Pittsburgh Diocese backs a split
Episcopal delegates voted for steps toward leaving in a rift over gays and Scripture.
PITTSBURGH - Representatives from the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted overwhelmingly yesterday to approve constitutional amendments that are the first step in leaving the national church in a widening rift over homosexuality and interpretation of Scripture.
Pittsburgh joined dioceses in San Joaquin, Calif., and Quincy, Ill., in granting preliminary approval to separating from the national church, which the dioceses contend have wrongly abandoned scriptural authority and traditional teachings on truth, salvation, and the divinity of Jesus Christ.
"As a diocese, we have come to a fork in the road," Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan said before lay delegates approved the measures 118-58 and clergy voted 109-24. "Indeed, it has become clear that our understandings are not only different, but mutually exclusive, even destructive to one another."
The division between conservatives and the Episcopal Church, the Anglican body in the United States, has sharpened since the denomination consecrated a gay New Hampshire bishop in 2003.
Duncan is among the leaders of the conservative U.S. movement.
The Pittsburgh Diocese wants to join another province of the Anglican Communion, a loose-knit worldwide coalition of churches that align themselves with the Church of England.
The amendments do not become final unless they are again approved at the next diocesan convention in November 2008.
Duncan said Pittsburgh would try to find a way for more liberal believers to stay in the diocese "or be given freedom to separate from us and align more directly with the wider Episcopal Church."
The Very Rev. George Werner, speaking for the Episcopal Church, praised Duncan for saying that he would try to have liberals and conservatives continue to share some facilities and programs, even if the split is completed next year.
