Thinking Anglicans

Pittsburgh: the new diocese emerges

Updated Thursday evening

The Diocese of Pittsburgh has a new website, at which we find

From The President of the Standing Committee of The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of The Episcopal Church of the United Sates of America

…Later in the day, I received a letter by e-mail from David Wilson informing me that the remaining seven members of his Standing Committee consider themselves to be aligned with the Province of The Southern Cone.

This information was conveyed to the Presiding Bishop’s office and today we received recognition as the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh in the Episcopal Church and because of the absence of a Bishop, the ecclesiastical authority.

I am also pleased to announce that the Standing Committee has made several staff appoints. Andy Roman has agreed to be our Chancellor, Rich Creehan is Director of Communications, Joan Gunderson is the Treasurer, and Scott Quinn is the Director of Pastoral Care.

I am also pleased to announce that The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh will be holding a reorganizing Convention on Saturday December 13th. Details as to time and place will follow shortly…

Meanwhile a meeting has been called for 16 October.

The FAQ for Parishes previously published by Across the Aisle has been updated with two additional items.

Over at the website of those joining the Southern Cone, there is this letter: Standing Committee Responds to Demand it Repudiate Convention Actions.

Thursday evening update

There is also a press release: Reorganized Episcopal Diocese Recognized as Legitimate:

October 9, 2008

REORGANIZED EPISCOPAL DIOCESE RECOGNIZED AS LEGITIMATE
New Leadership Formed from Group that Opposed Realignment;
Governing Convention Set for December 13

Pittsburgh, PA – Today the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church recognized a local group committed to the U.S. church as the legitimate Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The recognition by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori came in the form of accepting a new Standing Committee as the governing body of the diocese that remained after former leaders voted to leave the church on October 4th.

“I do recognize the Rev. James Simons and the two people he appointed as the rightful Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh,” Jefferts Schori wrote in an e-mail to the Rev. Simons, the only remaining member of the Standing Committee and the one responsible for reorganizing a diocese within the Episcopal Church…

The full text of the letter from the Presiding Bishop is available as a PDF here.

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ettu
ettu
15 years ago

Sad but I am glad the Diocese has been purged of those who did not want to be there. Relieved that the new organization has developed so quickly – nothing like prompt action to instill spirit in the faithful. Regards and best wishes!

BabyBlue
15 years ago

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted to leave The Episcopal Church. Even The New York Times knows that.

MJ
MJ
15 years ago

I notice that the breakaway “Diocese of Pittsburgh” still cheekily lists those parishes who have remained in TEC (http://www.episcopalpgh.org/episcopal-parishes/) on their own website page of parishes (http://www.pitanglican.org/parishes)

Cheryl Va.
15 years ago

Prayers of thanks for the integrity of these people and the speed with which the actual TEC moved to affirm them. (Would that had happened in some other dioceses before ministers were unfairly removed from office). May God bless and guide these people to manifest the best of Christian tradition with faithfulness to the heart of scriptures. Zechariah 3:6-10 “The angel of the LORD gave this charge to Joshua: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and… Read more »

BillyD
BillyD
15 years ago

That’s nice, but they got the name of the Church wrong! It should be the Episcopal Church IN the United States of America, not OF…

BillyD
BillyD
15 years ago

OK, they very quickly fixed it when it was brought to their attention. Maybe TA can change it’s link text?

Robert Ian Williams
Robert Ian Williams
15 years ago

Another parish has just defected to Southern Cone in Western new york. they are moving to a former Synagogue and not making lawywers wealthy in a hopeless case to maintain their building. They leave with integrity, not like the departing Pittsburgh crowd, who kept on saying how gracious and loving they were!

JCF
JCF
15 years ago

Prayers ascending for the new and (faithfulness-)improved Diocese of Pittsburgh!

Ford Elms
Ford Elms
15 years ago

“who kept on saying how gracious and loving they were!”

Well, you know, they can SAY it as much as they like, but sayin’ don’t make it so, or even believable.

Robert Ian Williams
Robert Ian Williams
15 years ago

Ford just watch the highlights of the Convention on the Stand firm web site….they keep on saying how gracious they are!

The lawyers will have a field day.

The Cathedral intends to serve both bishops..and Bishop Duncan is said to be happy with that..sharing his Cathedra with a liberal!

Cynthia Gilliatt
Cynthia Gilliatt
15 years ago

“they are moving to a former Synagogue and not making lawywers wealthy in a hopeless case to maintain their building. They leave with integrity, not like the departing Pittsburgh crowd, who kept on saying how gracious and loving they were!”

Nor like Virginia’s neo-Africans who want the silver AND the good china AND anything else they can steal.

John B. Chilton
15 years ago

Bishop Duncan and company have jumped down a rabbit hole. Yes, it is a painful loss. But there is still an Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, and saying otherwise don’t make it so.

John
John
15 years ago

As one whose church was hijacked by CANA and then successfully taken back for the use of present and future Episcopalians I would like to offer the following advice to the remaining faithful. Take strong, immediate action to reclaim stolen property. Ensure that new vestries are formed quickly. Do not hesitate, go with what you have others will rally to the cause.
Forgive and pray. Worship whenever you can.
It took us about two years to recover from the loss and the anger of separation. It can be done. This too shall pass

Father Ron Smith
15 years ago

Baby Blue may now well get back into her cot, shake her rattle and weep bitter tears of anguish – and why? Because TEC has now declared that the Faithful Remnant is the inheritor of the mantle discarded by the former bishop and his fellow Lemmings in Pittsburgh! – “I give thanks for the work that the Standing Committee has undertaken and look forward to learning of your progress as you move forward in this mission. You and the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh continue in my prayers and those of Episcopalians across this Church. I remain Your… Read more »

ruidh
15 years ago

“The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted to leave The Episcopal Church. Even The New York Times knows that.”

