PITTSBURGH — Episcopal bishops voted late Sept. 18 to remove Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh from ministry, saying the leading conservative has renounced and abandoned the Episcopal Church.
The vote, with 88 bishops in favor of removing Duncan, 35 against and four abstaining, came at a special session of the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops in Salt Lake City.
Duncan is no longer allowed to present himself as a bishop in the Episcopal Church. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said his actions over recent years have constituted “abandonment of the communion of this church.”
The effect of removing Duncan may be limited, however, because the Diocese of Pittsburgh is poised to leave the Episcopal Church Oct. 4 to join the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, based in Argentina. It would be the second diocese to do so, after the Fresno, Calif.-based Diocese of San Joaquin.
Duncan has already been accepted as a bishop in the Southern Cone and the Pittsburgh diocese is expected to re-elect him, the diocese said in a statement.
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