The Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, became one of the first bishops to challenge the Bishop of Newark when he directed his column in the diocesan newspaper at the recent posting of theses by Bishop John S. Spong [TLC, May 17}.

In his column in Trinity, Pittsburgh's diocesan newspaper, headlined "John Spong: An Apostle No Longer," Bishop Duncan wrote that the theses "contain an explicit denial of the Christian faith" and that "the efficacy of prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit are declared null."

"As I travel about our diocese, I see the pain and confusion which this shepherd-become-wolf is causing my people, not to mention that wider fellowship which is all the baptized in Christ Jesus," Bishop Duncan wrote. "What this errant brother is doing mus be named for what it is, not apostolate but apostasy. What John Spong proposes as a reformed Christianity abandons every revealed essential. It is not Christianity. It is a counterfeit."

Bishop Duncan also wrote, "Everything I promised to do at my ordination requires that I speak clearly at this moment. Most especially, pastoral compassion and gospel witness require a timely word both to the people of God and to the world at large."

The bishop asked his readers to pray for the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion and closed by writing, "We are a worldwide fellowship of immense missionary faithfulness and of magnificent local diversity. Nevertheless, we must also be a communion that can recognize when an apostle is one no longer, or when a teaching must be declared utterly false.

Another who challenged Bishop Spong is the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England. Bishop Nazir-Ali said the theses published by Bishop Spong are "strong on rhetoric and weak in content." He also wrote that "Bishop Spong has a 'eurocentric' view of the Church, but in fact the Church has been worldwide from the beginning and is now more widespread than it has ever been."

Bishop Nazir-Ali proposed his own theses, which were published on his diocese's website and in The Church of England Newspaper.