Diocese votes to split off

MONROEVILLE, Pa. --- Clergy and lay members of the theologically conservative Pittsburgh diocese voted overwhelmingly Saturday to break from the liberal Episcopal Church, with which it differs on issues ranging from homosexuality to biblical teachings on salvation.

Assistant Bishop Henry Scriven said the vote means the Pittsburgh diocese is now more firmly aligned with the majority of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, which is more conservative than the communion's 2.2 million-member U.S. church.

"I am delighted that what we have done today is bringing the Diocese of Pittsburgh back into the mainstream of worldwide Anglicanism," Bishop Scriven said,

The Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the U.S. church, criticized the vote, saying, "There is room in this church for all who desire to be members of it."

She also said schism is not an "honored tradition within Anglicanism" and has "frequently been seen as a more egregious error than charges of heresy."

The votes were 240 in favor of leaving the church and 102 against. Eight voters either abstained or cast disqualified ballots.

The Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno, Calif., was the first to leave the national church, in 2006. Dioceses based in Quincy, Ill., and Fort Worth, Texas, are set to vote next month on leaving.

The Pittsburgh diocese was led for 11 years by Bishop Robert Duncan, who was removed from office by the national church's House of Bishops last month.

Bishop Duncan is among the leaders of a national network of theological conservatives who are breaking away from the liberal denomination in a dispute over Scripture. The long-simmering debate erupted in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Clergy and lay members on both sides were impassioned before Saturday's vote. Several opposed to splitting from the national church acknowledged disagreeing with its more liberal teachings -- including a more "inclusive" salvation that doesn't rely on Christ's crucifixion alone. But many said staying in the church was the only way to remedy those teachings.