Despite a warning from the head of The Episcopal Church, members of the Diocese of Pittsburgh voted overwhelmingly Friday to leave the national church.
-
(Photo: AP Images / Gene J. Puskar)The Rev. Brad Wilson of Fox Chapel Episcopal Church, right, addresses representatives from the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh before a vote on constitutional amendments in a first step toward leaving the national church and joining with other conservative Anglicans on Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 in Johnstown, Pa.
Clergy members and lay people voted 227 to 82 to approve constitutional amendments, taking the first step in separating from The Episcopal Church, which the diocese says has drifted from Scripture.
It was the first of two vote approvals needed for the diocese to remove itself from the national church and realign with a conservative province in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.
Delegates had the choice of voting for realignment or full accession to The Episcopal Church.
"As a diocese we have come to a fork in the road," Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan told delegates during the diocese's annual convention. "Indeed, it has become clear that our understandings are not only different, but mutually exclusive, even destructive to one another."
Some opposing separation said it would create chaos for the diocese.
“I think it was tragic,” said Joan Gunderson, president of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh and a lay deputy who voted against the resolution, according to The New York Times. “I’m concerned what will follow.”
But the vote was necessary, Duncan said, because the more liberal bishops now in the majority in the national church “have hijacked my church, and that’s how most of the people here feel," as reported by The New York Times. "What we’re trying to do is state clearly in the United States for the authority of Scripture."
Duncan believes The Episcopal Church has departed from traditional Anglicanism and scriptural teachings and has little hope the church will get back in line with the wider Anglican family. The national church had widened rifts when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop, New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, in 2003.
The Pittsburgh bishop leads the Anglican Communion Network, a conservative coalition, for those in the United States discontent with the liberal direction of the national church.
Years into division, Duncan says the global Anglican family is more polarized and clergy and lay leaders in the diocese have revealed a growing acceptance that "our differences are presently irreconcilable."
"There is no prospect of resolution, only of a mediated separation as an alternative to the public scandal of ever-spiraling litigation [over property] or canonical proceedings," he said.
Friday’s vote comes just after Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori addressed Duncan in a letter of warning, telling him to retreat from his course of withdrawal, otherwise, disciplinary action may be taken.
"I call upon you to recede from this direction and to lead your diocese on a new course that recognizes the interdependent and hierarchical relationship between the national Church and its dioceses and parishes," wrote the Episcopal head.
Friday's approval to remove language in the diocesan constitution that states the diocese accedes to The Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons does not become final until a second vote of approval is made at the next convention in November 2008.
For those who may disagree with splitting from the national church, Duncan said they would try to find a way for them to stay in the diocese or be given "freedom to separate" from the diocese and align more with The Episcopal Church.
Pittsburgh's vote follows similar decisions by dioceses in San Joaquin, Calif., and Quincy, Ill., in granting preliminary approval to separate from the national church.
RSS
Comments
Church separation is always making me sad and also surely Jesus himself too as the Head of the Church. But how can we keep unity if leaders of local churches, to whom Jesus have given authorities to protect and care His people, did not want to keep His commandments anymore?
And how can we keep staying under a broken umbrella that canât protect us from rains or sunlight anymore?
How can we stay in any local church, when the Word of God commands us to leave out saying âCome out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plaguesâ (Rev. 18:4)?
Separation is sad but obedient to the Heavenly Commander is more important than anything.
Peace and blessing to whom that fear The LORD.
Saying that God does not like a certain behavior and that we should not encourage what God says is wrong is not the same thing as hating people who do those things.
Don't confuse the person with the action. God loves the person, and Christians are told to do the same. But God hates the sin, and Christians are told to do the same.
"Now, don't tell me I'm wrong - not when there are almost 34,000 of you who see it differently. You are splitting up so fast it's really hard to keep track of all of you. What will the new church call itself? Have they decided yet? I'll bet they know who they are going to hate, even before they decide on a name."
Sounds like you have a bit of hate also, or maybe distrust. It's funny in a way that works. Christians, because the majority of us believe sexual immorality(homosexuality, lesbianism, adultry, ect) is a sin, that we hate the person comitting the acts. It is quite the contrary. We love the person and because of that we speak out against the sin, not condone the lifestyle, and pray for the person to turn from their ways. I don't consider that hate at all. We are in a society that keeps religion out of schools, off public buildings, out of ball games, shut out of the work place, so that we do not offend anybody. We are forced to embrace the Gay culture, on our television, radio, schools, and courtrooms, regardless if it offends anybody. If a person comes out of the closet and tells the world they are gay then it pushed to be accepted and celebrated, but if a person goes in their closet to pray, then they are called intollerant, mindless, and hate-filled. We can read our children a book on why Emma has two mommy's but we are teaching them hate if we read to them about Jesus. The world would have us ween them on "Desperate House Wives" and then shake it's head in wonder as they grow up into desperate adults, always trying to fullfill something the world cannot.
