First, two items from within the Diocese of Pittsburgh:
Bruce Robison who is Rector of St Andrew’s Highland Park, wrote to his parishioners about the deposition, explaining the current situation there, see Rector’s Announcement concerning the Deposition of the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan.
Joan Gunderson president of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh and a member of the steering committee of Across the Aisle, wrote about the current situation, and this was reproduced on the web by Lionel Deimel, see Gundersen Offers Pittsburgh Update.
Also, this news report by Ann Rodgers in last Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is relevant: Diocese found breaking up hard to do, but still a relief.
Second, some more expressions of support for Bishop Robert Duncan:
Archbishop Henry Orombi wrote this Open Letter of Support.
Global South Anglican published this Statement by the Primates’ Council of GAFCON on the alleged deposition of the Bishop of Pittsburgh. The GAFCON website is broken at the moment, no list of signatories is included at GSA.
Update The GAFCON website has no list of signatories either.
Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina wrote this: Bishop Lawrence Reports on the House of Bishops’ Meeting, September 17-19, 2008.
Good letter from Bruce Robison, very well written, measured and accurate. Otherwise I’m afraid that it’s all getting a bit boring and predictable. It’s easy in the US religious culture to break away and found your own ‘pure Church’. This is because ecclesiastically the Church operates like a variation of the capitalist competitive market and a sense of ‘catholicity’ is weak. There is nothing that will stop Bishop Duncan or other schismatically inclined conservatives from competing with the Episcopal Church or indeed the Anglican Communion. Of more interest is what will happen in the longer run with what are essentially… Read more »
Bishop Lawrence’s remarks sound supportive, but I for one doubt that he is actually doing desposed Duncan any long-term favors. That Bishop L cannot accurately discern why Duncan was desposed might suggest that he still has a long-term case of the San Joaquin Schofield-Iker-Venebles flat earthisms. Yes, some ambiguities exist in the current language of the canons involved, about any strict inhibition step needing to be taken before desposition, and about what constitutes a quorum so to speak, depending on how you adopt this or that bishop counting rule for the possible desposition vote. No doubt future General Conventions will… Read more »
No one expected to win the conservative factions at this time. It was anticipated that they would lobby and move to thwart the developments of more inclusive and liberal theology. Their vehemence and open collusion was a blessing (rather like the Pharoah and his sorcerers trying to thwart God’s agent Moses). Their kind of theology will continue, scribes of such ilk have given all the prophets and Jesus a hard time throughout the ages. The victory was that TEC has affirmed a robust commitment to true justice, and that the previously disenfranchised now have a foundation upon which they can… Read more »
As the airwaves and bloggers seem very quiet at the moment and as Peter Akinola’s opening address has now appeared, might I be permitted a second bite at the cherry? Reinforcing my earlier point, even Akinola seems to have run out of steam. No mention of Bishop Duncan in his address and GAFCON gets little more mention than ‘indecently dressed brides’ – I wish there was an accompanying photograph, I can hardly imagine what he means, and also road safety figures high on the list. GAFCON need to send Martyn Minns in to sort him out he’s going off message… Read more »
“We called Gafcon because we refused to ‘succumb to the turmoil in our Communion and simply watch helplessly’. We have found ourselves in a world in which Anglican leaders hold on to a form of religion but consistently deny its power. We have a situation in which some members of the Anglican family think they are so superior to all others that they are above the law, they can do whatever they please with impunity. As a Communion we have been unable to exercise discipline’. – P. Akinola If ‘Discipline’ is what the Nigerian Primate is asking for, where is… Read more »
OK, this is frivolous, but a very funny comment on the current tensions in TEC (Pittsburgh, Virginia and elsewhere)… And shows that we “conservatives” can be fun: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VgGDA8spnl8
I suppose if your ‘fun’ consists in promoting laws which condemn defenders of Gays to the prospect of imprisonment (as in Nigeria) then this is certainly no joke. How davidwh can still seek to justify the condemnation of homosexuality, when the Gospel demands that we not judge others more severely than we judge ourselves is a mystery to most of us who believe in the redemption that we are meant to offer to the world. To side with Archbishop Akinola in his mindless defence of the cult of purity – in lieu of justice and mercy – is to fail… Read more »
Truly the Episcopal Church have made a rod for their own back with Bishop Lawrence of South Carolina.
They allowed him to avoid consecration by Jefferts Schori and now he is gradually moviing in a schismatic direction.
“To side with Archbishop Akinola in his mindless defence of the cult of purity – in lieu of justice and mercy – is to fail in the mission of Jesus and the Church he founded.”
God love you for this!
I tried to let the alleged fun and humor of the linked streaming vid grab me – some spiffy guitar picking there, I think I heard – but alas find that I am really much too worried about the current state campaign by constitutional amendment initiative to deny a whole host of legal-economic supports to my family – carried out under the conservative sound bite rubric of protecting traditional marriage. I guess I am still just one, thinking about how to empower the ladies in the midst of this now, including its current hellish aspects and powers of injustice, evil,… Read more »
drdanfee, I agree wholeheartedly, and to watch one’s country transform from a “superpower” (which I doubt we ever were in the U.S.) to another rotting third world country (a certainty) while the leadership was more concerned about LGBT’s getting married is nothing more than a travisty. Unfortunately the rest of us have to suffer along with them in the Republican Party’s never ending quest of financial malfeasence, ineptitude, and infrastructure negligence. But by golly, we’ve got an admendment to protect marriage in my own state to protect us from those insurgent queer people. As said often these times, we are… Read more »