And a fool can declare himself king, but that still doesn’t make it so if no one else recognizes him.

drdanfee
drdanfee
15 years ago

Well according to current protocols, Duncan and company departing means very, very little in connection with the wider global communion unless they reach their final goals – replacing TEC as the historic national Anglican church, with Canterbury and ACC recognizing TEC replacement. Many TEC parishes yet thrive, and even Pburgh may renew and thrive once released from the extra wind tunnel drag of all the realignment campaign preachments. Fact is, realignment saps even conservative witness to good news. I suspect a while longer may be needed to see if Southern Cone leverage as such can be parlayed into the more… Read more »

Joe
Joe
15 years ago

The Diocese of Pittsburgh is no longer part of TEC, therefore KJS should remove herself and any TEC deacon, priest, or bishop until they have permission granted from the ACSC.

BillyD
BillyD
15 years ago

“The Diocese of Pittsburgh is no longer part of TEC, therefore KJS should remove herself and any TEC deacon, priest, or bishop until they have permission granted from the ACSC.”

I think you’ll find that the Diocese of Pittsburgh *is* a part of TEC. http://www.episcopalpgh.org/

And why would the US Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College have any say in this matter at all?

JCF
JCF
15 years ago

“The Diocese of Pittsburgh is no longer part of TEC, therefore KJS should remove herself and any TEC deacon, priest, or bishop until they have permission granted from the ACSC. – Posted by Joe”

Because Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is now in South America? Get real, Joe.

Lord have mercy!

Father Ron Smith
15 years ago

Just one more case, here, of the Faithful Remnant of God’s People surviving the depredation of the fallen branches, which have drifted of to South America. Messrs Duncan and Gregory may yet regret their precipitous move. All that remains is for the ACC to pronounce its ‘null and void’ verdict on the unwieldy trans-continental ‘new alignment’

May God raise up the newly-emerging TEC Diocese for even greater witness to the Christian Gospel.
Anglicans around the world are offering prayers for the Faithful in TEC Pittsburgh. May you all be richly blessed.

Joe
Joe
15 years ago

JCF, you confuse national, political boundaries with ecclesiastical ones. Remember, at one time New York was under the authority of London (perhaps you recall that little St. Andrew’s cross on the TEC shield? Ironic, isn’t it?). TEC has no authority in Pittsburgh and any presence there is clearly a boundary crossing. Therefore, if, as TEC claims, they oppose such “interventions” they should stop playing the hypocrite and vacate Pittsburgh (and DSJ and – soon – DFW and DQ)

Robert Ian Williams
Robert Ian Williams
15 years ago

Unfortunately the Diocese of london had no legal way of getting its property back…but TEC has.

Just as if the Labour Government tried to take over the Catholic Church in England and Wales (like the sixteenth century Elizabethan and Henrician regines did) and ..this time we would have the Courts on our side.

Come on Joe there is no comparison with the eighteenth century..your making yourself a laughing stock.

Thou shalt not steal…..and those leaving should reflect on that, and leave with dignity, turning their legal fund to a building fund.

Father Ron Smith
15 years ago

“Just as if the Labour Government tried to take over the Catholic Church in England and Wales (like the sixteenth century Elizabethan and Henrician regines did) and ..this time we would have the Courts on our side.” – RIW Robert, would you please stop muddying the waters here on this blog. Your schizophrenic postings – those of a former Anglican Evangelical one-time ordinand, become pre-Vatican 2 Roman Catholic – are confusing to say the least. Perhaps you should offer yourself outright for undercover duties with F.i.F. They might appreciate your obvious taste for espionage. It just does not wash, Robert.… Read more »

Pat O'Neill
Pat O'Neill
15 years ago

Joe:

Perhaps you should read again the canons of the churches involved…they all demark geographical boundaries to their ecclesiastical influence. Pittsburgh is clearly within the boundaries of TEC’s canons…and decidedly not within those of the Southern Cone.

Anglicanism has always defined parishes, dioceses and provinces by geographic, political, and national boundaries.

BillyD
BillyD
15 years ago

“Remember, at one time New York was under the authority of London (perhaps you recall that little St. Andrew’s cross on the TEC shield? Ironic, isn’t it?)”

Joe, stop while your, uh, behind. The St. Andrew’s Cross on the ECUSA flag and shield has nothing to do with London. It’s an allusion to the fact that we got our episcopal orders from Scottish bishops.

Kennedy
Kennedy
15 years ago

Joe wrote: Remember, at one time New York was under the authority of London (perhaps you recall that little St. Andrew’s cross on the TEC shield? Ironic, isn’t it?) Eh? Shome mishtake shurely. The St Andrews Cross is there because the nascent US church did not want their bishops to have to swear allegiance to the English Monarch and so approached the Scottish Episcopal Church (one of the few anglican churches that does not trace its origin back to the CofE) to consecrate its bishops. So edinburgh or Aberdeen rather than London, although I don’t think we required them to… Read more »

Robert Ian Williams
Robert Ian Williams
15 years ago

Its interesting that Seabury who was consecrated by the non state Episcopalians of Scotland was high Church and the bishops who were later consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury
( after an Act of Parliament had been passed) were liberals. It was only the ability to compromise by presiding Bishop White who prevented two Episcopal chrches being formed in the US..but sadly because of Seabury the Methodists were lost to the Church. That is why there are ten milion Methodists in the USA and under three million Anglicans.

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