Pittsburgh Offers Release to Clergy Who Departed TEC

From The Living Church-

The standing committee of the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Pittsburgh has issued a letter that offers to release former clergy of the diocese without deposing them.

“It has now been a year since the 143rd Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh,” the standing committee said in the letter, which it made available. “At the conclusion of that convention, ‘letters of transfer’ to the Province of the Southern Cone were issued to every member of the clergy. It is our understanding that some have understood themselves to have accepted these ‘transfers.’”

The Episcopal Church’s diocese, however, still counts these clergy on its rolls. “We are seeking to remedy this in a way that does not involve deposition,” the standing committee said.

More than 100 priests and deacons had transferred to the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. They are now poised to become clergy of the Anglican Church in North America, which is led by the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan, the seventh Bishop of Pittsburgh, who has been deposed as a bishop of the Episcopal Church. ACNA leaders have said repeatedly that they intend to seek ACNA’s recognition as a province of the Anglican Communion.

Bishop Duncan refers to the clergy and people who left with him as the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, and its diocesan website adds (Anglican) as a suffix. The non-separating diocese identifies itself as “the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church in the United States.”

The letter refers to Canon III.9.8 but does not cite it by title: “Renunciation of the Ordained Ministry.” That language has proven a stumbling point, in recent years, as other priests have received occasional offers for release without deposition.

The canon applies to any priest who wants to resign from the Episcopal Church’s holy orders, “acting voluntarily and for causes, assigned or known, which do not affect the priest’s moral character.” The canon’s wording sometimes has left priests uncertain of whether they are being asked to renounce only their ministry within the Episcopal Church or their future ministry as priests.

The standing committee’s letter makes the diocese’s intentions more explicit.

“This does not affect your ordination, which you may register with whatever entity you choose. This is simply a way for us to gain clarity around the issue of who is licensed to practice ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church,” the standing committee said. “Please know that this release can be reversed in the future if you so choose but that the Diocese of Pittsburgh hopes that all of you will decide to remain with us.”

The standing committee asks clergy to respond by Oct. 19.

“We’re doing this for pastoral reasons,” said the Rev. Dr. James Simons, president of the standing committee. “We do not want to see our priestly brothers and sisters deposed.”

The Rt. Rev. Kenneth Price, who has been nominated to become the diocese’s provisional bishop, supports the standing committee’s decision.

“As the Standing Committee worked through this necessary action, I was painfully aware that they were not just talking about a list of clergy, but friends of long standing,” he said. “For this reason I am grateful the canons provide this ‘softer’ method of allowing those who wish to depart from the Episcopal Church to do so legally without us making a judgment on their ordination.”


http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/10/6/pittsburgh-offers-release-to-clergy-who-departed-tec