Episcopal Church leader says those who defected ‘are no longer Episcopalians’

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2008/12/05/episcopal-church-leader-says-those-who-defected-are-no-longer-episcopalians/#more-5887

[Anglican Mainstream] 5 Dec 2008--Responding to the creation of the Anglican Church in North America over the role of gays, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says that she thinks ‘we’re past the worst of it.’

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church declared Thursday that church members who joined a newly formed conservative denomination "are no longer Episcopalians," even as she predicted that the exodus had largely run its course and would not trigger further large-scale defections.

In her first public comments since a coalition of 700 parishes announced the formation of a new North American church Wednesday, the Most. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori also reiterated that church property must remain in Episcopal hands, a position disputed by breakaway leaders.

"They are no longer Episcopalians," Jefferts Schori said of those who left. "They have made that very clear in their departures.

"Those who were formally bishops in the Episcopal Church are no longer understood to be bishops in the Episcopal Church," she added in a meeting with Times reporters. "They are free to associate with whom they wish."

Leaders of the new Anglican Church in North America have taken issue with what they view as the Episcopal Church’s liberal policies on the role of gays in the church. They agreed, however, with Jefferts Schori on at least one point.

"We are not Episcopalians; we are Anglicans," said Bishop Martyn Minns, whose group, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, helped create the new Anglican church.