Episcopal Church’s Rump Dioceses Limp Along Following Realignment
- Charles Perez
- Jul 7
- 5 min read
Episcopal Church’s Rump Dioceses Limp Along Following Realignment
ACNA dioceses outpace TEC
By Mary Ann Mueller
VOL Special Correspondent
July 7, 2025
Starting in 2007 five Episcopal dioceses — San Joaquin (2007); Pittsburgh & Quincy (2008); Fort Worth (2009); and South Carolina (2012) – left the Episcopal Church. The first pulling at the seams came with the election of an openly homosexual (Vicky Gene Robinson) as the IX Bishop of New Hampshire.
In 2007 the Diocese of Pittsburgh, led by Bishop Robert Duncan (VII Pittsburgh), started to put into place diocesan canons which would allow it to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church and affiliate with another Anglican Communion entity – the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America. The process was completed in 2008.
However, the major breaking point, and the complete tearing of the Anglican fabric came for those diocesan bishops who absolutely refused to accept women's ordination (San Joaquin, Quincy and Fort Worth. With the enthronement of Katharine Jefferts Schori as the Episcopal Presiding Bishop bishops John-David Schofield (IV San Joaquin); Keith Ackerman (VII Quincy); and Jack Iker (III Fort Worth) found that was a theological bridge too far.
Eventually Bishop Mark Lawrence (XIV South Carolina) was pushed over the edge in 2012 when he and his South Carolina delegation walked out of the Episcopal General Convention as it became clear that Convention had departed from historic Anglican faith and practice and embraced a radical fringe interpretation of Holy Writ.
All five separating Episcopal dioceses eventually found themselves in the Anglican Church in North America. The dioceses of Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, Quincy and Fort Worth are founding ACNA dioceses. The historic Diocese of South Carolina joined later. Although it is not a founding ACNA diocese, South Carolina was an original founding diocese of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA) in 1785 along with the dioceses of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware.
What has happened to the various Episcopal rump dioceses?
Two dioceses have been relegated to an historical footnote. In 2013 the remaining Episcopal Diocese of Quincy was reunified with the larger Diocese of Chicago to become the Peoria Deanery. Initially, in 1877, both the Diocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Quincy were carved out of the existing Diocese of Illinois as was the Diocese of Springfield. At that point the Diocese of Illinois itself became an historical footnote.
In 2022 the TEC Diocese of Fort Worth, renamed The Episcopal Church in North Texas (TECinNTX), was dissolved and folded into the Diocese of Texas, thus becoming the “North Region” of the larger Texas diocese. And so, the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Fort Worth became just another footnote in church history.
Most recently (2024) the Wisconsin Episcopal dioceses of Eau Claire, Fond du Lac and Milwaukee also faded into history as the three separate Badger State dioceses merged to reconstitute the original Diocese of Wisconsin pulling the historic diocese from the dust bin.
That leaves the rump dioceses of San Joaquin, Pittsburgh and South Carolina limping along while their ACNA counterparts flourish.
Full 2024 stats are not yet compiled. ACNA stats are expected later this summer while TEC stats should be released this fall.
✓SAN JOAQUIN
The TEC diocese is looking for its next bishop to become the VI Bishop of San Joaquin. A four candidate slate has been released including two Canons to the Ordinary (Anna Carmichael from the Diocese of San Joaquin; and Shawn Wamsley from the Diocese of Pennsylvania); and two non-Diocese of San Joaquin priests but who are from California (Rob Keim, a partnered gay priest in a same-sex marriage, is from the Diocese of El Camino Real; and Greg Kimura, a Yonsei (fourth generation Japanese/American) is from the Diocese of Los Angeles).
After the 2007 fracture the rump diocese of San Joaquin functioned with provisional bishops for nine years.
Bishop Jerry Lamb (VI Northern California) was the first provisional bishop from 2008-2011. He was followed by Bishop Chester Talton (Los Angeles suffragan) from 2011-2014.
Bishop David Rice took up the reins as the third provisional bishop from 2014-2017. However, in 2017 he was elected as the V Bishop of TEC San Joaquin. He has announced that he plans on entering retirement next spring (2026).
The retiring American-born bishop came to San Joaquin after serving as the 15th Bishop of Waiapu in New Zealand from 2008-2014.
