FRESNO, Calif., March 13 (UPI) -- The Episcopal bishop of the diocese of San Joaquin in California has been expelled from the church.
The House of Bishops voted Wednesday to depose Bishop John-David Schofield, the Los Angeles Times reported. The bishops decided that Schofield had broken with the church by placing his diocese under the authority of the Province of the Southern Cone, a group of conservative Anglican churches in South America.
Schofield and a majority of Episcopalians in his diocese object to the 2003 consecration of an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire. The issue threatens to split the Episcopal Church in the United States and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
There are now effectively two dioceses of San Joaquin but only one is recognized by the national church. Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori warned Schofield that church property in the diocese belongs to the Episcopal Church, the Times said.
Schofield argues that he hasn't broken with the church.
His spokesman, the Rev. Van McAlister, called the vote "kind of meaningless."
"Our feeling was let's just be done with it and move forward," he told the Times.
