PITTSBURGH: Diocese offers to release, not depose, clergy
Episcopal News Service. October 5, 2009 [100509-05]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh said October 5 it will release diocesan priests from their ministerial ties to the Episcopal Church so that they can become licensed in any entity they choose.
A news release from the diocese said the decision affects approximately 100 priests and deacons it said have not been active in the Episcopal Church since October 2008 when a majority of members of the diocese and its leadership voted to leave the Episcopal Church and align with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.
The clergy are being given two weeks to respond.
The offer to release clergy "alleviates a situation where the clergy could otherwise be at risk of disciplinary action for abandonment," the release said. "If that occurred, the penalty would likely be defrocking, officially called deposition, which would bar them from ministry not only in the Episcopal Church in the United States, but also in the world-wide Anglican Communion."
In a letter from the diocesan Standing Committee mailed on October 5, the clergy were given an option of stating their desire to remain active in the Episcopal Church or to allow the release to proceed.
"We're doing this for pastoral reasons, says the Rev. Dr. James Simons, the diocesan standing committee president. "We do not want to see our priestly brothers and sisters deposed."
Diocese of Southern Ohio Bishop Suffragan Kenneth Price, who is expected to become provisional bishop of Pittsburgh during the diocese's Oct. 16-17 convention, was involved in the final stages of planning the offer and supports the decision, the release said.
"As the Standing Committee worked through this necessary action, I was painfully aware that they were not just talking about a list of clergy, but friends of long standing," Price said in the release. "For this reason I am grateful the canons provide this softer method of allowing those who wish to depart from the Episcopal Church to do so legally without us making a judgment on their ordination."
In its letter the Standing Committee told clergy that "this release can be reversed in the future if you so choose, but that the Diocese of Pittsburgh hopes that all of you will decide to remain with us."
The letter asks for a response by October 19, 2009.