Did Episcopal Bishop Pressure Priests?

Episcopal News Service is reporting that Bishop John-David Schofield pressured priests to vote “yes” on secession from the Episcopal Church or face financial penalties. According to ENS “Schofield threatened the personal livelihoods and congregational finances of priests who opposed his efforts to lead the diocese out of the Episcopal Church.” The news service, which serves […]

Episcopal News Service is reporting that Bishop John-David Schofield pressured priests to vote “yes” on secession from the Episcopal Church or face financial penalties.

According to ENS “Schofield threatened the personal livelihoods and congregational finances of priests who opposed his efforts to lead the diocese out of the Episcopal Church.”

The news service, which serves as the Episcopal Church’s house organ but doesn’t make a practice of pulling punches, attributes the information to Michael Glass, a San Rafael, Calif.-based attorney who represents congregations and individual Episcopalians who wish to remain in the Episcopal Church, and an unnamed source.


The unnamed person said Schofield told him during a break in the convention that diocesan support of his mission congregation will stop at the end of December because he abstained in the December 8 vote. Glass confirmed Schofield’s threat. The warning came, the person said, despite the fact that money was earmarked in the 2008 diocesan budget for support of the congregation.

The person said both Schofield and his assistant the Rev. William Gandenberger told him and another congregational leader a month ago that diocesan support might cease, since any funds in the diocesan budget for mission would have to go towards Schofield’s legal defense.

Asked whether such a threat had been made, Gandenberger replied, “absolutely not.”

Read the whole story here.

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