Clergy who left Episcopal Church won't be defrocked

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh says that clergy who left the Episcopal Church with Archbishop Robert Duncan will not be deposed -- defrocked -- by the Episcopal Church.

They will, however, be removed from the roll of clergy licensed to serve in that denomination. Of four dioceses that voted to secede, Pittsburgh is the only one in which the continuing Episcopal diocese has not moved to strip the ordinations of those who left.

There are two bodies called the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. A letter was sent yesterday from the standing committee that governs the 28-parish continuing Episcopal diocese to clergy in the 57-parish Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican). It said that clergy who didn't ask to stay in the Episcopal Church would be released to serve in "whatever entity you choose." The letter contrasted this with deposition, in which clergy are found to have "abandoned the communion" and are stripped of ordination.

"We don't want to deprive anybody of their holy orders. We don't think that's necessary, but we had to find some way to get them off the list of clergy in the Episcopal Church," said the Rev. James Simons, president of the Episcopal standing committee.

The letter was sent one year and one day after the diocesan convention voted to secede because members believed the denomination failed to uphold biblical teaching on matters from salvation to sexuality. The seceding diocese and clergy were received by the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America. It's a part of the 80 million-member global Anglican Communion, as is the Episcopal Church. The Anglican diocese is also a founder of the new Anglican Church in North America, which hopes to be recognized as an Anglican province. It is already acknowledged as such by bishops representing a majority of the world's Anglicans. The two dioceses share a cathedral, but the Episcopal diocese is suing the Anglican diocese for property and assets. The letter affects about 100 local clergy, but not Archbishop Duncan, who was deposed by the Episcopal House of Bishops in September 2008.

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09279/1003287-455.stm