The American Church’s blacklisting of conservative clergy has spread to the episcopate.On March 9 the former Bishop of Southern Virginia, the Rt Rev David Bane informed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori that he was resigning from the US House of Bishops and had been received into the Province of the Southern Cone, were he will serve as an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Pittsburgh to the Rt Rev Robert Duncan.
Considered a moderate conservative within the Episcopal Church, Bishop Bane told Bishop Jefferts Schori that his decision to quit the Episcopal Church arose after he had spent three years seeking priestly employment within the Episcopal Church.
Elected in 1998, Bishop Bane and his liberal suffragan, the Rt Rev Carol Gallagher resigned in 2006 after a review committee found that tensions between the two and personal and political conflicts were destabilizing the diocese.
“Remaining as bishop would prevent the diocese from healing and moving forward as so much of the blame and animosity continued to be focused on me personally,” Bishop Bane wrote in his letter to the Presiding Bishop.
He added that his decision to resign was predicated upon his being permitted to continue to exercise his vocation within the Episcopal Church.
However, since his resignation, Bishop Bane had been blacklisted for employment as an interim and part-time priest, and stated that his calls to the local and national church leaders for assistance had been ignored.
He told the presiding bishop that his calls to his local bishop, the Rt Rev Clifton Daniel of East Carolina had gone unanswered. Writing to 35 colleagues within the House of Bishops “I indicated my interest in doing some kind of ministry to support them,” Bishop Bane said. “I received one response thanking me for the letter and wishing me well.”
Bishop Bane said he was “not angry” and did not see himself as a “victim”, but was “completely baffled by the total lack of care or support of any kind from anyone in the Church we have served in for 25 years.”
While Southern Virginia has had a history of difficult bishops, Bishop Bane’s problems appear to have been exacerbated following his 2003 vote against affirming Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and were compounded by his support of the Windsor Report’s call for an end to further gay bishops and blessings.
While evangelical and Anglo-Catholic clergy have long been aware of the blacklist exercised by the church hierarchy against employment in many dioceses, Bishop Bane’s ban appears to be the first of a centrist bishop seeking clerical employment after having voted against Robinson.
The extent of his estrangement from the hierarchy of the national Church was made clear to him last month at the consecration of his successor, the Rt Rev Herman Hollerith IV. Bishop Bane said he felt like a “pariah” at the service and played no role other than handing over his tokens of office.
In a letter to the Southern Virginia clergy written from the House of Bishops meeting on March 14, Bishop Hollerith stated that “this news will be for you, as it was for me, a surprise” and had been received with “sadness” by the House of Bishops. However, “as difficult as this is, I know you will join me in wishing the Banes ‘God speed’ as they take their leave from our Church,” he said.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh told The Church of England Newspaper that Bishop Banes would act as an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the diocese, and would not be taking up residence but would help Bishop Duncan with his local and national responsibilities with the diocese and the ACNA as needs arose.
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(Source: RI)