Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said she will ask the House of Bishops to decide on September 18 whether Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh has abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church.
If the bishops, who are meeting September 16-19 in Salt Lake City, agree with the findings of a review panel that he has abandoned communion, their next move would be to depose Duncan.
“I shall present to the House the matter of certification to me by the Title IV Review Committee that Bishop Robert W. Duncan has abandoned the Communion of this Church within the meaning of Canon IV.9,” Jefferts Schori wrote in a September 12 letter to the bishops.
The full text of the Presiding Bishop’s letter may be found here.
Duncan posted a pastoral letter the following day on the Diocese of Pittsburgh website in which he characterized the proceedings as an effort to have him removed from office “before the realignment vote.” He has said he will not attend the meeting. The bishops usually gather in fall and spring.
The only “communion” that Bishop Duncan could be charged with “abandoning” is that between him and TEC; most definitely NOT between him and the rest of the Anglican Communion…..to which TEC belongs at the moment. If one is in communion with ONE province, is he not actually in communion with ALL of the Communion unless any province has broken communion with another?
Ah, … no Bible but plenty of Marx, Orwell, Stalin and Pol Pot on the PB’s reading list.
…………………………………..
You are writing a book,
A chapter each day,
By the things that you do
And the words that you say.
Men read what you write,
Whether faithful or true;
Say, what is the Gospel
According to you?
………………………
I have a very clear idea on these grounds of whose gospel is what and whose I’d choose!
I think the House of Bishops will effectively be judging themselves. If they vote that Bishop Duncan has abandoned communion with TEC [ECUSA], what they will really be saying is that TEC [ECUSA] has abandoned communion with the Anglican Communion.
This is clearly an occasion of cutting off the nose to spite the face.
Oh, they’ll vote for it. This has Davd Booth Beers written all over it. It’s all part of his chess moves in anticipation of litigation battles over property in Pittsburgh & elsewhere. ‘Your Honor, he left and we deposed him BEFORE the Dioc of Pitts voted to leave TEC’….it stinketh unto Heaven!
This decision has all the suspense of whether the sun will come up tomorrow. The HoB rabble will depose +Ducan because, like the scorpion on the frog’s back, that’s it’s nature.
And again will +++Rowan sit silently by? He might as well break out the fiddle a la Nero…….
#6, let’s just say it will be the shock of the century if RW does anything about this fiasco. He’s clearly revealed his position. He won’t act against anything liberal. He’s totally been bought by satan. If anything truly Biblical comes out of this mess, it will be because God’s intervening. That’s what we need to wait and see about.
Face it, after +Duncan is deposed, he will still be a deacon, priest, and bishop. The difference will be that ecusa won’t recognize those facts. At that point it will be the burden of the remainder of the Diocese of Pittsburgh to pick up where +Duncan left off, and they are the ones (with Duncan, or without) that have to decide to leave the sinking ship of the national church in any case. If ecusa wants to play hardball, they have to play on a field in Pittsburgh, and the locals know better than anyone else how that field lies.
The one thing that any deposition does is to polarize, with crystal clarity, who is on which side of leaving ecusa. The HoB, if not completely witless, will vote to table this deposition. Unfortunately for ecusa, the HoB has shown itself to be corporately witless.
Tom, let’s look at it this way: Doesn’t TEC recognize deacons, priests and bishops from other provinces who have been permitted to preach and officiate in this country? I know of several Canadian priests….one of whom is currently serving in the Diocese of El Camino Real, for instance. So why won’t they recognize Bishop Duncan once he goes to the Province of the Southern Cone while officiating and preaching in THIS country? What’s good for Canadian clergy and clergy from other provinces, by the way…..including the Church of England…..who happen to be working in this country….. should be good for him as well!
[blockquote] Doesn’t TEC recognize deacons, priests and bishops from other provinces who have been permitted to preach and officiate in this country? [/blockquote]
No, only if ecusa dioceses license them, which sounds tautological, but really isn’t, given that ++Nigeria, ++Uganda, et al have “permitted to preach and officiate in this country” many clerics (e.g. +Minns) who are definitely not licensed by ecusa.
The Canadians ARE licensed to preach and officiate in this country, and given the FACT that TEC and the Province of the Southern Cone…..MY province, by the way…..are both members of the Communion…..it follows that TEC should reciprocate in brotherly love. However, there is no such thing, and there will BE no such thing on the part of TEC…..for as long as the revisionist heretics remain in power.
If they vote that Bishop Duncan has abandoned communion with TEC [ECUSA], what they will really be saying is that TEC [ECUSA] has abandoned communion with the Anglican Communion.
Actually, what they will be doing is ceding all authority, spiritual and temporal, to the Presiding Bishop. This would be a huge mistake, but not a huge surprise. This is the final opportunity to ‘stand firm.’
Cennydd
Not all Canadians are licensed-only those who have applied to a particular Diocese and been granted licenses by the Bishop. If they do not do this, they are not recognized as whatever their credentials say they are.
it follows that TEC should reciprocate in brotherly love. However, there is no such thing, and there will BE no such thing on the part of TEC…..for as long as the revisionist heretics remain in power.
While I make no claims that TEC is operating in these instances with brotherly love, I would assert that +Schofield, +Duncan, ++Akinola et al are not acting with any sort of love, brotherly or otherwise.
Brian, Bishop Schofield has no animosity towards ANYONE. I know him to be a kindly, persuasive, and gentle man…..having known of his reputation for over thirty years, and probably better than most laymen, and I’m pretty sure that Bishop Duncan’s reputation as a servant of Christ and His Church is equally well known.
I would be less than honest if I were to claim that Archbishop Akinola’s reputation is akin to that of Bishops Duncan and Schofield, since I have never met the man nor had any dealings with him, but I’d be willing to bet you that the reason why he is so hated by Schori and Company is that he isn’t afraid to speak the truth……and the one thing that they can’t stand to hear is the truth! The truth, as told by bishops who “defend the Faith of Christ crucified,” is the same truth that Schori and Company question and deny. They can’t stand being accused of being wrong, and the rest of the Anglican Communion and virtually ALL of the Christian world know it, and they are testifying to that fact. The handwriting is on the wall for all of the world to see, and if TEC continues to ignore it, they will die.