PITTSBURGH: Diocese releases 135 clergy

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The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh said Nov. 3 that it had formally released 135 priests and deacons who have not been active in the Episcopal Church since October 2008.
Provisional Bishop Kenneth L. Price Jr. wrote to each of the affected clergy, which a diocesan news release said was its way of "making good on its offer to release the individuals from their licensed ministry in the Episcopal Church in a way that does not involve disciplinary action."

That offer came and concerns priests and deacons whom the diocese said have accepted letters of transfer to the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

On Oct. 4, 2008 a majority of the delegates to the diocese's 143rd annual convention approved a resolution by which the diocese purported to leave the Episcopal Church. The leaders who departed have said that they remain in charge of an entity they had been calling the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican) until recently renaming themselves the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. The entity claims affiliation with the Southern Cone

The diocese will tell the church's Recorder of Ordinations to remove the clergy from the list of those licensed to exercise ordained ministry in the church, Price said in his letters to clergy.

The action, Price said, was "for causes which do not affect your moral character [and] does not affect your ordination, which is indelible."

"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," Price had said in his Oct. 5 letters to clergy notifying so-called inactive clergy that they would be released unless they told the diocese they wanted to remain.

Price said Nov. 3 that the clergy may be reconciled to the diocese at any time.

"There are canonical procedures that can be followed to receive you and again license you to practice ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church," Price wrote, "and my door will always be open for such a conversation with you."

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_116346_ENG_HTM.htm