Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese votes to leave
Pittsburgh will realign with theologically conservative Anglican province in another nation

.Post-Gazette

Bishop Robert Duncan -- "We have a tough road ahead. We will be faithful and charitable and do everything we can to help those congregations who are uneasy about this, or who may be very opposed to this, to be part of our fellowship."

In yet another ecclesiastical earthquake to rock the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has voted to leave that denomination and realign with a theologically conservative Anglican province in another, yet to be chosen, nation.

At their annual convention in Johnstown, laity voted, 118-58, and clergy voted, 109-24, to join another Anglican province, and to allow like-minded parishes outside the 11-county territory to become part of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The vote came two days after Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church warned that such action could cause the denomination to remove Bishop Robert Duncan from office as bishop of Pittsburgh.

"We have a tough road ahead. We will be faithful and charitable and do everything we can to help those congregations who are uneasy about this, or who may be very opposed to this, to be part of our fellowship," Bishop Duncan said after the vote. During his speech prior to the vote, he proposed finding ways for two local Anglican dioceses, one of which would be the minority still aligned with the Episcopal Church, to share important assets such as Trinity Cathedral and Sheldon Calvary Camp.

He read the brief reply to Bishop Jefferts Schori. The first of its three lines was a famous quote from Martin Luther when he broke with the Catholic Church: "Here I stand. I can do no other." It continued, "I will neither compromise the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, nor will I abandon the sheep who elected me to protect them."

So far, he said later, three Anglican provinces have "expressed willingness" to welcome the Diocese of Pittsburgh, but he did not name them. The resolution adopted yesterday cannot be adopted unless the convention approves it again at next year's convention. A choice about which province to join will not be made until after that vote. The Anglican provinces that are best known for taking in conservative U.S. parishes are in Africa.

Because of the requirement to vote again next year, "Today's action of the Diocese of Pittsburgh is not final," said Robert Williams, director of communications for the Episcopal Church. "But, more to the point, dioceses do not leave the Episcopal Church. Dioceses are set in place by the churchwide general convention."

The divisions between liberal and conservative Episcopalians, and between many of the U.S. bishops and their counterparts in the global South, derive from differences over biblical authority and interpretation. Many conservatives say their main concern is that some bishops do not believe that Jesus was God incarnate.
But the differences reached a breaking point in 2003 with the consecration of a partnered gay bishop in New Hampshire. The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, with about 20,000 members in 71 churches, is part of the 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the 72 million-member Anglican Communion. At least three other dioceses have initiated or are contemplating measures similar to Pittsburgh's.

The Rev. George Werner, a former dean of Trinity Cathedral, Downtown, and a former top official of the Episcopal Church, told the assembly that Bishop Jefferts Schori was not trying to intimidate them, as some speakers had said. "Her heart is filled with Jesus," he said, saying that it was her legal and moral responsibility to exercise governance over the church and the property that was entrusted to the denomination.

After the vote, the Rev. Werner predicted "chaos" in the Diocese of Pittsburgh as parishes are pitted against each other and against the national church in property lawsuits. Joan Gunderson, a member of Church of the Redeemer, Squirrel Hill, had presented a counter-resolution to keep the diocese in the Episcopal Church. "I think it's been a tragic mistake. The Episcopal Church is not what it has been called [by those who want to leave]. I mourn the division and its consequences," she said after the vote.

In his speech, Bishop Duncan said that diocese had come to a fork in the theological road. "The matter finally comes down to an unavoidable choice between cultures. There is the culture of the wider Episcopal Church: Theologically innovative, at the edge of mainstream Christianity, secularly attuned, declining ... and ready to sue or depose to obtain its way," he said. "By contrast there is the culture of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh: Scripturally centered, critiquing the secular agenda, among the fastest and few growing dioceses of the Episcopal Church, relative to the population decline ... allowing vast freedoms in the form and manner of ministry."

Debate was fraught with talk of litigation and of loss of pensions and cuts in salary for clergy who left the Episcopal Church. Many supporters of the resolution said those were sacrifices they were prepared to make.

