Following several months of retreats and meetings about the future of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh’s relationship with the national church, the bishop’s office last week launched a Web site to provide resources for parishes and individuals “in deciding how to go forward.”
The site — www.parishtoolbox.org — will collect information on the critical issues at hand involving not only the diocese’s future configuration but also the question of whether it remains part of the national church. A majority of the diocese’s 20,000 members disagree with actions the Episcopal Church has taken since 2003, including a failure to stop same-sex blessings and the election of an openly gay bishop.
At a May retreat, diocesan leadership and Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. outlined four options for the diocese: maintaining the status quo, “submitting” to the will of the national church, “dissolving” the diocese or attempting, as a diocese, to leave the church.
Bishop Duncan said at the time he would not remain bishop under the first two alternatives, and would eventually leave his position if the diocese were dissolved.