Revised
The Diocese of Pittsburgh has appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury for “alternative primatial oversight”. Read the full press release at Standing Committee Requests “Alternative Primatial Oversight”; Envisions Tenth Province Within Episcopal Church.
Pittsburgh, unlike Fort Worth and some others, is not a diocese that restricts the ministry of women as priests.
The Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold has commented:
I find the action by the Standing Committee and Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh unsurprising and altogether consistent with their implicit intention of walking apart from the Episcopal Church. The urgency of their appeal indicates an unwillingness to be part of the process of formulating a covenant so clearly set forth in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s reflection. I would very much hope that they would remain part of the Episcopal Church as we, along with the other provinces of the Communion, explore our Anglican identity – as the Archbishop has invited us to do.
The Diocese of South Carolina has also announced an appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury for alternative primatial oversight. Read their statement here.
The Diocese of Newark has announced its list of candidates for election of the next diocesan bishop. Read the full press release about this here. Here is the ENS press release.
The list includes Michael Barlowe and does not include Tracey Lind, who withdrew her name from consideration. The American Anglican Council remains outraged though.
The Diocese of San Joaquin has also appealed for alternative primatial oversight. Their statement is here.
Thank you for the timely update.
Frank Griswold seems to be speaking in some political fantasy world. For instance: “the action … of Pittsburgh [is] altogether consistent with their …intention of walking apart from the Episcopal Church.” Err , I think he means their recognition that most of ECUSA has walked apart from the Anglican Communion. AND: “The urgency of their appeal indicates an unwillingness to be part of the process of formulating a covenant so clearly set forth in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s reflection.” — As if ++Griswold still thinks that ECUSA can have any significant say in formulating an anglican Covenant ? AND FINALLY:… Read more »
>>>The American Anglican Council remains outraged though. Well, outrage is what they do. Just as others find self-expression through oils or watercolor or clay, their chosen medium is outrage. It’s their whole reason for being. It’s why they get up in the morning. This is why they are, in many ways, their own worst enemy. Their public face is the perpetually enraged Can(n)on David Anderson, who always looks and acts as though someone just slapped his mother. (This is the man who, when asked on a CNN talk show why he stays in the Episcopal Church, replied, “Because I love… Read more »
Dave, I think you miss the point. TEC has passed resolutions expressly signing on to the Covenant process convened by ++Cantaur. Yet, in apparent defiance of that process elaborated on by ++Cantaur only yesterday, some dioceses have unilaterally declared themselves constitutive and strangely, appeal to ++Cantaur to suborn this by calling on him to oversee them or some such in order that they may remain constitutive, which they cannot be since that determination cannot occur until, at least, the Covenant has been written. Has the Covenant been written, Dave? ++Griswold reaffirms TEC’s commitment to ++Cantaur’s proposals and points out that… Read more »
The unravelling is beginning and will go on for a while. For those vitriolic about +Duncan, +Iker and ++ Akinola I do hope you find peace in your probable associate membership of a less than fully Anglican church. Vitriol on either side is just as unacceptable as the bigotry that can detestably still be found. I really appreciated ++Rowan’s rejection of any suggestion that to have Biblical objection to these ECUSA innovations re. homosexual behavior is to be bigoted. ++Rowan has done an estimable job of reflecting on the chaos and division that exists and which will not be healed… Read more »
Good comment, New Here!
TEC’s PB is merely a presider, not a Primate in the traditional sense. Those seeking alternative ‘primatial oversight’ actually mean that they are no longer part of the General Convention and TEC. Soon TEC will be rid of the ‘drama kings’ of the ilk of Duncan, Iker et al., and will be able to get on with the mission of the church. What disgusts me is the drama kings’ deceitfulness.
I used to worship at Tracey Lind’s cathedral church. She’s a wonderful, dynamic person who has wonderfully increased the membership, presence, and mission of the cathedral. It’s sad that the Communion as a whole is unwilling to make use of her rare and special gifts.
Thanks TA for providing your links, comments, etc. Been reading TA for years, and checked out the site during GC2006 just to find out what the heck was going on! But I’m just confused, is all. Praise God that I’m now living in a liberal diocese (Vermont), after 23 years in the Diocese of Texas (yeah, they just elected a female Suffragan, but you have no idea what women and LBGT’s have gone through in those 23 yrs just to be recognised in leadership roles). Anyway, let me just say as a gay man, I don’t want to be exiled… Read more »
Can you supply attribution for +Frank’s quote? I don’t see it elsewhere. Thanks.
I agree with you 100%, New Here. I checked my old confirmation certificate the other night. It says absolutely nothing about the Anglican Communion. Only the Episcopal Church. I think I’ll stick with that.
Ian ; couldn’t care less about being ‘fully Anglican’if it means nuzzling up to people like Akinola and Nazir-Ali.
Liberal and progressive sounds better than your suggested soundbites ‘biblical, catholic, and apostolic’, meaning ‘out of date, prejudiced, superstitious and conservative’.
cogito
The statement was released to the press yesterday by the Episcopal News Service in the same email as his comments on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement.
Jay_in_Vermont, good for you, I’m envious 🙂 I was raised in the Dio. of Texas and now have the unbounded joy of residing in the (drumroll please…) Dio. of Dallas 😛
So what’s the job market like in Vermont ? 😉
And BTW, this ‘Alternative Primatial Oversight’ stuff is a bunch of hooey – pure political grandstanding. They want out from underneath someone who isn’t on TOP of them…
Thanks Mike – we make choices and surely then +Nazir Ali was right. There are two different churches. I wish we could even use the same language. Shaw said we were two people separated by a common language. Now we are two churches who cannot use the same language as we find different meaning in the same words and expressions.
I have commented before on the inevitability of separation as we are indeed two different churches or religions. I remake my point – can we not divorce with grace rather than vitriol?
On the emotional level we may still proceed calmly. We are a mix of evangelical, catholic, and progressive strands of spiritual journey, and for the foreseeable future we are likely to remain so. Unless, unless, unless this fake diagnosis that the new right has offered us, to the effect that this mix means we are deeply broken and contaminated, is taken seriously enough among us to become the self-fulfilling prophecy that serves as one of its major functions and aims. Canterbury still seems confused, though at least finally speaking up quite a bit more than before. If this mix is… Read more »
Ian ; I have been saying exactly that for years – that there should be a split, and that this should be done amicably. That means no ‘winners and losers’, no ‘real’ or ‘true’ Anglicans – simply accepting that we entirely differ.
Problem is, no-one appears to be prepared to do this on either side.
Um, didn’t Jesus say something about divorce? (IIRC, not favorably?) The reasserters (and perhaps MerseyMike, for other reasons) just WISH that TEC (and our many, many allies, throughout Anglicanism worldwide) would quietly sulk off in our exile status (and, analogously, use the 2nd-class broken-down water-fountain of the “Jim Crow” era in the southern U.S.) It ain’t happening. We’re committed to creating this Anglican Covenant and, like it or not, you’ll have to ***deal w/ us***. TEC has been at the *heart* of the Anglican Communion, from the very beginning (in the same way, I might add, that LGBT Christians have… Read more »