Episcopal diocese allows graceful exit of former clergy

Monday, October 05, 2009
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh will not take action against the clergy who left the Episcopal Church.

This is the diocese that remained in the Episcopal Church after the 2008 diocesan convention voted to secede from the denomination with Archbishop Robert Duncan.

The decision was announced today, a day after the one-year anniversary of the split. Instead of removing their clergy credentials, the Episcopal diocese will "release" them to become licensed in any church they choose.

Both bodies still call themselves the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. The diocese that remained in the Episcopal Church has 28 parishes, while the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican) has 57 parishes and is affiliated with both the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America and the new Anglican Church in North America.

The decision affects about 100 priests and deacons. Archbishop Duncan was deposed -- stripped of his clergy credentials -- by the Episcopal House of Bishops in September 2008, so this doesn't apply to him. the rest