"At the end of the day, the issues before us aren't about canons and conventions and procedures and lawsuits. They are about the centrality of the cross of Christ," said the Rev. Jonathan Millard, rector of Ascension parish, Oakland, who introduced the resolution.
Not all theological conservatives advocated breaking now. The Rev. Daniel Hall, an Episcopalian working at First Lutheran Church, Downtown, said he shared Bishop Duncan's theological concerns, but that the primates of the Anglican Communion should be allowed more time to try to resolve the situation.

"I cannot support this resolution because of this time of spiritual desolation in which I find myself ... St. Ignatius commends us to refrain from making significant decisions when we find ourselves so desolated," he said.

Supporters and opponents of the resolution spoke alternately and in equal numbers. "As a lesbian, I have found the Episcopal Church to be embracing. I have been transformed by the love in this church," said Mary Pat Donegan from Church of the Redeemer, Squirrel Hill, who wanted to keep the diocese in the denomination.

Joan Morris, a member of St. Andrew's Church, Highland Park, spoke against breaking apart. "None of us has a full understanding or could divine the full truth, but we do have a divine call to search together as one body in Jesus Christ, regardless of the differences among us. Without each other we each see a smaller truth and lose the corrections that we need from each other," she said.

After the vote, the Rev. Werner said he believed that Bishop Jefferts Schori was willing to talk, but that simply allowing local Episcopalians to leave the denomination taking millions of dollars of Episcopal property was not a legal option.

"On a case-by-case basis, all things are possible. The presiding bishop will carry out her fiduciary responsibility. She will keep the door unlocked. She will welcome people back," he said.

Bishop Duncan said he was proud of the way people on all sides had conducted themselves. "This is the most wonderful diocese in the church," he said. "There is no reason that we cannot continue being this way with each other" even as different members choose different provinces.

"Maybe some day God will put us back together," he said.

Letter from the Presiding Bishop to Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan
31.10.07

Episcopal Life Online

The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan
Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA

Dear Bob,

There have been numerous public references in recent weeks regarding resolutions to be introduced at your forthcoming diocesan convention. Those resolutions, if adopted, would amend several of your diocesan canons and begin the process of amending one or more provisions of your diocesan Constitution. I have reviewed a number of these proposed resolutions, and it is evident to me that they would violate the Constitutional requirement that the Diocese conform to the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church. It is apparent from your pre-convention report that you endorse these proposed changes. I am also aware of other of your statements and actions in recent months that demonstrate an intention to lead your diocese into a position that would purportedly permit it to depart from The Episcopal Church. All these efforts, in my view, display a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between The Episcopal Church and its dioceses. Our Constitution explicitly provides that a diocese must accede to the Constitution and Canons of the Church.

I call upon you to recede from this direction and to lead your diocese on a new course that recognizes the interdependent and hierarchical relationship between the national Church and its dioceses and parishes. That relationship is at the heart of our mission, as expressed in our polity. Specifically, I sincerely hope that you will change your position and urge your diocese at its forthcoming convention not to adopt the resolutions that you have until now supported.

If your course does not change, I shall regrettably be compelled to see that appropriate canonical steps are promptly taken to consider whether you have abandoned the Communion of this Church -- by actions and substantive statements, however they may be phrased -- and whether you have committed canonical offences that warrant disciplinary action.

It grieves me that any bishop of this Church would seek to lead any of its members out of it. I would remind you of my open offer of an Episcopal Visitor if you wish to receive pastoral care from another bishop. I continue to pray for reconciliation of this situation, and I remain
Your servant in Christ,
Katharine Jefferts Schori

Letter to the Presiding Bishop from the Bishop of Pittsburgh

Global South Anglican

1st November, A.D. 2007

The Feast of All Saints
The Most Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori
Episcopal Church Center
New York, New York

Dear Katharine,

Here I stand. I can do no other. I will neither compromise the Faith once delivered to the saints, nor will I abandon the sheep who elected me to protect them.

Pax et bonum in Christ Jesus our Lord,
+Bob Pittsburgh