Episcopal diocese nears a split with church
The Fresno-based group might decide Saturday to leave the national organization.
By Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 7, 2007

The bishop of a Central California diocese that is poised to become the first in the country to secede from the Episcopal Church has brushed aside a warning from the national church's leader and likened the church to an "apostate institution."

Bishop John-David M. Schofield, whose Fresno-based Diocese of San Joaquin is expected to decide Saturday whether to finalize a split with the national church over gay-related issues, complained in a letter released Wednesday that his conservative views had been ignored by church leaders for two decades. the rest