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*SAN JOAQUIN comparative 2023 stats
CONGREGATIONS
TEC: 19
ACNA: 30
MEMBERSHIP
TEC: 1,958
ACNA: 2,390
AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCE
TEC: 633
ACNA: 1,303
PERCENTAGE ATTENDANCE
TEC: 32.3%
ACNA: 52.4%
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✓SOUTH CAROLINA
Following the breakup of the historic South
Carolina diocese TEC’s diocese was forced to call itself The Episcopal Church in South Carolina (TECinSC) since Bishop Mark Lawrence (XIV South Carolina) had use of the corporate name of The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina while it was tied up in court litigation.
The rump diocese was under the administration of two provisional bishops
Charles vonRosenberg (III East Tennessee) from 2013-2016, and Skip Adams (X New York) from 2016–2019.
Ruth Woodliff-Stanley was elected the XV Bishop of TEC South Carolina in 2021.
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*SOUTH CAROLINA comparative 2023 stats
CONGREGATIONS
TEC: 31
ACNA: 52
MEMBERSHIP
TEC: 7,995
ACNA: 17,440
AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCE
TEC: 2,352
ACNA: 7,888
PERCENTAGE ATTENDANCE
TEC: 29.4%
ACNA: 45.2%
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✓PITTSBURGH
The rump Diocese of Pittsburgh only had one provisional bishop, Kenneth Price (Ohio suffragan) from 2009-2012.
Dorsey McConnell was elected the VIII Bishop of TEC Pittsburgh in 2012. He remained at post until his retirement when Ketlen Solak became the IX Bishop of TEC Pittsburgh in 2021.
She was born in Haiti and came to the United States to pursue her education at the Catholic University of America.
However, she converted to the Episcopal Church to seek the priesthood when she found that the Episcopal Church had a place for women in the ministry.
In 2022, after retiring from Pittsburgh, Bishop McConnell became the assisting bishop for the Diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Then in 2023 he became the Acting (provisional) Bishop of the Scottish diocese because the diocesan bishop ordinary, Anne Dyers, was suspended for her heavy-handed ways and bullying tactics.
Bishop McConnell stepped back into his assisting bishop’s role in 2024. A position he still holds.
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*PITTSBURGH comparative 2023 stats
CONGREGATIONS
TEC: 33
ACNA: 47
MEMBERSHIP
TEC: 8,538
ACNA: 5,840
AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCE
TEC: 1,746
ACNA: 3,646
PERCENTAGE ATTENDANCE
TEC: 20.4%
ACNA: 60.5%
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✓FORT WORTH
TEC’s Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth went through four bishops provisional from the time Katharine Jefferts Schori reconstituted the rump diocese in 2009 until it folded into the Diocese of Texas in 2022.
The long list of bishops provisional include: Ted Gulick (VII Kentucky) 2009; Wallis Ohl (IV Northwest Texas) 2009-2012; Rayford High (Texas suffragan) 2012-2015; and James Scott Mayer (V Northwest Texas) 2015–2022.
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*FORT WORTH comparative 2023 stats
CONGREGATIONS
TEC: Defunct since 2022
ACNA: 56
MEMBERSHIP
TEC: Defunct since 2022
ACNA: 8,649
AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCE
TEC: Defunct since 2022
ACNA: 4,273
PERCENTAGE ATTENDANCE
TEC: Defunct since 2022
ACNA: 49.4%
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✓QUINCY
The rump Diocese of Quincy was overseen by a single bishop provisional John Buchanan (VI West Missouri) from 2009 before the diocese became the Peoria Deanery within the Diocese of Chicago in 2013.
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*QUINCY comparative 2023 stats
CONGREGATIONS
TEC: Defunct since 2013
ACNA: 33
MEMBERSHIP
TEC: Defunct since 2013
ACNA: 2,587
AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCE
TEC: Defunct since 2013
ACNA: 1,468
PERCENTAGE ATTENDANCE
TEC: Defunct since 2013
ACNA: 56.7%
Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.
Jeffy Lee is behind the "take-over" of the Quincy Diocese and the "consolidation" of the 3 Wisconsin dioceses: an exercise in episcopal (i.e., oversight) incompetence perhaps unmatched in church history. He cost the Diocese of Chicago about $1 million in the Quincy Diocese's legal fees because he kept pursuing a false legal narrative: that the Episcopal Church was hierarchical and that as the bishop of Chicago, he could take over all the parishes in the Quincy Diocese. And as the "interim bishop" of Milwaukee he took a look at the shrinking landscape and said "gotta merge or die." That's just a speed-bump on the road to complete dissolution.