Pittsburgh Standing Committee Asks Bishop Duncan to Return

Posted on: October 4, 2008

In a brief meeting following the Oct. 4 convention in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the standing committee took action to recall deposed Bishop Robert Duncan temporarily as an assisting bishop, and on a permanent basis after a special electing convention scheduled for Nov. 7. Bishop Duncan is expected to be the only candidate on that ballot.

Earlier in the day, diocesan clergy and lay deputies voted for the second consecutive year to break ties with the General Convention of The Episcopal Church.

Bishop Duncan has been serving as a paid administrative consultant since he was deposed by the House of Bishops last month. He has already been accepted into the House of Bishops of the Church of the Southern Cone.

Dressed in non-liturgical episcopal attire, Bishop Duncan sat with convention officials throughout the convention. The Rev. Jonathan Millard, rector of Church of the Ascension, Oakland, Pa., was elected to run the convention. The Rev. David Wilson, president of the standing committee, delivered the convention sermon.

In a press conference afterward, Fr. Wilson estimated that majorities in two-thirds to three-quarters of the dioceses 74 parishes will affiliate with the Southern Cone. The rest are expected to remain with The Episcopal Church in a continuing diocese. He said the majority was committed to a charitable legal separation agreement with the minority.

Four new congregations were received into the diocese as parishes prior to the vote to amend the constitution. The convention address was delivered by Bishop Henry Scriven, who has been serving as an assisting bishop at the invitation of the standing committee since Bishop Duncan’s deposition.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori who was participating in a churchwide “Day of Repentence” for slavery at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, said “the vast majority of Episcopalians and Anglicans will be intensely grieved” over the diocese’s vote to separate.

“I have repeatedly reassured Episcopalians that there is abundant room for dissent within this church, and that loyal opposition is a long and honored tradition within Anglicanism,” she said. “We will work with remaining Episcopalians in Pittsburgh to provide support as they reorganize the diocese and call a bishop to provide episcopal ministry. The people of The Episcopal Church hold all concerned in our prayers - for healing and comfort in time of distress, and for discernment as they seek their way into the future.”

This article comes from The Living Church Foundation
http://www.livingchurch.org/

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