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In a statement released late Tuesday night, Bishop Duncan denied that he had been unfaithful to the tenets of the Church. "Few bishops have been more loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church. I have not abandoned the Communion of this Church. I will continue to serve and minister as the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Pittsburgh," he said.

Liberal leaders in the diocese of Pittsburgh said the indictment was a cause of "hope" for them, as well as an opportunity for "reconciliation." The review panel "gives all of us in Pittsburgh serious cause to reflect," said Dr. Joan Gundersen, president of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh. "This can be an opportunity for all of us to consider how we can change course and restore relations with one another and with the Episcopal Church."

Bishop Iker stated it was "tragic and deeply disturbing" that Bishop Schori would move against Bishop Duncan before Pittsburgh took "any final decision" to separate from the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church gives "lip service" to the mantra of dialogue "to heal our divisions," he said, while "at the same time closing off any possibility of continuing conversations by aggressive, punitive actions such as this."

Though divided over the proper response to the church's leftward drift, conservative Episcopalians were united in their outrage over the latest moves by the national church leadership in New York.

The Episcopal Church's 30-year membership hemorrhage took a dramatic turn last year after seven conservative bishops quit the church: four joining the Roman Catholic Church, and three other branches of the 80 million-member Anglican Communion.

Several dozen congregations, including the largest congregations of the dioceses of Dallas, Georgia, Kansas, and Virginia have also quit the church for other Anglican groups such as the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Convocations of Anglicans in North America, and fellowships led by American bishops appointed by the Anglican Churches of Uganda and Kenya.

However, other conservative leaders have urged Episcopalians to hold fast, as help was coming from abroad. In October Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams counseled patience saying that Anglicans who were "rushing into separatist solutions" were "weakening that basic conviction of catholic theology."

Affiliation with the national church was not the most important bond in church life, he argued. In Anglicanism, it was the "Bishop and Diocese" who were the "primary locus of ecclesial identity rather than the abstract reality of the 'national church'," Williams said.

The call for patience in the 30-year battle for the soul of the Episcopal Church does not resonate as loudly as it once did, however, as the doctrinal differences between the liberal and conservative wings of the church deepen.

For the diocese of Fort Worth, Bishop Jefferts Schori's Christmas card epitomized the two faiths co-existing within the Episcopal Church. The card sent to all of the church's bishops shows a mother and child surrounded by three wise women. No mention of Jesus appears on the card, while the card speaks of "wise women throughout time and in every culture know themselves to be seekers and seers of the divine."

This card "defies explanation" the diocesan leadership said. Bishop Jefferts Schori is an "intelligent woman, so this re-interpretation of Scripture to exclude masculine images must be intentional. This card illustrates in many ways the core problem of the General Convention Church. Scripture cannot be made to conform to us, we must conform our lives and our faith to Scripture," the diocese said.

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January (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52