January 30, 2008
By Mary Frances Schjonberg

PITTSBURGH – Twelve priests in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh have told Bishop Robert Duncan that they will not support his efforts to re-align the diocese outside the Episcopal Church.

The one-page letter was addressed to "the people and clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh" and read as follows:

"We are rectors and clergy in good standing of the Diocese of Pittsburgh who believe the best way forward for renewal and reformation of the Episcopal Church is support for the Windsor Report and its recommendations. While we understand the need of many of our brothers and sisters to leave the Episcopal Church, we have determined to remain within, and not re-align out of, the Episcopal Church. We intend to ‘keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints' (Ephesians 6:6)."

The Rev. Dr. James Simons, rector of St Michael's of the Valley in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and one of the signers of the letter, said that the group is "not an organized political strategy group; it's just a group of rectors who came to their own conclusions."

The priests wanted "to let people know that there's going to be an alternative" if Duncan and the rest of the diocese's leadership continue in their plan to realign the diocese.

"This is not a group that is seeking to be in conflict" with anyone, Simons said. "If people feel they need to realign, then they need to do that."

He predicted that a significant number of Episcopal clergy and laity will not follow the leadership out of the Episcopal Church, adding that the group would like to help "create a place that is safe" for as many people as possible to remain in the church.

Pittsburgh's diocesan convention November 2 gave the first of two approvals needed to enact a constitutional change to remove language in the diocesan constitution stating that the diocese accedes to the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons as the church's constitution requires.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori sent Duncan a letter prior to the convention, asking him to retreat from his advocacy of the changes.

A vote on the second reading of the changes to the diocesan constitution is expected at the next convention the first weekend in November.

Simons said the group would like to be involved in any discussions that might take place within the diocese to establish what he called a "protocol" for how people and congregations would stay in the Episcopal Church. Simons added that the letter was also meant to signal the Presiding Bishop that there are people in the diocese who would like to be involved in and would support any talks she might have with those who want to remain in the church.

Simons, who has served in the diocese for 23 years, said the Pittsburgh diocese has not in the past been "monochromatically" conservative and that the members were able to express their faith in a number of ways. Until recently, he added, the diocese's efforts to protest the wider church's direction and to prompt reform did not involve an attempt to leave the Episcopal Church.

That stance changed, Simons said, during a meeting of the diocese's leadership in May. Now the perceived need to leave the Episcopal Church is a "widely held belief by a majority of the leadership in the diocese."

Peter Frank, a spokesman for Duncan, told the Pittsburgh Gazette newspaper January 30 that "it's still sad to see friends signal their intention to end in a different place than many of their fellow priests.

"The bottom line is that we all face momentous decisions in the Episcopal diocese this year."

Jefferts Schori informed Duncan on January 15 that the Episcopal Church's Title IV Review Committee had certified that he had abandoned the communion of the church by an open renunciation of the church's doctrine, discipline or worship.

Her letter told Duncan that she sought the canonically required permission from the House's three senior bishops with jurisdiction to inhibit him, based on the certification, from the performance of any episcopal, ministerial or canonical acts.

"On 11 January 2008 they informed me that such consents would not be given at this time by all three bishops," Jefferts Schori wrote.

Some 40 pages of material submitted by Pittsburgh counsel, which allegedly "trace the course of Bishop Duncan's actions from the meeting of the General Convention in 2003 through the most recent Annual Convention of the Diocese" in early November, is included in the committee's certification and is available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/DuncanCert.pdf.

Simons said three priests met with Duncan on January 28 to give him a copy of the letter. The group plans to mail the letter to all of members of the diocese.

He added that are other priests who support the attitude expressed in the letter but who were not yet ready to sign their names.

The signers, in addition to Simons, were the Rev. Nancy Chalfant-Walker, priest-in-charge, St. Stephen's in Wilkinsburg; the Rev. Dr. Jay Geisler, rector, St. Stephen's, McKeesport; the Rev Dr. Daniel Hall, Episcopal priest associate, First Lutheran Church; the Rev. Norman Koehler, chaplain, Presbyterian Senior Care, Oakmont; the Rev. Jeffrey Murph, rector, St. Thomas, Oakmont; the Rev. Scott Quinn, rector, The Church of the Nativity, Crafton; the Rev. Dr. Bruce Robison, rector, St. Andrew's, Highland Park; he Rev. Canon James Shoucair, rector, Christ Church, North Hills; the Rev. Dr. Stephen Smalley, St. Barnabas,' Brackenridge; the Rev. Philip Wainwright, rector, St. Peter's, Brentwood; and the Rev. Dr. Don Youse, priest-in-charge, Emmanuel, North Side.

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for Episcopal Church governance, structure, and trends, as well as news of the dioceses of Province II.