Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh

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Diocese of Pittsburgh
Province	—
Bishop	The Rt. Revd. Robert Duncan
Cathedral	Trinity Cathedral
Subdivisions	—
Parishes	66
Membership	20,263 (2004)^[1]
Website	http://www.pgh.anglican.org/

The seal of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh

The Diocese of Pittsburgh, founded in 1865, is a diocese in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Geographically, it encompasses several counties in Western Pennsylvania and its cathedral is located in downtown Pittsburgh. It includes 66 individual parishes and in 2004 had a total membership of 20,263. The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan was elected bishop in 1997 and is the diocese's seventh bishop. The Rt. Rev. Henry Scriven serves as Assistant Bishop. The Diocese of Pittsburgh holds to its motto, "One Church of Miraculous Expectation and Missionary Grace."

In addition to its parishes, the diocese is home to numerous other Episcopal/Anglican organizations including the Community of Celebration, the Church Army, Rock the World Youth Mission Alliance, and the South American Missionary Society. Perhaps the most prominent of these is Trinity School for Ministry, a leading conservative evangelical seminary.

1 Diocesan history
2 Current controversy
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Diocesan history

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

By the Rev. John M. Leggett, Diocesan Historiographer/Registrar, and Lynne F. Wohleber, Diocesan Archivist

The Diocese of Pittsburgh covers the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania and includes the current counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland. In the mid-1700s this rich transmontane area drew the first Indian traders, exploring surveyors, military men and later settlers, many of whom were at least nominal Anglicans primarily from Maryland, eastern Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Location of the Diocese of Pittsburgh

The earliest penetration of the southwest corner of the state, then sparsely populated with Indians, was made by Episcopalians who set up posts in the 1740s along the Allegheny, Youghiogheny and Ohio rivers. Maryland surveyor Christopher Gist crossed the mountains in the early 1750s to survey large claims of the best farm land. Young George Washington, already a Virginia vestryman, was guided by Gist when he came west to warn the French to withdraw from this region claimed by the British. The French's refusal to leave led to invasion and capture of the tiny stockade built by Virginians at the future site of Pittsburgh in 1754. Washington read the burial office from the 1662 Prayer Book in 1755 when British churchman General Edward Braddock, fatally wounded while attempting to drive the French from Fort Duquesne at the Forks, was carried back over Chestnut Ridge and buried in the middle of the wagon tracks of US 40 in Fayette County. The successful 1758 campaign of British churchman General John Forbes marked the end of French control of the region.

When the first new migrating settlers arrived in the 1760s, there were no settled Episcopal clergy. Laity read Morning Prayer, mainly in farm cabins but sometimes at Fort Burd or Fort Pitt, or in public houses as those were established. Before the American Revolution there were no organized Episcopal churches left anywhere in this corner of the state. Some of the more dedicated laity maintained Prayer Book worship in their homes until after the first Convention of 1789, but they kept no records, elected no vestries, and built no houses for worship. From then until the 1820s, the leadership of the scattered congregations established was mainly in the hands of the few early ministers who sought ordination as Episcopalians and rode wide itinerant circuits.

The first known Episcopal clergy resident in this western third of what was then Diocese of Pennsylvania included: Robert Ayres, a Methodist ordained in 1789, residing at Brownsville, Fayette County; Francis Reno, trained for the ministry by Presbyterians and ordained in 1791, residing at Woodville, Allegheny County; Joseph Doddridge, a Methodist ordained in 1792, residing in Independence, Washington County; and John Taylor, a Presbyterian ordained in 1794, who resided in Hanover Township, Washington County, before moving to Pittsburgh to teach school.

John Barrett Kerfoot was the first bishop of the diocese.

[edit] Current controversy

The Diocese of Pittsburgh has become a front line in the current struggles within the Episcopal Church. Bishop Duncan in particular has taken up a prominent role in the conservative position within the national church. In 2003, he and a group of other conservative bishops walked out of General Convention after the House of Bishops approved Gene Robinson's election as Bishop of New Hampshire. In January of 2004 Bishop Duncan was elected the first moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, a group of conservative Episcopal dioceses.

The liberal response to Bishop Duncan has been well-organized and at least moderately successful. In 2003, Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside sued the diocese (and Bishops Duncan and Scriven specifically) over actions taken by a special convention the diocese held after the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church (TEC). At the special convention the diocese had passed a resolution which asserted that all property of individual parishes belonged to the parishes themselves rather than the diocese. In the suit, Calvary claimed that the diocese could not take such an action, as it violated the Dennis Canon. Eventually the suit was settled out of court. The final settlement did not affirm Calvary Church's central contention that diocesan property was held in trust for the national church, but create a process by which the diocese agreed to make decisions about property and assets should a congregation wish to leave the diocese. The full text of the settlement as well as each group's interpretation of its significance is available on the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh's website or on the PEP website.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh is also home to Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, one of the founding members of the Via Media USA coalition.

On November 2, 2007, the Diocese of Pittsburgh voted 227 to 82 to leave the TEC. If the vote is approved again in a year, it will take effect and the Diocese will seek affiliation with one of the other Anglican provinces.^[2] The Diocese of Pittsburgh is the third U.S. diocese to vote to disaffiliate from the TEC, following votes of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and the Episcopal Diocese of Quincy. ^[3]