Pittsburgh Episcopalians reorganize diocese
Episcopal News Service. December 15, 2008 [121508-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
New leadership, both lay and ordained, a new episcopal presence and a new priest highlighted the Diocese of Pittsburgh's special convention December 13.
Meeting at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, the special convention was called to reorganize the diocese and fill a number of leadership positions vacated by those who left the Episcopal Church following the diocese's 143rd annual convention on October 4.
The people who departed, led by deposed Bishop Robert Duncan, now say they will be a part of the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone while they attempt to form a parallel Anglican province in North America that would be recognized by the large Anglican Communion.
Members of 28 congregations took part in the December 12 convention, representing 40% of both the number of parishes and total membership -- as measured by the benchmark average Sunday attendance -- in the Pittsburgh diocese prior to October, according to a diocesan news release. Members of 18 congregations had declared their plans to remain with the diocese in the days just after the October convention.
"They're realizing that this is a better place to be," the Rev. James Simons, president of the Standing Committee and rector of St. Michael's of the Valley in Ligonier, told ENS. He said he expects the number to grow over time. "There's no time limit as far as we are concerned" for people who want to join or re-join the diocese.
The convention passed four resolutions, including one affirming that the diocese continues to accede to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church; approved a $764,000 budget for 2009; and elected people to diocesan leadership positions.
Participants also heard that retired Diocese of Western North Carolina Bishop Robert Hodges Johnson has accepted the Pittsburgh Standing Committee's call to serve as assisting bishop.
Johnson will spend two weeks a month in the diocese. The Standing Committee continues as the ecclesiastical authority in the diocese and delegate authority to Johnson as warranted, Simons said during his "State of the Diocese" address.
Simons told the convention that the Standing Committee could have asked the convention to election a "provisional bishop" who would assume full ecclesiastical authority. The remaining members of the Diocese of San Joaquin chose this route; electing retired Diocese of Northern California Bishop Jerry Lamb. Simons said an assisting bishop "gives the diocese more autonomy in making decisions as we move forward in what is certainly a time of fragility," adding that "the universe of candidates available to be assisting bishop is larger, as the role is part-time and would not be for the entire time between now and the election of a diocesan bishop."
Simons told the convention that what he called the typical reaction to Johnson's calling from "the old culture" of the diocese would be to "begin to collect writings and voting records, it would be mistrustful and suspicious."
"We need to not do that," he said. "Rather, we need to trust that those who have been raised up to leadership have everyone’s best interest in mind and that this is not just a human answer to a situation but a godly one as well. We need to see this appointment as God’s way of moving us forward, to recognize it as another stone we gather in the rebuilding of our common life."
Episcopal Church leaders, fellow bishops support convention
Both Presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson sent greetings to the convention. Jefferts Schori said that Episcopalians "from the western Pacific to South America, Central America, the Caribbean, the Churches in Europe, and all over the United States" were praying for the diocese.
Calling them a "blessing to this church … and an even larger blessing in this part of Pennsylvania," the Presiding Bishop told the convention that "we are concerned about your well-being. We want to assure you that the wider church is there to support you, and we are fully confident of your ability to reorganize at this time. We are providing assistance as asked and we will continue to do so."
In a letter that was read to the convention, Anderson acknowledged that the participants "have walked through uncertainty, confusion, anger, and sorrow."
"You have gathered strength from each other and from the courageous saints who have gone before you. Now you look toward your continued mission and ministry in God’s world as you continue defining yourselves and responding to God’s call to you in this place at this time. Know that you are God’s beloved. Know that you not alone. Know that you are safe. Move forward together in joy."
Anderson said she looked forward to welcoming the diocese's deputation to the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, California next July.
Three other Episcopal bishops from dioceses surrounding Pittsburgh -- Nathan Baxter of Central Pennsylvania, Sean Rowe of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Paul Marshall of Bethlehem -- attended all or part of the convention. Diocese of Virginia Bishop Suffragan David Colin Jones, who has been the "consulting bishop" to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, was also present. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod Bishop Kurt F. Kasseri attended the evening prayer service that preceded the convention on December 12, and sent a representative to the convention the next day.
Conducting the diocese's business
Simons said the convention had a "completely different spirit" than the October 4 convention that centered on Duncan's goal of leading the majority of the diocese's members out of the Episcopal Church.
"It was joyful, uplifting, funny," he said. "It was not just business. It was like a family being back together."
During their business session, the deputies approved three resolutions in addition to the one acceding to the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons. The resolutions waived the advance notice timeline for convention business, consolidated the number of geographical districts in the diocese, and affirmed executive decisions made by the Standing Committee since the October convention.
Simons told ENS that he and the two people he appointed to join him on the Standing Committee just after the October convention had made few major decisions since then because "the three of us didn't want to commit the diocese to a certain direction" before the full leadership had been elected.
Deputies elected 23 clergy and lay officers to six diocesan groups including the Standing Committee; the Board of Trustees, which oversees diocesan property; the Array, an ecclesiastical trial court; the Committee on Canons, which recommends changes to the diocesan constitution and rules; the Cathedral Chapter, the governing body of Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh; and the Growth Fund, which oversees diocesan investments. Parishes grouped in six geographical districts elected Board of Trustee representatives and a Diocesan Council.
The new Standing Committee members are the Very Rev. George L.W. Werner (former president of the House of Deputies); the Rev. Nancy Chalfant-Walker, rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Wilkinsburg; Vera Quinn, Church of the Nativity, Crafton; Lee Hicks, Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh; and Celinda Scott, Christ Church, Indiana. They join incumbents Simons; the Rev. Jeffrey Murph, rector of St. Thomas Church, Oakmont; and Mary Roehrich, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Highland Park.
Newly elected General Convention deputies include the Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church; the Rev. Scott Quinn, rector of Church of the Nativity, Crafton; Joan Gundersen, Church of the Redeemer; and Roehrich. They join current deputies Simons, the Rev. Bradley Wilson, Stephen Stagnitta and David Laughlin.
The budget that deputies approved includes $100,000 targeted for support of new congregations and parishes in financial need. Some $250,000 is budget for legal expenses, but the budget document notes that the money will be "privately raised." The budget also notes that certain expenditures cannot be budgeted because the current diocesan leaders do not yet have control of the diocesan endowment funds. The income sources listed on the budget include $145,000 that is predicted to come from the Episcopal Church and other sources.
Convention culminates in ordination
The closing Eucharist featured the ordination of the Rev. Kristian Opat, 28, to the priesthood. Opat is the only person in his 12-member ordination class to remain in service to the Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. Among the others ordained with him as deacons earlier this year, two serve outside of the region; the others have left the church. Opat's candidacy was approved by the Standing Committee in November, keeping in place the standard six-month interval between ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood.
Opat, who earned a Masters of Divinity from Trinity Episcopal School of Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, is the curate at St. Paul's in Mt. Lebanon. There, he conducts adult education and is organizing a new ministry geared toward young, post-college adults.
Virginia Bishop Suffragan Jones presided at the ordination.
Simons called the ordination "a symbol of hope for the future and a new course for the diocese." He noted that some priests who had decided to join the re-alignment movement participated in the ordination. "We were happy to have them," Simons said.