Network Bishops Reject ‘Primatial Vicar’ Offer; Recommit to Mediated Solution
11/30/2006

Speaking on behalf of the Anglican Communion Network of which he is moderator, the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, said he was heartened by the “primatial vicar” proposal that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori announced earlier today and reiterated his commitment to find a mediated solution. Seven Network dioceses, including Pittsburgh, have requested alternate primatial oversight (APO).

“We will study this proposal,” Bishop Duncan said in a prepared statement. “However at first glance what is proposed is neither primatial, nor oversight, nor is it an alternative to the spiritual authority of one who, by both teaching and action, has expressly rejected the Windsor Report and its recommendations.”

The response, drafted at a Nov. 27 meeting in New York, provides for the appointment by the Presiding Bishop, in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, of a primatial vicar as the Presiding Bishop’s designated pastor to bishops and dioceses that have requested such oversight. The primatial vicar, in episcopal orders, could preside at consecrations of bishops in those dioceses.

Bishop Duncan noted that the new proposal appeared to be less than what was offered and rejected at a meeting in New York in September. Neither the new proposal nor the one in September adequately addressed the needs of Network parishes located in non-Network dioceses, according to Bishop Duncan.

“We really do want to talk about all the issues,” he said. “We want to have this conversation and find a way forward that allows all of us to get on with our mission.”

The Living Church