Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin

The Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin is a diocese in the Anglican Church in North America. It came into being after a majority of its congregants separated from the Episcopal Church in 2007. Those who did not separate remained and continue to constitute the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. Following the separation, those departing the Episcopal Church were initially named as a diocese of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. On June 22-25 2009, in Bedford, Texas, the Diocese of San Joaquin joined several others churches and dioceses in creating a new Anglican province that would be called the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

The diocese is headquartered in Fresno, California. The coterminous Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, which did not separate from the Episcopal Church, is headquartered in Stockton, California, and was, until the events surrounding the creation of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, one of the most conservative within the Episcopal Church and one of three that did not ordain women (the others being the dioceses of Quincy and Fort Worth). The pre-separation Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin had a membership of approximately 8,500.

On 8 December 2007, at the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, delegates voted to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church and to align with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. The diocese claims to remain, through the Southern Cone, within the Anglican Communion headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Whether the diocese had the power to take that action is controversial. Those who believe it did not have this power say that the constitution and canons of The Episcopal Church do not permit dioceses to disaffiliate, that there is no provision for a diocese to relate to the Anglican Communion through an overseas province, and that the constitution and canons of the province of the Southern Cone do not permit it to have dioceses outside certain countries in South America. Those who believe it did have this power say that the diocese is the basic unit of the Anglican Communion and has the inherent power to leave a province, and that the Southern Cone claims it as a diocese under its protection in an extraordinary time of division. Any permanent change would require a change in the Southern Cone's constitution as well as the consent of the Anglican Consultative Council. Neither the diocesan bishop, John-David Schofield, nor the province of the Southern Cone have addressed the legality of this violation of the constitution of the Province of the Southern Cone. The Anglican Communion office website does not list the diocese as a part of the Province of the Southern Cone.

Schofield was consecrated 9 October 1988 and became the diocesan on 15 December 1988. On 1 March 2008, Schofield tendered his resignation from the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church while claiming to possess continuing authority as the bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin.

The Episcopal Church disputes the ability of a diocese to transfer from one province to another without the consent of its original province. As a result it considers those who have allied themselves with the province of the Southern Cone to have left the Episcopal Church and has taken steps to preserve a continuing Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. Schofield and many of the former leaders of the Episcopal diocese disagree. Schofield has spoken as if there is a single diocese of San Joaquin, no longer a part of the Episcopal Church, of which he is the bishop and has not recognized the legitimacy of the Episcopal Church's claim of ongoing jurisdiction over this area. Following the vote, Schofield was deposed by the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church, but continued in office as the bishop of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. (Jerry Lamb has been named interim bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, until an election can be held.)

On July 23, 2009, the Superior Court in California ruled that a diocese cannot leave the Episcopal Church and that Bishop Lamb was the head of the continuing diocese. Bishop Schofield was found not to be the head of the diocese and had to relinquish all money, property and any assumed authority. However, on November 11, 2010 the lower court's ruling was overturned by the 5th appellate court who ruled that while TEC could call any body it wished an Episcopal diocese, it had no right to the property or finances of the San Joaquin diocese and that the lower court had no authority to say who could or could not be the bishop of the Anglican diocese, and so the local court erred when it involved itself in ecclesiastical issues by ordering that Lamb and not Schofield was the rightful bishop.

On 14 May 2011, the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, in special convention meeting, elected the Rev. Eric Menees as the new bishop of the diocese, succeeding John-David Schofield, who was in office since 1988, starting with his consecration on 24 September 2011 and with his enthronement taking place on 23 October 2011.