Personally, I can't wait for all of you to get raptured or whatever.
Me too! Me too!
"No wonder there are currently over 33,000 different sects and denominations of Christianity in the world, according to the Christian Encyclopedia. Whatever your particular brand of bigotry, you can find support for it somewhere in some translation of the "holy word.""
Well you are both wrong and right. There are thousands of sects and denominations and some do delve into radicalism, but not the whole. Some do like to twist scripture to fit their personal agendas and it is sad. It is a fact of life and one that the Bible does warn us about. The true meaning of Christianity is sometimes forgotten. It isn't about "religion" it is about a relationship. That relationship is with Jesus.
"You like to disown the folks who protest at funerals, but they are reading the exact same book you folks are, just interpreting it a little bit differently. That's the trouble with it- it's so darn obscure, you can read it any way you like."
We are taught in the Bible to tell fellow Christians when they wrong. We are not taught to sit idle and let a fellow brother or sister willing sin. 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians discuss this in great detail. Also, your right that some interpet the Bible in different ways, but the vast majority of us interpet it pretty darn close. There are those who like to twist scripture meaning to fit agendas and there always will be. The Bible is pretty clear on this matter, though.
"Personally, I can't wait for all of you to get raptured or whatever."
There's an easy way for you and other atheists to make "us" go away. Simply stop involving yourself with us. That won't happen though, since the real problem is that you do believe, or you wouldn't waste your time constantly hanging around Christian sites. It's really very sad when you think of it.
Dear Citizen, two things. Firstly, saying that the New Testament states that homosexuality is a sin but that it does not condone slavery could never be desrcibed as 'interpreting away' the Bible by anyone, Christian or non-Christian, who has actually read it from cover to cover. Secondly, you write about being anti-gay one day becoming as socially unacceptable as being pro-slavery. Where have you been? I, like many others, would lose my job if I were to state in the workplace what have have been commenting on this page. The intolerance is palpable but, like the Pittsburgh diocese, I do not intend re-interpreting the Bible any time soon.
No wonder there are currently over 33,000 different sects and denominations of Christianity in the world, according to the Christian Encyclopedia. Whatever your particular brand of bigotry, you can find support for it somewhere in some translation of the "holy word."
You like to disown the folks who protest at funerals, but they are reading the exact same book you folks are, just interpreting it a little bit differently. That's the trouble with it- it's so darn obscure, you can read it any way you like.
Now, don't tell me I'm wrong - not when there are almost 34,000 of you who see it differently. You are splitting up so fast it's really hard to keep track of all of you. What will the new church call itself? Have they decided yet? I'll bet they know who they are going to hate, even before they decide on a name.
Personally, I can't wait for all of you to get raptured or whatever.
Now that this split is officially in motion, one has to wonder how many other denominations in this country will begin looking in the same direction.
Christians in the United States may be ready to depart from the liberal and corporate structure of the pulpit back to true Bible ways and teachings.
Maybe the beginnings of a revival have also been set in motion.
Praise God that people are standing up for the authority of God's Word.
amatheson: When being anti-gay is as socially unacceptable as voicing support for slavery, Christians will have to interpret away the anti-gay parts just as they've interpreted away the pro-slavery parts. I give it about thirty years.
It's really good to see our brothers and sisters moving forward with splitting from the apostasy that has become the modern Episcopal church. They must have the patience of Job to put up with how slow the process is.
Dear Citizen, the New Testament does not bless slavery. Telling slaves to obey their masters was no more an endorsement of slavery than the advice to render to Caesar what was Caesar's was an endorsement of Rome's military rule. Therefore, the SBC had no biblical basis for their split. On the other hand, the New Testimony clearly condemns homosexuality in the context of numerous other sins, whilst offering compassion and hope to the sinner. You've lost your bet on this one.
I'll bet you all would have said the same things to the Southern Baptist Convention when it split from the American Baptist Convention in defense of the word of god's blessing of slavery.
May God bless you for demonstrating that, when push finally comes to shove, the testimony of Christ must supercede the preservation of an institution that is no longer willing to embrace the word of God as its standard.
Dear Pittsburgh Christians: I am sure many Christians world wide are praying for you, as indeed I do. May God give you the courage to remain true to his Word. I know he will. Your faith reverberates like the hammer blows of Maartin Luther against the church door of Wittenburg on October 31, 1517. Fear no persecution!