St. John's is the latest parish building the courts have ordered returned to the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin since the schism occurred in 2007. Other recovered churches include buildings in Ridgecrest, Turlock, Bakersfield, Delano, Sonora and Modesto.

The Rev. Kate Cullinane responded to the decision in Stockton by saying, "I think the whole split has been unfortunate, but we are happy to have the property back."

Archbishop Welby defended the policy in a radio interview last week, saying that if the Church accepted gay marriage it could be ‘catastrophic’ for Christians in Africa, hundreds of whom had been killed by people who associated Christianity with homosexuality.

But the Oxford-educated Canon Pemberton, a hospital chaplain from Southwell, Nottinghamshire, said: ‘I love this man and I want to be married to him.

“We are grateful that the South Carolina Supreme Court recognized that TEC and TECSC are misusing the judicial system to delay resolution of this case,” said the Rev. Jim Lewis, Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese. “Their strategy of using legal motions to delay court decisions caused eight months to be wasted when they asked the federal court to override the state court injunction. As in that matter, the courts sided with the Diocese of South Carolina.”

Gates’s election must now receive consent from a majority of the Episcopal Church’s diocesan bishops and a majority of its dioceses. Pending that consent, the bishop-elect’s consecration is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Agganis Arena at Boston University, with the presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding.