On the eve of the November 2-3 annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, Bishop Robert Duncan rejected Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's request that he lead the diocese away from efforts to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church.The three-sentence letter, dated November 1, said in full: "Here I stand. I can do no other. I will neither compromise the Faith once delivered to the saints, nor will I abandon the sheep who elected me to protect them."
The first two sentences echo the conclusion of Martin Luther's speech to the Diet of Worms in 1521, during which Luther refused to recant the stance he took against the Roman Catholic Church.
Duncan signed his letter, "Pax et bonum in Christ Jesus our Lord, +Bob Pittsburgh."
Jefferts Schori had written to Duncan on October 31 asking him "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."
The Presiding Bishop wrote that "it grieves me that any bishop of this Church would seek to lead any of its members out of it," reminding Duncan of her "open offer of an Episcopal Visitor if you wish to receive pastoral care from another bishop" and expressing hope of reconciliation.
The Pittsburgh convention began meeting November 2 and will consider giving the first of two approvals needed to enact a series of constitutional amendments which would essentially eliminate all references to the diocese's connection with the Episcopal Church.
Most significantly, Resolution One would remove required language stating that the diocese agrees to accede to the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons as the constitution requires.
If that resolution passes a second reading, presumably at the 2008 diocesan convention, it effectively would violate the requirements of the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons.
Article V, Section 1 says that a diocese's constitution must include "an unqualified accession" to the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church.
In his address to the convention November 2, Duncan said that the first reading of a constitutional change "announces an intention without actually making a change" and changes nothing.
"Of course, in another sense, adoption signifies an intention, gives warning, opens a possibility, introduces a period of preparation for anticipated consequences," he said.
If Resolution One passes, Duncan told the convention, "our work in the year ahead would likely include determination of the Province with which the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh might re-align, development of acceptable options available to minority congregations, and negotiation, both nationally and with plaintiffs locally, about a mediated alternative to continuing or escalating litigation."
Jefferts Schori had asked Duncan in her letter to change his position and "urge your diocese at its forthcoming convention not to adopt the resolutions that you have until now supported."
Jefferts Schori told Duncan that if his course did not change, "I shall regrettably be compelled to see that appropriate canonical steps are promptly taken to consider whether you have abandoned the Communion of this Church -- by actions and substantive statements, however they may be phrased -- and whether you have committed canonical offences that warrant disciplinary action."
In June, the Executive Council, the governing body of the Episcopal Church between meetings of General Convention, warned that actions by Episcopal Church dioceses that change their constitutions in an attempt to bypass the Church's Constitution and Canons are "null and void."
Via Resolution NAC023, the Council reminded dioceses that they are required to "accede" to the Constitution and Canons, and declaring that any diocesan action that removes that accession from its constitution is "null and void."
That declaration, the resolution said, means that their constitutions "shall be as they were as if such amendments had not been passed."
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