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Email to FriendPittsburgh Standing Committee fills vacancies, seeks Presiding Bishop's assistance
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori October 9 recognized the continuing Standing Committee as the ecclesiastical authority in the diocese to lead those efforts, which include calling a special meeting of the diocesan convention for December 13.
And the leadership in 19 of the diocese's 74 congregations have now said they will remain in the Episcopal Church. Observers expect that number could increase to about 25-28, in addition to Episcopalians who transfer their memberships out of realigning parishes.
The Rev. James Simons, rector of St. Michael's of the Valley in Ligonier and the only remaining member of the diocese's Standing Committee after October 4 convention's realignment vote, announced October 9 that he has appointed two others to fill vacancies on the Standing Committee.
Simons said that Mary Roehrich and the Rev. Jeff Murph, the rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Oakmont, had accepted his request to join him on the committee. The Standing Committee then appointed Andy Roman as chancellor, Rich Creehan as director of communications, Joan Gunderson as treasurer, Scott Quinn as director of pastoral care, and Alice Ramser as office administrator.
The effort to reorganize the diocese began on October 6 when Simons, who opposed realignment, wrote to his colleagues of the Standing Committee, asking them to confirm by October 8 his assumption that they had all supported the effort to leave the Episcopal Church. In response, Standing Committee President David Wilson called Simons on October 8 to tell him that he had organized a conference call to replace him on the Standing Committee of the Southern Cone-affiliated diocese because Simons intended to stay in the Episcopal Church and had not accepted a letter of transfer to the Southern Cone. (Those letters had been available to all clergy at the close of the October 4 convention, but Duncan and others said that clergy did not have to decide that day.)
Simons, who was not allowed to participate in the conference call, was meeting at the time of Wilson's call with the steering committee of Across the Aisle, a diverse organization of Pittsburgh Episcopalians who remain in the Episcopal Church. He said that he told the steering committee about the call and they agreed with the advice of newly appointed Chancellor Andrew Roman to ask Murph and Roehrich to fill two of the vacancies on the Standing Committee.
Later on October 8, Simons said, Wilson emailed him a letter saying that he was "categorically rejecting the notion that any of us have an obligation to 'demonstrate' anything to you."
"We have no such duty and I question the authority by which you would make such a request," Wilson said, confirming that he and the other six members consider themselves to be aligned with the Southern Cone.
Simons and Roman contacted Jefferts Schori by email to tell her what had happened and to ask her to consult with the Standing Committee about providing episcopal assistance for the diocese. The Presiding Bishop replied with her recognition of Simons, Murph and Roehrich as the diocesan Standing Committee and told them that she had asked Clayton Matthews, bishop for pastoral development, to assist help them obtain that assistance.
"I give thanks for the work that the Standing Committee has undertaken and look forward to learning of your progress as you move forward in this mission," Jefferts Schori said in her letter. "You and the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh continue in my prayers and those of Episcopalians across this church."
Jefferts Schori has also written to each of the former members of the Standing Committee, notifying them that they are no longer part of the ecclesiastical authority of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Standing Committee became the ecclesiastical authority on September 19 when Duncan's deposition prevented him from exercising his authority in the diocese.
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