Time to choose: Bp Bob Duncan Addresses the Pittsburgh Diocesan Convention

[...] There are always folks caught in the middle, folks whose loyalties with good reason run in both directions, and there are folks who wish the whole conflict would just “go away.” This is an exceedingly difficult place to be. I know how hard it is, for I have been there too. All of us have, especially as this heartbreaking conflict has unfolded.

To the still undecided or “torn” deputies in this Annual Convention I would offer one thought. The matter finally comes down to an unavoidable choice between cultures. There is the culture of the wider Episcopal Church: theologically innovative, at the edge of mainstream Christianity, secularly attuned, declining, canonically fundamentalist, and ready to sue or depose to obtain its way. By contrast, there is the culture of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh: Scripturally centered, critiquing the secular agenda, among the fastest (and few) growing dioceses of the Episcopal Church (relative to population decline), focused on congregational mission, allowing vast freedoms in the form and manner of ministry. Given that we must choose – and I do believe that national actions have now dictated that we must – which is the predominant culture we desire individually and corporately to embrace: national Church or local diocese? Read more
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