Three Episcopal Dioceses Seek Release (LA Times)
June 29th, 2006 by Peter Frank
Three conservative Episcopal dioceses, including one in Central California, asked Wednesday to be released from the authority of the U.S. church’s presiding bishop.
Citing differences over the ordination of gay bishops, the dioceses of San Joaquin, Calif., South Carolina and Pittsburgh voted to ask Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, to place them under someone else’s jurisdiction.
The move came one day after Williams suggested the creation of a two-tier system that would move the U.S. church to the fringes of Anglican life if it continued to pursue a progressive course on matters of human sexuality and interpretations of Scripture.
Just a week ago, at their national convention in Columbus, Ohio, Episcopal leaders including the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori — the newly elected first woman to preside as bishop of the U.S. church — endorsed a proposal that doesn’t ban gay bishops but discourages the church from electing them.
But conservative congregants said the proposal only showed how the denomination had divided into, as Pittsburgh Bishop Robert W. Duncan said in a statement, “two bodies within our church.”