, with the support of the Diocesan Standing Committee, deposes and removes these clergy from the rolls of the Episcopal Church. As a result these clergy may no longer serve in the Episcopal Church.

“I find the actions I was forced to take last Friday and Tuesday to be heartbreaking,” said Bishop Lamb. “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. 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. It is a sad day.”