Thirteen Episcopal bishops opposed to their church's approval of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire plan to announce today that they are forming a rival network of dioceses and parishes, Bishop Robert W. Duncan of Pittsburgh said.
Bishop Duncan, who has been in the forefront of the Episcopalians challenging the direction of their church, said he was named "moderator and convening authority" of the dissident network. The group plans to release its founding theological statement on its Web site today.
"We are called," the statement says, "to oppose assaults on the authority of the Scriptures."
While leaders of the new group insist they are not creating a schism, they are laying the groundwork for a confrontation that could test the authority of the leadership of the the Episcopal Church U.S.A., which has 100 dioceses in the United States.
In an interview, Bishop Duncan said that the network is not seceding from the Episcopal Church U.S.A.. Instead, he said the eventual goal is for the network to win recognition as the authentic Episcopal Church from Anglican bishops overseas and from Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox denominations that have already condemned the Episcopal Church for its actions.
"We're not leaving, we're not separating ourselves," Bishop Duncan said. "What we trust is going to happen is that the rest of the world and the rest of the Christian community are going to bring such pressure to bear on the whole of this church that it steps back from this event."
The new group, called the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, will also include some dioceses and parishes in Canada and Mexico, he said. Clergy and laypeople are also expected to sign up.
The general convention of the Episcopal Church voted in August to approve the Rev. V. Gene Robinson as the next bishop of New Hampshire and to acknowledge formally that some dioceses are permitting gay union ceremonies.
Since then, conservative American Episcopalians have allied with conservative Anglican primates who lead foreign branches of the church. The Episcopal and Anglican churches are all part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Sixteen of the 38 primates have said that they will recognize the new network, said Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the diocese of South Carolina.
What could force a schism is if any of those foreign primates claim "oversight" of an American parish or diocese or if Bishop Duncan claims such authority beyond Pittsburgh, said James Solheim, director of news and information for the Episcopal Church.
"That could unleash some forces that would deeply unsettle the whole Episcopal Church," he said. "An even more serious step would be if a bishop tried to take his diocese out of the national church. I think that would break loose quite a bit of litigation."
In an effort to accommodate the conservatives, leading bishops have proposed instead that conservative parishes uneasy under the authority of liberal bishops be allowed to ask their bishops' permission for alternative leadership.
The dioceses that have agreed to join the network are Albany; Pittsburgh; San Joaquin in California; South Carolina; Florida, Central Florida, and Southwest Florida; Dallas and Fort Worth; Quincy and Springfield in Illinois; Western Kansas; and Rio Grande, which includes parts of Texas and New Mexico.