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Loading ...Breakaway Episcopal bishop ousted
09.19.2008 10:06am EDT
(New York City) Episcopal Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, whose diocese is moving toward splitting from the national church, was ousted from ministry Thursday by his fellow bishops.
The House of Bishops voted 88-35, with four abstentions, to remove Duncan on a charge of “abandonment of the communion of this church.”Duncan, who led the Pittsburgh diocese for 11 years, is a leader in a national network of theological conservatives who are breaking away from the liberal denomination in a dispute over Scripture. The long-simmering debate erupted in 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
The Pittsburgh diocese said in a statement it will move ahead with the Oct. 4 secession vote despite Duncan’s removal. If the diocese decides to split off, it will align with the like-minded Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America, which has already taken in Duncan as a bishop. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a 77 million-member fellowship of churches that trace their roots to the Church of England.
The Rev. David Wilson, president of the committee that oversees the Pittsburgh diocese, called Duncan’s ouster “a very painful moment.”
“The leadership of The Episcopal Church has inserted itself in a most violent manner into the affairs and governance of our diocese,” Wilson said. “We will stand firm against any further attempts by those outside our boundaries to intimidate us.”
But Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, which represents parishioners fighting to stay with the national denomination, said Duncan “has rejected numerous opportunities and warnings to reconsider and change course.”
While the 2.2 million Episcopalians vary on their views of the Bible and gay relationships, the overwhelming majority did not consider Robinson’s consecration cause to leave the church.
Still, national Episcopal leaders are facing lengthy and expensive legal battles with conservatives who want to leave and take their property with them.
The first Episcopal diocese to split off was San Joaquin, based in Fresno, Calif., in a 2006 vote that also aligned the diocese with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. Soon after, a bishop loyal to the U.S. church was elected to head the diocese, while the national church entered a legal fight for control of the diocese and its multimillion-dollar assets.
A third conservative diocese, in Fort Worth, Texas, is set to vote in November on whether it should secede.
But rjb … the Anglican Communion is NOT a Church … it is a communion of Churches … 44 distinct and separate “member churches”. Moreover, until very recently there were few problems between conservative & liberal member churches of the Anglican Communion. In fact, these churches have long been known for their civility despite a diversity of viewpoints.
But enter conservative America’s Institute on Religion and Democracy which seeks to “restructure the permanent governing structure” of “theologically flawed” Protestant denominations and to “discredit and diminish the Religious Left’s influence.” Supported by the financial backing of Howard Ahmanson, Jr … as well as funds from foundations including those of Lynde and Harry Bradley, Adolph Coors, John M. Olin (which has now ceased operation), the Smith-Richardson Trust, and the Scaife Family … the IRD is funding the highly visible and divisive opposition to the Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion.
Led by a relatively small group — including Duncan, Iker, & Martin Minns … who want things their way or no way — the minority conservative/fundamentalist Episcopalians have actively spurred leaders of the Anglican Communion’s more conservative member churches … primarily Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Southern Cone (parts of South America), Kenya and a few others — 7 to 8 of the 44 — to move against the more liberal Episcopal Church and take under wing our more conservative parishes and even entire dioceses (2 currently … and 2 more in the near future) … and, of course, the assets of each.
Ultimately the conservatives want the Episcopal Church removed from the Anglican Communion … to be replaced by a “more traditional” fundamentalist church … one more open to authoritarian forms of government … one that adheres to “the One True Way” version of Christianity.
Why, when a new press release is issued by one of suddenly overtly vocal leaders of one a conservative member church in Africa … one can easily detect the trans-Atlantic editing by American conservatives. Style is hard to suppress when the ego is so … uhhh … large.
Of course they won’t stop with the Episcopal Church … so this battle is worth fighting.
And whether one believes in religion or not … it can make or break change in society.
Yes Bud – but the relationship of dissident dioceses in the US (like Fort Worth, San Joaquin, and Pittsburgh) is not entirely dissimilar to the relationship of ECUSA to the wider Anglican Communion. Although I am sympathetic to the Episcopalian Church’s position, it seems to me that this really comes down to a question of ecclesiology – are we a corporate body and a Catholic Church, or are we just a federation of congregationalist parishes? If we are (as I believe) a fully Catholic Church, then all dioceses of ECUSA should submit to the gentle authority of that Church, and ECUSA in turn (like every other daughter-Church of Canterbury) should patiently respect the requirements of the broader Communion.
Eric, It’s not really that simple, and yet it is. The name on the property may be the local parish, but in order for the parish to have begun in the first place, it had to get approval and permission to organize from the bishop, and, by extension, the diocese. This would have been the case regardless of whether the parish was organized in 1776 or 2006. Therefore, the ultimate title would have been held by the diocese. In the cases that I am familiar with, and that includes one here in eastern North Carolina, the courts have honored the diocesan claim to the title.
The challenge has come from individuals within the local parish who have generally tried to claim, unsuccessfully, that they have paid the bills so the land, building(s), and bank accounts should belong to them. That is more or less a Baptist point of view and is totally foreign to the Episcopal way of thinking.
What has complicated these title discussions, at least here in NC, is that in many of the larger parishes the lay leadership is very closely tied to the local GOP so the argument becomes a “states’ rights” argument in the form of the ideologically pure local parish challenging the dictatorial, heretical bishop.
What has not happened in the past, as far as I’m aware, is when a bishop has tried to take an entire diocese to secede from the national church. So far a case like this has not gotten far enough in the court system for there to be any precedents.
The Episcopal church minus a few hotbeds of ignorance, is certain to join the United Churches of Christ, the MCC, The Unitarian Universalists, the reform and some conservative Jewish temples in supporting gay equality. This will leave only the Catholic church, and some of the far right christian churches still in the dark ages.
Liberation is coming. I know it is slow, it really is a generational problem, and most of todays kids, except those poisoned by right wing christians, and the redneck sects, already have gay friends, and think nothing bad of them.
Breaking the closet will help, over time break the back of those who use Jesus Name to denigrate and deny the humanity of our gay population. They do this because they dare not admit they were wrong, just as the catholic church dared not until it was exposed, admit they are loaded with perverts. It is a monstrosity in many ways, it’s history is a monstrosity, and sooner or later the people will wake up to their terrorism, false promises, and the hatred of some minority or other – the glue that binds the whole stinking mess together. And the pews will be occupied only by dust. And mankind will be free.
As Voltaire said in his writings back in the 1700’s, which helped foment the French revolution:
1. Mankind will be free only when the last king is strangled with the guts of the last priest.
2. People who believe in absurdities are people who will commit atrocities.
And for our right wing backwards churches, that is so true today.
I don’t get why ownership of Episcopal Church properties is unclear. Isn’t every property subject to a legal title so that everyone knows where they’re at from the first contribution?
WOW Chris S, you really have no respect for anyone but yourself. It’s really sad and pathetic that you have such disdain for people that actually have faith in a higher power.
I don’t begrudge you from following your belief in atheism. You too should respect those that have faith and choose to practice their beliefs.
David Wilson’s comments are most illuminating. Bishop Duncan and *some* in the diocese do not see themselves as a canonical part and therefore under obedience to the American Province of the Episcopal Church, but rather some kind of individual, congregationalist entity. They share that mistaken idea with most of the secessionists, who either want to be Presbyterians (on the low-church side) or Roman Catholics (on the high-church side), forgetting that the historical genius of Anglicanism is the “via media,” the “middle way.”
Bud Clark
San Diego, CA USA
The fact that we all sit here in 2008 worrying about how people deal with silly and utterly ridiculous mythologies from 2000 years ago is truly laughable.
“…and they’ll know we are Christians by our love by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”