In a public rebuke of the Episcopal Church, a conservative diocese in California has voted to affirm its membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion. San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield calls it a first step toward a formal break with the U.S. Anglican denomination, though the proposal makes just minor changes to the status of the diocese. Schofield, who refuses to ordain women and homosexuals, has publicly accused the church’s first female leader, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori, of promoting heresy. Six other conservative dioceses also have rejected Jefferts-Schori’s authority. Since 2003, when an openly homosexual bishop was consecrated, the Episcopal Church estimates that it has lost 115,000 members. Bishop N.T. Wright, a leading bishop in the Church of England, says the Episcopal Church was warned that the consecration V. Gene Robinson would fracture the worldwide Anglican Communion, but went ahead anyway. Wright says that defiance was unprecedented, but he still prays that the Episcopal Church will “step back from the brink” for the sake of Anglican unity.

- AP