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.

Article from: Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh