RALEIGH, NC: Bishop Duncan Preaches at NC Church

by Marti Maguire, The Associated Press
The News Observer
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1325347.html
December 7, 2008

A Raleigh congregation that broke with the Episcopal church after its consecration of a gay bishop welcomed a new national leader Sunday -- days after a new denomination was formed from splinter groups in the United States and Canada who had also left the church.

Bishop Robert Duncan's sermon at Holy Trinity Church was his first since the announcement Wednesday that 11 groups of former Episcopalians will form the new Anglican Church of North America. Duncan, bishop of the Pittsburgh diocese, will lead the new denomination as its first archbishop.

Holy Trinity is aligned with one of the member groups of the new church, which are united by a distaste for what they say is the liberal direction of the established national church, the Episcopal Church USA.

Speaking to a group of parishioners before Sunday's service, Duncan likened the split to the Reformation, when Protestant churches split from a wealthy and powerful Catholic church that had "lost its way."

"We're in the midst of another Reformation," Duncan said. "Protestantism has gotten off track, and God is doing what he always does, and that is to reform it."

Without mentioning gay priests, Duncan said the established church has strayed from its adherence to Scripture. As an example, Duncan cited the refusal of a head bishop to say that the Christian faith is the only path to salvation in the afterlife.

In an interview after his sermon, Duncan called it "unfortunate" that the consecration of a gay bishop prompted the split. He said church members were already alienated by a church that diluted biblical teachings, but they were forced to leave because the consecration directly contradicted scripture.

Duncan's diocese is one of four that will leave the Episcopal Church to join the new church, along with several alliances of breakaway churches.

The new denomination of about 100,000 members in the U.S. and Canada plans to join the Anglican Communion, the worldwide church of which the Episcopal Church USA is a member. Members of Holy Trinity welcomed Duncan and the new denomination, which is expected to bring their church under the umbrella of the international Anglican church for the first time.

"It was the Lord's work," Paul Conway of Raleigh said after the service Sunday.

Duncan ordained the current rector at Holy Trinity, and he was Episcopal chaplain at UNC-Chapel Hill for four years.

Duncan hopes more congregations will split from the established church, now that they have a conservative option with the Anglican Church in North America. Some dissenting congregations had allied themselves with churches in Africa and Latin America in order to remain part of the worldwide church.

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