Episcopal dioceses protesting leadership

PEORIA, Ill. — An eighth conservative Episcopal diocese is rejecting the authority of the incoming head of the denomination and asking for oversight from another Anglican leader.

The Diocese of Quincy, based in Peoria, voted Sept. 16 that it would not accept the leadership of Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports gay relationships. Schori, the first woman to lead the denomination, will be installed Nov. 4.

The eight dioceses are asking Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, to assign them an Anglican leader who shares their traditional views. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican branch in America.

The other protesting dioceses are Dallas; Central Florida; Fort Worth, Texas; Fresno, Calif.; Pittsburgh; Springfield, Ill.; and South Carolina.

All the dioceses are members of the Anglican Communion Network, which represents 10 Episcopal dioceses and many parishes with traditional views of the Bible and sexuality.

The network formed after the Episcopal Church confirmed its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.

Separately, one of the largest Episcopal parishes in the country, which opposes ordaining gays, said it will pay the Diocese of Dallas $1.2 million as it leaves the denomination.

Christ Church, formerly Christ Church Episcopal, will pay the lump sum up front and will continue paying down the $6.8 million of debt on parish property.

Jill Kinsella, a spokeswoman for Christ Church, said Dallas Bishop James M. Stanton, who shares the conservative views of the Plano congregation, has arranged for the church to be supervised temporarily by an Anglican leader in Peru. Christ Church, which has about 2,200 worshippers each weekend, plans to remain in the Anglican Communion.

In a letter to the world's Anglicans released Sept. 16, Williams urged Episcopal conservatives to remain patient as he tries to keep the communion unified.

"I continue to hope that colleagues will not take it for granted that there is a rapid short-term solution that will remove our problems or simplify our relationships for good and all without the essential element of personal, probing conversation," the archbishop wrote.