For the most part, the new member churches were attracted to the diocese because of its more conservative theological views than the national Episcopal Church, said Bishop Robert Duncan.
“There has been a secular drift in the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and in the Anglican Church of Canada. It has caused the church to stray from core theology,” Duncan said yesterday at his diocese’s first convention since the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh split in two last year.
“There is a whole sense of freedom and joy here. We are not spending time debating differences,” said Peter Frank, a deacon at Grace Church in Mt. Washington.
For the Church of the Transfiguration of Cleveland, the realignment is an attempt to keep the church alive. The parish initially became interested in the Pittsburgh-based diocese when the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio said it planned to close the urban church.