News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
9/14/2008
ET TU, HOUSE OF BISHOPS? It would seem so. The final betrayal, without a trial, will take place this week when bishops of the Episcopal Church take a vote to remove the orthodox Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan from ministry for abandoning the Communion of the Church, the Episcopal Church that is, not the Anglican Communion and certainly not the faith of the church which he holds more dearly than life itself.
Bishop Robert Duncan's ecclesiastical death is the clear objective of the presiding bishop. In a letter to the clergy and people of the diocese Duncan wrote, "Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori made it clear that there will be a vote to depose me from the ministry of the Episcopal Church."
The charge against Bishop Duncan, initiated by five priests and sixteen laypeople of the Diocese of Pittsburgh is led by the liberal priest and pathological opponent of orthodoxy Dr. Harold Lewis of Calvary Episcopal and an implacable foe of Bishop Duncan who has spent the last two years litigating against this godly Evangelical Catholic bishop. The "evidence" in the case put forward by the House of Bishops Property Task Force, is drawn directly from the Calvary litigation.
"We have long suspected that a principal purpose in the Calvary litigation was to have me removed, by whatever means, before the realignment vote. Whatever the purported evidence, I continue to maintain that the House of Bishops '"vote'" will be a gross violation of the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church," said Duncan.
Indeed it is. Mr. John H. Lewis, Jr. Bishop Duncan's attorney wrote VOL pointing out that the Presiding Bishop and her chancellor are violating the canons of The Episcopal Church in order to "remove" Bishop Duncan prior to the diocesan convention in October. The move is clearly political in intent and nature.
Lewis called the action "improper" because Duncan's actions are only "intentions". He cited the failed attempt to depose San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield, as a case in point. He further argued that both The Episcopal Church and the Province of the Southern Cone (under whose authority Duncan would come under) are members of the same "communion"- the Anglican Communion.
Lewis noted that the real intent of using this particular canon was to use the Task Force on Property disputes - not the Review Committee - for the purpose of seizing property. The Canons state that the case of an "inhibited" bishop must be referred to the HOB for action. Bishop Duncan has not been inhibited, let alone deposed. Jefferts Schori tried once before to inhibit him, but failed to get the consent of three senior bishops so had to drop it, albeit temporarily. Now she has returned with a vengeance.
"In these circumstances, I concur with my Chancellor and the Parliamentarian that any ambiguity in the canon should be resolved in favor of making this important provision (deposing Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan) work effectively and that the discipline of the Church should not be stymied because a majority or nearly a majority of voting bishops are no longer in active episcopal positions in the Church and their attendance at meetings is hampered by age, health, economics, or interest in other legitimate pursuits," wrote Jefferts Schori. You can read her full statement here: http://tinyurl.com/55bk3l
Back wrote Lewis, "The canons clearly distinguish between a majority of those present (the requirement when acting on a bishop's request to resign) and a majority of bishops entitled to vote (the standard for deposition) it also is reasonable that there would be a higher standard for involuntary separation. The presiding bishop concedes an 'ambiguity' but says that the Canon has to mean what she says it means in order for it to 'work effectively'. In other words, she doesn't have the votes to depose Bishop Duncan so the canon has to be twisted in order to achieve her goal of removing Bishop Duncan before the diocesan convention."
The Presiding Bishop is out for blood and won't rest till Duncan's ecclesiastical head is removed from his shoulders and is out of the diocese. She has neither civility nor polity on her side, just raw vengeance. "If the presiding bishop really believes that Bishop Duncan's statements and 'intentions' violate the canons, then she should follow the honorable course prescribed by the canons, announce a presentment and give him a trial," Lewis blasted back.
That, apparently is the last thing Jefferts Schori wants. She rules the House of Bishops with a rod of iron. Few, if any, bishops will stand up to her. She makes her predecessor Frank Griswold look like a declawed pussycat. He hated confrontation. She wallows in it.
"There are two things I would say, and one thing I would ask. First, whatever happens on Thursday as to my status, the Diocese will carry forward under rules long-ago established. If I am 'removed,' the Standing Committee will be the Ecclesiastical Authority", said Duncan.
The Pittsburgh diocese is scheduled to vote Oct. 4 at its diocesan convention on whether to secede from the Episcopal Church and realign with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America. While there are two factions opposed to leaving TEC, the overwhelming majority stand with Bishop Duncan.
Duncan said in his letter that even if he is removed, leaders of the Pittsburgh diocese will carry on with the secession vote. Duncan and his supporters say that the U.S. church's consecration of an openly avowed non-celibate priest to the episcopacy in the person of Gene Robinson was the final line in the sand.
Duncan's opponents have made it equally clear that even if a majority of Pittsburgh Episcopalians vote to withdraw from the Episcopal Church, the National Church will continue to have a Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Several hundred Pittsburgh Episcopalians met at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon on Saturday and said they planned to stay with the Episcopal Church
"The beginnings may be a trifle rough but we have the will and the people to proceed," said Mary Roehrich, a member of St. Andrew's Church in Highland Park. "...This diocese will not be liberal or conservative. It will have significant numbers of people of all theological stripes," said one newspaper report.
The presentation was made by an organization called Across the Aisle, a coalition of clergy and lay people that formed seven months ago, after Duncan announced he would seek to have the Pittsburgh Diocese break from what he feels is a liberal-leaning Episcopal Church.
Across the Aisle has "made a first cut at a budget and, in so doing, have made support for parishes, parish initiatives and mission development a high priority," said Joan Gundersen, a member of the Church of the Redeemer, Squirrel Hill.
A standing committee of four lay people and four clergy will lead the reorganized diocese until a new bishop can be selected, said Rev. James Simons, rector of St. Michael's of the Valley in Ligonier and chairman of the Across the Aisle steering committee.
The legal battle over the $43 million in assets that the national church says the diocese holds in trust will become the lynchpin of the deposition of Bishop Duncan by the Presiding Bishop. Across the Aisle is working in cooperation with the national church.
Mrs. Jefferts Schori's particular animus for Bishop Duncan has no parallel. She has not gone after Ft. Worth Bishop Jack Iker, Bishop John-David Schofield (San Joaquin) or Bishop Keith Ackerman (Quincy) with the same degree of ferocity that she has gone after Bishop Duncan. There is a peculiar hatred for Duncan born no doubt because of his leadership of Common Cause Partnership bringing together orthodox dioceses and parishes in the Episcopal Church under an umbrella movement, and for his unquestioned leadership in the upcoming North American Anglican Province.
Clearly the remaining orthodox in The Episcopal Church are on a collision course with the Episcopal Church's revisionist leadership. There is no going back for either the pansexualists who are bent on moving the church forward in a direction at odds with the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide or Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals in TEC who see little or no future for themselves in the present church. By the end of the year Anglo-Catholicism will cease to exist at a diocesan level. Then it will be Evangelicals who will face the music.
The following are confidential documents concerning the inhibition and deposition of Bishop Robert Duncan from Bishop Dorsey Henderson of the Title IV Review Committee to the Presiding Bishop.
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/DuncanCert.pdf
The following is a statement from Bishop Duncan's attorney John H. Lewis Jr.
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8994
The following is Bishop Duncan's Pastoral Statement to his clergy and laity
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8987
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