wfn.org | ACNS - Deposed Philadelphia Priest celebrated Mass at Trinity

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Cathedral, Pittsburgh

ACNS 3121 - USA - 10 September 2002

Deposed Philadelphia Priest celebrated Mass at Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh

[Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh] Deposed Episcopal priest, the Revd David L
Moyer, celebrated mass at 12:05 on Friday 6 September at Trinity Cathedral
in downtown Pittsburgh. The mass at Trinity Cathedral was scheduled to
remind everyone of the heritage of religious toleration of the founder of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, William Penn, on whose lands Trinity
Cathedral (Pittsburgh) is built.

For thirteen years Fr Moyer served as the Rector of the Church of the Good
Shepherd, Rosemont, a conservative Anglo-Catholic parish in the Diocese of
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). For the last six months Fr Moyer has been under
a sentence of suspension (inhibition) and was yesterday "deposed" by the
Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Rt Revd Charles E Bennison.

Fr Moyer was "deposed" on the grounds that he has "abandoned the Communion"
by not allowing Bishop Bennison to preach or preside at Communion or
Confirmation at Church of the Good Shepherd. Fr Moyer has countered that
Bishop Bennison is too liberal and cannot be trusted in the pulpit of his
Anglo-Catholic church. Anglo-Catholics are traditionally considered the most
traditional members of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church in the United
States.

Conservative Episcopalians in the 70,000-member Diocese of Pennsylvania
(comprised of Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks counties) have also been
unhappy with their bishop's position on the Resurrection and his disbelief
that Christianity is the only way to salvation.

Many bishops and primates throughout the world, including the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Most Revd George L Carey, spiritual head of the 70
million-member Anglican Communion, have refused to acknowledge the validity
of either the inhibition or the deposition of Fr Moyer.

Today, Bishop Robert Duncan of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has taken
action to receive the Revd David L Moyer as a priest in good standing of the
Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. In August the House of Bishops of the
Province of Central Africa approved David L Moyer as a priest in good
standing there, in order that he might be transferred to Pittsburgh were
Bishop Duncan to make that request.

Many American bishops and many bishops worldwide have attempted to mediate
the dispute between the Bishop of Pennsylvania and the Rector of Rosemont.
All of this has been to no avail. Bishop Duncan (Pittsburgh) has repeatedly
implored his brother bishop not to proceed to depose this priest. Bishop
Duncan has made it abundantly clear on several occasions, most recently in
person this past June, that, were Bishop Charles Benison (Philadelphia) to
proceed as he has now done, there would be no alternative to the kind of
action Duncan and others are now taking.

The Revd Garrin Dickinson, curate of Good Shepherd, Rosemont, is also a
priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Fr Dickinson has informed Bishop Duncan
that his license to officiate in the Diocese of Pennsylvania has been
withdrawn. Bishop Duncan has instructed Fr Garrin to remain at his post,
without a license. If Bishop Bennison desires that this young priest be
tried for "invasion" because he is committed to the flock at Rosemont, then
it will be in the ecclesiastical court at Pittsburgh where he will have to
be tried, as the canons direct.

Bishop Duncan's statements for intervention:

1 Because I have long known Fr Moyer as a good and godly priest, and he has
appealed to me for protection.

2 Because the canon under which the Bishop of Pennsylvania has acted is
precedent- setting, opportunistic, and due-process denying.

3 Because the soul of the Episcopal Church is at stake as innovation
supplants received Faith and Order.

4 Because traditionalist witness in the Episcopal Church will always have my
active support and creative encouragement.

5 Because the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has failed to avert
the deposition, nevertheless calling the course undertaken by the Bishop of
Pennsylvania "utterly unacceptable."

6 Because I believe there to be an inherent imbalance of power between a
bishop and a priest, leading in such a dispute to an abuse of power. The
dispute will now necessarily become a dispute between bishops, who are by
definition power equals.

7 Because recent actions both by Bishop Charles Bennison and by other
bishops, each acting contrary to the expressed will of the House of Bishops
or the Lambeth Conference, have been based on an assertion that the bishop
is absolute in his own diocese, an assertion I desire hereby to put to the
test.

"It is in light of all these factors that I have received, from the Diocese
of the Upper Shire, the Revd David L Moyer, as a priest in good standing of
the Diocese of Pittsburgh," commented Bishop Duncan. Furthermore, "It is
also in light of all these factors that I assess the inhibition and
deposition of the Revd David L Moyer by the Bishop of Pennsylvania to be
utterly null and void, both legally and morally, and to have no bearing on
the decision I have made."

It is anticipated that both Fr Moyer and Fr Dickinson will remain resident
at Rosemont for the foreseeable future. This circumstance notwithstanding,
Fr Moyer will be named Priest Associate of Grace Church, Mount Washington,
an Anglo-Catholic parish in the City of Pittsburgh. Fr Moyer's regular
function in our diocese will be based at Grace.

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