Press Release on Diocesan Convention, Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh
November 8, 2003
Today the Diocese of Pittsburgh concluded its 138th annual convention. With
bishop Robert W. Duncan presiding, the convention passed two amendments to
its constitution that advance the creation of an autonomous diocese without
geographic boundaries no longer answerable to the Episcopal Church, USA (ECUSA).
According to the diocesan constitution, these amendments will become effective
if also passed at the 139th convention of 2004.
The first amendment provides that the diocese will not be bound by the constitution,
canons, or actions of the national church in cases where the diocese determines
them to be “contrary to the historic Faith and Order of the one holy catholic
and apostolic church.” The second amendment seeks to remove the residency
requirement on canonically resident clergy
The convention did not heed the warnings of those present who argued that
the first change was illegal and negated a precondition for being a diocese
of the Episcopal Church, namely, “unqualified accession” to rules and decisions
of the national church. Proponents were also heedless of admonitions that
voting for the amendment would be contrary to the vows taken by every ordained
person, though they did succeed in assuring that votes of individual members
of the clergy would not be recorded. Support by Bishop Duncan belied his
promise, repeated the day before, that he would not leave the Episcopal Church.
Diocesan Vice Chancellor Robert Devlin advanced the novel theory that the
Episcopal Church is a confederacy of dioceses. According to him, the Pittsburgh
diocese never acceded to the authority of the national church. Dr.
Joan Gundersen, a historian of the church, however, raising a point of order,
exhibited the 1865 minutes of the House of Bishops in which such accession
was certified. Nonetheless, the schismatic amendment was passed by a vote
by orders (clergy and laity voting separately) after approximately 20 minutes
of discussion.
In fact, the diocese had effectively renounced, in resolutions passed in
a special convention on September 27, its allegiance to the national church.
In that convention, the diocese disavowed the confirmation of the election
of Gene Robinson as Bishop Co-adjutor of New Hampshire and the limited acceptance
of the blessing of same-sex unions. That convention also voted to withdraw
financial support from the ECUSA, a move implemented in the budget presented
and approved without discussion on November 7.
Removing the residency requirement did not raise the same constitutional
issues, but those speaking in favor made clear that they expect the change
to be used to invite clergy and parishes from other dioceses to join the
Pittsburgh diocese, a move that itself would be contrary to national church
canons that establish dioceses as geographic units, require that bishops
may not act within another bishop’s jurisdiction without permission, and
that territory cannot be moved from one diocese to another without concurrence
by both dioceses and by the church’s General Convention. The expectation
that the diocese would be adding new parishes is consistent with the rejection
by the American Anglican Council (AAC), of which Bishop Duncan is Vice President,
of the ECUSA’s proposed Supplemental Episcopal Care plan earlier in the week.
That plan, according to the AAC, was rejected, in part because it gave bishops
of dioceses containing dissident parishes a say in the arrangements for alternative
episcopal oversight for those parishes.
Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh (PEP), an organization of concerned
laity and clergy of the Diocese of Pittsburgh working for the unity of the
Episcopal Church, regrets the illegal, unconstitutional moves of the 138th
annual convention. It pledges to work to ensure that an Episcopal Diocese
of Pittsburgh in full compliance with national church constitution and canons
continues to exist.
PEP believes that submission to the authority of the ECUSA is the glue that
connects the dioceses of the church and makes a national church a reality.
Dioceses are the creatures of the ECUSA, rather than the reverse. It is through
the national church that the diocese is recognized as a component of the
Anglican Communion. In a hierarchical institution such as the Episcopal Church,
it is through the relationship of the diocese to the national church that
all legitimacy, authority, responsibility and benefits flow.