PITTSBURGH, QUINCY: Leaders want to 'align' outside of Episcopal Church
Episcopal News Service. September 12, 2007 [091207-06]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The leadership of the Episcopal dioceses of Quincy and Pittsburgh have announced that they will ask their diocesan conventions to consider severing all ties with the Episcopal Church.
Quincy's annual meeting, which it calls a synod, is set for October 19-20, while Pittsburgh's convention will meet November 2-3.
Both meetings convene after the September 20-25 meeting of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops, during which the bishops are expected to respond to requests by the Primates of the Anglican Communion. Those requests ask the bishops not to authorize any rite of blessing for same-gender unions in their dioceses or through General Convention and to "confirm that the passing of Resolution B033 of the 75th General Convention means that a candidate for episcopal orders living in a same-sex union shall not receive the necessary consent unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion."
The Primates told Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to respond by September 30 with the bishops' assurances or warned that "the relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the Church in the life of the Communion."
The statements from both dioceses predict that the bishops will not give those assurances.
Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan said September 11 in a pre-convention pastoral letter that "a last minute reversal by the House of Bishops … seems most unlikely."
"In light of these events, with heavy hearts, and for the sake of our mission it appears the time has come to begin the process of realignment within the Anglican Communion," he wrote.
Duncan plans to begin that realignment by asking the diocesan convention to give first approval to a series of constitutional amendments which would essentially eliminate all references to the diocese's connection with the Episcopal Church. Most significantly the amendments would remove required language stating that the diocese agrees to accede to the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons.
The proposed amendment would have the first article of the diocese's constitution claim that the diocese is "a constituent member of the Anglican Communion," language which mirrors the first article of the Episcopal Church's Constitution.
Another amendment proposed by convention participants opposed to the diocese's efforts would undo changes made in 2004 which limited Pittsburgh's accession to the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons.
The other diocesan-proposed changes would allow the diocese to belong to another province of the Anglican Communion, allow parishes from outside of the diocese's geographic boundaries to join it so long as they adhere to the diocesan constitution and canons and commit to "upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer," and set up a process for electing deputies to meetings of governing bodies outside of the diocese (but not to the Episcopal Church's General Convention)
If the amendments pass a second reading, presumably at the 2008 diocesan convention, they effectively would violate the requirements of the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons. Article V, Section 1 says that a diocese's constitution must include "an unqualified accession" to the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church.
The diocese has also issued a news release about its proposed constitutional changes.
In a similar vein to Duncan's assertions and on the same day, Quincy Bishop Keith Ackerman said "we're praying the House of Bishops will have a change of heart when they meet in New Orleans … If the Episcopal Church refuses to turn back, we will be forced to make a decision."
The Rev. John Spencer, president of the diocesan Standing Committee, said in the release that Quincy was not trying to pre-empt the upcoming House of Bishops meeting.
"We're required to finalize proposed Synod resolutions now to meet canonical deadlines," Spencer said. "It's not our intention to prejudge what the House of Bishops may or may not do when they meet later this month."
Spencer predicts that "other dioceses will consider similar proposals this fall. They will announce their plans in due course."
Quincy's news release is available here and, as of mid-afternoon September 12, had not been posted on the diocesan website. No other information was posted on the website about the synod.
The Diocese of San Joaquin is the only other diocese to attempt to remove mention of the Episcopal Church from its constitution and canons. The first reading of those changes passed during the diocese's convention in December 2006. The convention is scheduled to convene again this December.