Episcopal Church Urged to Table Disciplining Bishop

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, January 24, 2008

A leading Episcopal conservative is urging the national church to halt the process of disciplining Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, who is currently moving toward disaffiliation.

"In brief, I would urge TEC (The Episcopal Church) and other Anglican bishops to pray for and take action so that this process pauses indefinitely," the Rev. Ephraim Radner said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Episcopal Church's three senior bishops stopped short of banning Duncan from his religious duties last week when the presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, sought to inhibit him. Duncan was, however, certified as having "abandoned the Communion of this Church" and Episcopal bishops are expected to vote on a final decision later this year.

The charge essentially means that the bishop has effectively left the church.

Duncan has been leading his Pittsburgh diocese toward a split with The Episcopal Church over its liberal direction on Scripture and homosexuality. The Pittsburgh bishop has expressed little hope that the national church would get back in line with Anglican tradition and is currently planning to form a separate orthodox Anglican body in the United States with other conservative bishops.

The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, widened rifts in the Anglican Communion when it consecrated openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

Radner urged the Episcopal bishops to vote to table the matter of Duncan's status and discipline "indefinitely." He believes the national church is not in a position to judge anything especially during a time of confusion and discernment.

He noted that The Episcopal Church's adherence to "the Doctrine, Discipline, or Worship" of the church has been in question since 2003 and also pointed out that the national church has taken several breakaway parishes to court over church property despite requests from primates, or leading bishops of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces, to stop litigation.

The Episcopal Church has already inhibited Bishop John-David Schofield of the San Joaquin, Calif., diocese which voted last month to break from the national church. It is now seeking disciplinary action on Duncan as well as Bishop Jack Leo Iker of the Diocese of Fort Worth, which is also taking steps to remove itself from the national church.