The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh is moving closer to a decision on whether to break with its American parent church and to join a more conservative branch of the Anglican Communion.
Meeting Tuesday night at Trinity Episcopal Downtown, a Pittsburgh Diocese council moved forward a resolution that, if approved, would allow the diocese to leave the Episcopal Church and realign itself with another province of the Anglican Communion.
The 2.3-million member Episcopal Church is the Episcopal wing of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has more than 70 million members. A number of provinces of the communion in Africa are headed by conservative bishops who have provided oversight to some conservative Episcopalians unhappy with the church in the United States.
The resolution is supported by Bishop Duncan, the conservative leader of the Episcopal Diocese here. The resolution now heads to the diocese’s convention, which is scheduled for Nov. 2-3 in Johnstown.
The resolution could potentially change the centuries-old Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh’s constitution, which at present places the diocese under the authority of the larger Episcopal Church.
There was a posting just above this, which was here and is now gone. It involved a letter to a mother. Was this premature or permanently withdrawn?
This is of course, all fake. The bishop of the Pitt knows, like his clergy, standing committee and laity know, that they are going to try to steal the property and claim the diocese has changed to another ‘jurisdiction.’ It wont work of course, they will eventually loose the inevitable litigation. But, the decision is long since taken and the only question is when they get around to some rare, and definitely belated honesty.
FWIW
jimB
Mr. Sulik, check Rev. Harmon’s archives for yesterday and you will find that story. JimB, the use of the word “steal” by TEC folk in connection with property issues is getting rather tiresome on this blog. In many situations (mine for example) we simply just leave and make no claim on anything. In others, there is litigation over property. If the courts decide TEC owns property, then TEC did not “steal” it from the orthodox anymore than the orthodox do not “steal” property that the courts say belong to them.
jim of the b said, “This is of course, all fake.”
Do try to provide some documentation for this!
This idea that pecusa owns property bought and paid for by the people of any diocese needs to be challenged and defeated in court. This is the only power that pecusa accepts.
Hi Tony,
In response to your #5.
Most states recognize that within property and trust law. The problem comes when the ‘rights’ based on property and trust law, collide with the ‘rights’ of a hierarchical church to govern autocratically without government interference. I know of at least one lawsuit brought by a diocese that doesn’t even mention the so-called Denis Canon – it is a blatant violation of that state’s trust law and would hurt more then help their case. I notice that Beers is not pushing the cases in states less friendly to hierarchy – perhaps waiting until he gets a win elsewhere. Any thoughts?
#5 Tony
Sounds good to me. I wonder if more suits will occur after the end of September? If it happens it would seem to me that TEC finances could really go down the drain. I think they have already been caught with their fingers in the cookie jar.
I believe that if the exodus over the next 6 months is large enough TEC will be forced to negotiate a peace.
#8 Chips
What do you think that peace will look like?