Network of 'Dissenting' Episcopalians Seeks Separate Recognition from Archbishop

by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
December 17, 2003

(AgapePress) - The head of the Episcopal Church USA is vowing the denomination will resolve internal divisions over the consecration of a homosexual bishop without intervention from Anglicans overseas.

Traditionalist Episcopalians who opposed the consecration of New Hampshire Bishop Vicki Gene Robinson are building a separate network of Episcopal churches and are asking Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to provide direct oversight for them.

But in a letter to American bishops, ECUSA's Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold says that together they will devise their own means of providing alternative leadership for dissenting congregations -- and that "speculations about alternative structures and realignments are unhelpful."

However, as Dr. Kendall Harmon with the American Anglican Council points out, 13 traditionalist Episcopal bishops have agreed to form the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses under Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh. "There's a lot of parishes and individuals who want to be a part of that confessing network, and that skeleton is beginning to be formed," Harmon explains. Among the confessing dioceses are places like South Carolina, Albany, and Ft. Worth.

According to Harmon, traditionalist Episcopalians believe Robinson's consecration has created irreconcilable differences with their denomination's leadership.

"The sense of people on the ground within dioceses and parishes is [that] this is a very serious crisis and it's not something that is going to go away," he says. In addition, he says the issue is one that can no longer be talked through "because the American church has unilaterally gone ... against the clear teaching of scripture and against the clear majority will of the Anglican Communion."

In a letter to those in the Network, Bishop Duncan emphasizes the group's objective is not to set up an "alternative denomination," as reported by The Washington Times. The group's formation, he says, was needed to "prevent the orthodox minority from being marginalized"

"[W]e are the ones living under ECUSA's constitution and canons," Duncan writes. "We are adhering to the traditions of the faith and the teachings of Holy Scripture."

The bishop says he believes it his duty to "remain firm on the biblically-based historic and redemptive teachings of the church in order to convince even those who support the vote of General Convention that popular culture cannot dictate to a Holy God." And as revisionists become more aggressive in ECUSA, he says, the Network will remain available to "those who stand in solidarity regarding the repudiation of the anti-Scriptural decision of General Convention."

"Cultures fail, but God's offering of a reclaimed life will never change," Duncan writes.