There won’t be any white smoke coming out of the chimney, but they’re calling it a conclave, similar to a papal election.
Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America – a breakaway denomination formed by conservatives dismayed by liberal trends in the Episcopal Church and its Canadian counterpart – will gather at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe beginning Thursday to elect a successor to Archbishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, whose five-year tenure as its founding archbishop is concluding.
That vote is to be followed next week by policy deliberations and a wider denominational assembly with worship, speaking and other events. The organization will mark some strides from its ad hoc origins in the heat of conflict toward greater stability – the publications of a new catechism and prayer liturgies and the launching of several new congregations.