Aye

John Schofield, the former Bishop of San Joaquin, has officially been deposed, Episcopal Life online reports. ++Katharine requested his removal as bishop, and a "clear majority" of his brother and sister bishops in the House have agreed to her request.

The move comes after Schofield guided his diocesan convention to "remove" the diocese from The Episcopal Church.

Readers may recall that ++Katharine inhibited Schofield this past January.

Now, following the required two month window that afforded Schofield time to recant his schism, during which he only became more bellicose and opaque concerning the Church, the full House of Bishops has deposed him, meaning any ecclesial authority he attempts to wield to bind the Church or any of its people or institutions, is null and void. He is no longer a cleric in this Church.

For years, Schofield had assumed a belligerent, spirituality violent, and vulgar position towards much of the rest of the Church and its institutions.

He typically warned that any one not agreeing with him, or his opinions on gays and lesbians and a host of other issues, or actions of his therefrom, was not only stupid and terribly misguided, but heretical.

For some reason, when he was called to account for the abandonment of communion of his Church the first time in 2006, he was cleared.

The only thing this accomplished, was give Schofield time to pursue even more spiritual violence and material damage to the Church and its people.

By now the bishops of the Church have perhaps recognized that not acting to halt or forestall such violence in their own Church is not unChristian or wrong—but an abandonment of their own responsibilities to protect and guide this Church.

++Katharine is to be commended for bringing this to their attention.

The resolution, from Episcopal Life:

RESOLVED, that pursuant to Canon IV.9.2 of the Episcopal Church, the House of Bishops hereby consents to the Deposition from the ordained ministry of the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin.

EXPLANATION: On January 9, 2008, the Title IV Review Committee certified to the Presiding Bishop, pursuant to Canon IV.9.1, that the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, has repudiated the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Episcopal Church and has abandoned the Communion of the Church by, inter alia, departing from the Episcopal Church and purporting to take his Diocese with him into affiliation with the Province of the Southern Cone. In the intervening two months since the Presiding Bishop gave notice to Bishop Schofield of the foregoing certification, Bishop Schofield has failed to submit to the Presiding Bishop sufficient retraction or denial of the actions found by the Title IV Review Committee. Accordingly, the Presiding Bishop has presented the matter to the House of Bishops and requested consent to Bishop Schofield's Deposition.

Episcopal Life notes that more information from the House regarding the matter will be forthcoming this evening.

Other places covering the announcement include The Episcopal Cafe and Thinking Anglicans.