Episcopal Church Splits

Episcopal Split as Conservatives Form New Group

Sally Ryan for The New York Times

A group of conservative bishops met on Wednesday at the Resurrection Anglican Church in West Chicago, Ill.

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: December 3, 2008

WHEATON, Ill. — Conservatives alienated from the Episcopal Church announced on Wednesday that they were founding their own rival denomination, the biggest challenge yet to the authority of the Episcopal Church since it ordained an openly gay bishop five years ago.

The move threatens the fragile unity of the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest Christian body, made up of 38 provinces around the world that trace their roots to the Church of England and its spiritual leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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“We’re going through Reformation times, and in Reformation times things aren’t neat and clean,” Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, a conservative who led his diocese out of the Episcopal Church in October, said in an interview. “In Reformation times, new structures are emerging.”

Bishop Duncan will be named the archbishop and primate of the North American church, which says it would have 100,000 members, compared with 2.3 million in the Episcopal Church.

The conservatives contend that the American and Canadian churches have broken with traditional Christianity in many ways, but their resolve to form a unified breakaway church was precipitated by the decision to ordain an openly gay bishop and to bless gay unions.  read it all

Diocese of Pittsburgh Re-Elects Bishop Robert Duncan 50 days after deposition

Diocese Re-Elects Bishop Robert Duncan

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Bishop Robert Duncan is once again the diocesan bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. 

Clergy and lay deputies to a special convention of the diocese on November 7 voted to invite Bishop Duncan back into leadership of the diocese the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church voted to remove ("depose") him.

"It is good to be back.  God has clearly watched over the diocese and watched over me and Nara as we have walked through these challenging days together.  God willing, I look forward to many years together sharing the good news of Jesus Christ," said Bishop Duncan.

Leaders representing a majority of the world's Anglican Christians, as well as many inside and outside The Episcopal Church in North America, never accepted the validity of The House of Bishops' decision to remove Bishop Duncan from leadership.  In spite of the decision's deep defects, Bishop Duncan and the diocese elected to submit to the purported "deposition," so long as the diocese was part of that denomination.