9 Parishes May Go to Court (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
July 12th, 2006 by Peter Frank
Nine parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh are considering legal action to stop a plan by Bishop Robert Duncan that they say could “effectively remove the diocese from the church.”
“This is totally uncharted water,” the Rev. Harold T. Lewis, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, said Tuesday.
Duncan and the standing committee of the diocese want to remove the diocese from its current geographical province and relocate it to a new “theologically determined” province, representatives of the nine parishes said.
Duncan has been the leading voice against movements within the national church that he and other conservatives consider to be contrary to Scripture. Duncan and like-minded Episcopalians oppose same-sex unions and the 2003 consecration of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.