Pittsburgh: Episcopalians weigh options as secession vote draws near

Thursday, September 04, 2008
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As a final vote approaches on whether the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh should secede from the national church, local Episcopalians who want to remain part of the New York-based denomination are meeting to plan for their future.

"A Hopeful Future for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh: An Alternative Solution" will present reasons for opting to stay in the Episcopal Church.

It will also present what may happen with property, a new diocesan government and other issues if Bishop Robert Duncan and most local Episcopalians change their allegiance to the theologically conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, which covers six nations in southernmost South America. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

"A Hopeful Future" will take place at 1 p.m. Sept. 13 in St. Paul Episcopal Church, Mt. Lebanon.
On Oct. 4, the diocesan convention is expected to take the second of two votes required to attempt to secede from the Episcopal Church. In the first, taken in November, laity voted 118-58 and clergy voted 109-24 to leave the Episcopal Church. the rest