The Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Rt Rev Robert Duncan has said he will not appeal against the ruling, as bishops worldwide condemned the Episcopal Church of the manner of his deposition. He said: “I’m very sad, sad for the Episcopal Church. In 15 days the diocese will determine whether it too wants to be part of the Southern Cone and figure out whether it wants me back as bishop. That is up to the diocese, although I have a sneaking suspicion they will want me back.” “This is of course a very painful moment for Pittsburgh Episcopalians,” the president of the diocesan standing committee the Rev David Wilson said. “The leadership of the Episcopal Church has inserted itself in a most violent manner into the affairs and governance of our diocese.”The Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev Peter Jensen, said: “The unfolding tragedy of the Episcopal Church starkly reveals the folly of the original decision to break with the Bible and centuries of historic Christianity on the issue of human sexuality.”
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GP
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2 comments:
In general, I think that if you stop believing in the basics of ANY group that you belong to, you should leave, not force out those who still believe.
BUT a significant part (of course not the whole)of what caused the vote against Bishop Robert (and the legality of that decision is disputed)is that he was arranging to take the assets of the diocese with him if the Synod had voted with him, which action was forestalled by his removal.
If you decide to leave your family, you can't take the family silver with you! Sometimes we have to expect that acting on our convictions will cost us.
Further question to be considered: how does creating one more new denomination help the unity of the church (so that the world may believe)?
Hi Cassandra,
I was away for School hols and then synod so I haven't responded sooner.
There are some tricky issues for which TEC has to take some responsibility too.
As for unity not all unity is godly unity look at Genesis 11 and the tower of Babel. We ought not confuse the administration of the Anglican church with the unity of the Gospel. Even the oft quoted prayer of Jesus in John 17:20-21acknowledges unity is a unity in belief in the apostolic word. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the many in the TEC refuses the apostolic word at key points and so refuses true Apostolic unity.
GP
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