pecusa secret review panel fails

Bid to depose US Bishop backfires

Wednesday, 16th January 2008. 10:31am

By: George Conger.

US PRESIDING Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori=92s bid to depose Bishop
Robert Duncan before the opening of the 2008 Lambeth Conference has misfired,
leaving the Pittsburgh Bishop in office pending a trial at the autumn
meeting of the House of Bishops.

On Jan 15, Bishop Schori wrote to the conservative leader saying that
although a secret review panel on Dec 17 had found that he had "abandoned
the communion" of the Episcopal Church, after four weeks of deliberations
the Church's three senior bishops were not able to agree upon suspending him
from office.

If Bishop Duncan had been suspended, he would have been brought before the
March meeting of the House of Bishops for trial, and likely be deposed from
office by the liberal majority. Having failed to inhibit him, the charges
will now be heard by the Bishops in September. However she urged him to
recant within two months, "providing evidence that you once more consider
yourself fully subject to the doctrine and discipline of the Episcopal
Church."

Last week San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield was certified by the
review panel as having abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church,
and the three senior bishops, Peter Lee of Virginia, Don Wimberly of Texas
and Leo Frade of Southeast Florida agreed to inhibit him -- prohibiting him
from exercising his ministry as bishop --- pending a trial at the March
meeting.

The failure to inhibit Bishop Duncan leaves him in office for the July
16-Aug 3 Lambeth Conference and will likely serve as a rallying point
for conservatives against the Episcopal Church at Lambeth.

The aborted bid to depose him before his diocese took the final step in
quitting the Episcopal Church, paradoxically, may serve to strengthen
his hand as some bishops who were wavering about attending may now go to
Lambeth to protect Bishop Duncan.

In a statement released late on Tuesday night, Bishop Duncan denied that
he had been unfaithful to the tenets of the Church. "Few bishops have
been more loyal to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church. I
have not abandoned the Communion of this Church. I will continue to serve
and minister as the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh," he
said.

Fellow conservative Bishop Jack Iker stated it was "tragic and deeply
disturbing" that Bishop Schori would move against Bishop Duncan before
Pittsburgh took "any final decision" to separate from the Episcopal Church.

"The fact that Bishop Duncan and the Diocese of Pittsburgh are still a
part of the Episcopal Church was clearly affirmed by the refusal of the three
senior diocesan bishops to consent to his being inhibited for this alleged
offence," he said.

The Episcopal Church gives "lip service" to the mantra of dialogue "to heal
our divisions" while "at the same time closing off any possibility of
continuing conversations by aggressive, punitive actions such as this," he
said.

Bishop Iker noted that he too had received a "threatening" letter from
Bishop Schori on Jan 15, that said he "would be liable for charges of
violation of my ordination vows if I continue" any encouragement of such a
belief," --- that parishes and diocese can quit the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Schori denied there was an organized campaign being waged by the
national Church to silence the voice of conservatives in her letter to
Bishop Iker. "I lament your belief," she wrote, that those "with your
theological position are being systematically eliminated from positions
of leadership and influence. If they are disappearing, it is by their own
decision and at their own hands."

She stated that she had sought to "include all theological positions in
appointments within our purview" and had not discriminated against
traditionalists. However, following her election as Presiding Bishop,
Bishop Schori said she hoped to educate Bishop Iker and other opponents of
women clergy on the "heresy of Donatism," and has not favoured the clergy
careers of those on the right of the church spectrum.

Bishop Schori acknowledged that Bishop Iker was concerned with being
"threatened with depositions and lawsuits." However such a fate would be
self-inflicted, she suggested.

"Depositions and lawsuits have no substance if there has been no
violation," she said. "Fear of same is probably not rational if there is no basis
for same."



americadesk@religiousintelligence.com