It appears a narrow majority of Alle-Kiski Valley Episcopal parishes will remain with the Pittsburgh diocese that agreed in October to split from the Episcopal Church of the United States.
“The (national) Episcopal church really has gone off the wall in terms of liberal theology,” said the Rev. Gary Miller, pastor of Holy Innocents parish in Leechburg. “The majority of bishops in the church do not believe in the basic doctrines of the faith.”
He noted several conservative tenets of Christian theology that, he claimed, many in the national church have moved away from, such as the virgin birth and deity of Jesus Christ.
Since when is 2/3rds a “narrow majority”?
So if 2/3 of the diocese voted to leave the Episcopal Church, why are they still called the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh? Is it related to matters of money? theology? tradition? law?
At least the remaining diocese calls itself the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the EC in US (http://www.episcopalpgh.org/). No deception there.
Eugene, I am sure the if her ladyship disavows the lawsuits, the Episcopal diocese of Pittsburgh would gladly give away rights of the moniker! Sounds fair to me.
Eugene #2, The (Anglican) Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh is incorporated in that name. Since all we hear from TEC is about cannons and polity, well legally the ACNA faction now has the name.
Jim Simons+ wrote:
[blockquote] “There may be some differences in terms of social issues, but in terms of central matters of the faith, we are united”[/blockquote]
Where he is naive or goes wrong with this statement is that with TEC tolerating all the diversity of doctrine, no one can say what the official teaching of the church is. The conservatives that split from TEC are not confused.
#4 -Check out Jim Simon’s blog: http://3riversepiscopal.blogspot.com/ Those of us who realigned are all lemmings and Bishop Duncan is Yertle the Turtle.
When the conservatives in the TEC Diocese of Pgh declare impaired communion with John Bruno and the Diocese of LA, then I’ll beleive the “inside strategy” is actually a working strategy
I believe the explanation was that the make up of the diocese continues to be “Episcopal” that is, having a bishop as head, thus the name remains because it is descriptive. I think there was a post on that shortly after the declaration here on T1:9
Peace
Jim E.
Florida
Jim #6, Without disputing your explanation, you know very well that common sense answers are meaningless in these discussions. TEC only understands the secular legal rationales. The majority diocese has not changed, and remains faithful to scriptural tradition. Why should they be forced to change their name? They are a corporation within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
David Wilson, I actually wrote a bit about Simon’s blog. Here’s some of my comments from elsewhere:
[blockquote] One of the blogs of one of the conservative “stayers” in the Diocese [sic] of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church.
Although I certainly wish the Stayers had followed the canons in this diocese — canons clearly explained, with solutions too, by AS Haley, I wish them well and hope they develop a wonderful group of Episcopal parishes and fellowship there.
I note that this blogger has a series of “Lemming” cartoons scattered throughout the blog, and assigns them the category of “Realignment” — proving that he either does not know or prefers to pretend as if he does not know that people leave TEC for good reasons, usually, and not for “lemming” reasons at all.
I’m a stayer myself, but having listened to and befriended and advised as best I can those Episcopalians who must for conscience sake leave, I could not imagine describing them as “lemmings.” My heart breaks for them, and their reasons for departure are often strong and coherent and courageous, although certainly some can leave for weak reasons as well.
It’s all fine . . . but if I had the interest and heightened emotions that this man appears to have, I’d start a series of short picture posts and assign to those posts the categories of “Some Conservatives Who Are Left Behind” and “Bitter Spite”.[/blockquote]
Thanks Sarah
I must say Jim is the only “conservative” in the Pgh TEC group who publicly is mocking and judging those of us who have departed.
I have to agree with Dean Munday of Nashotah that I wish those staying would spend more time telling us their strategy of how they intend to engage TEC as witnesses of the Gospel than whacking holes in our lifeboats. Jon Bruno and the LA Diocese have given them a perfect opportunity to do just that but I am not holding my breath.
[i] I wish those staying would spend more time telling us their strategy of how they intend to engage TEC as witnesses of the Gospel than whacking holes in our lifeboats [/i]
Amen!
RE: “I must say Jim is the only “conservative†in the Pgh TEC group who publicly is mocking and judging those of us who have departed.”
David — do you know of any other “staying” bloggers in Pittsburgh? If so, I’d be interested in their blogs. Obviously, as a stayer, I’ll be checking in on them, when I can.
Sarah,
Bruce Robison blogs [url=http://revbmrobison.blogspot.com]here[/url], although he seems to be using it more for parochial and pastoral purposes.
He also posts occasionally at Covenant, where his profile is [url=http://covenant-communion.com/?page_id=67]here[/url]
[i] Ad Hominem comment deleted by elf. [/i]
Sarah
#12 Jeremy Bonner is an historian and a Pgh blogger who has been able to deftly span both entities. His blog here is always a worthwhile read http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com/
David
Since the elves did not like my assessment of Jim Simons blog I will simply state the facts. Posts in the last 2 months mocking the departing diocese as “lemmings”= 13. Posts in the last month mocking Bishop Duncan as “Yertle the Turtle”= 6. Posts mocking the departing diocese as “Alice in Wonderland”= 2. And there are others such as yesterday’s Agnes cartoon which he deemed “hysterical”. Jim Simons devotes a considerable portion of his blog delivering low blows to his former colleagues.