Message: 4 Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 21:29:58 EST From: DVirtue236@... Subject: BISHOP DUNCAN TRANSFERS FATHER MOYER BACK TO AFRICAN DIOCESE BISHOP DUNCAN TRANSFERS FATHER MOYER BACK TO AFRICAN DIOCESE Special Report By David W. Virtue PITTSBURGH, PA--The Bishop of Pittsburgh, The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan has written a letter to Charles E. Bennison, Bishop of Pennsylvania saying that he has transferred the Rev. Dr. David Moyer back to the Bishop and Diocese of The Upper Shire and the Most Rev. Bernard Malango, "from which I received him." In a letter dated Dec. 16 Duncan wrote, "I have the sense for some weeks now that you have been attempting to ensnare me by your entreaties that I answer the question: "Is David Moyer canonically resident in the Diocese of Pittsburgh?" "I answered "Yes" in a telephone conversation last Monday night. My "yes" was followed by a spoken demand from you that if I "claimed him to be [my] priest, I take responsibility and remove David immediately from [your] diocese." This request was followed by a letter dated 10 December and faxed to my office on 11 December. In the letter you requested that "inasmuch as you consider yourself to be David Moyer's bishop you act immediately to issue him a Pastoral Direction to desist from functioning without a license in this diocese." "Your desire is for me to cooperate in removing the priest over whose status the peace of a vibrant congregation, the health of a diocese, the welfare of a province and, in fact, the bonds of a whole communion have been risked. Far too many have entered the local, national and global battle over the Rev. Dr. David Moyer, SSC, including the present and immediate past Archbishops of Canterbury, for me to simply agree to what you ask, in the form in which you ask it." Duncan writes that he entered "this sorry affair as a principal contender in order to protest an unjust use of the canon on abandonment, to keep the precedent of removal without trial from standing, to bring the House of Bishops to a discussion about accountability and interdependence, and to protect and encourage the host of traditional Episcopalians who feel so threatened at present. I remind you that one of the reasons David Moyer was canonically resident in the Diocese of Pittsburgh (and therefore I said "yes" to your question) is that it is our contention that he was unjustly deposed and thus illegally deprived of canonically residence in the Diocese of Pennsylvania." "So now you have made a request according to the canons, and I must answer according to the canons. I have made my case and done what I could to focus the issues between us. No part of what I have done have I done joyfully; in fact, all of it has been with the deepest reluctance, sadness and regret. It is obvious that there is a rising international tide of disdain for the handling of this entire matter. In the face of abuses and apostolic embarrassment the criticism will only increase. At some stage it will be addressed. In the mean time, since you want me to take responsibility, I will do the only thing left to me other than that for which you ask directly, a complicity in which I cannot engage. I have, therefore, now taken action to transfer the Rev. Dr. David Moyer back to the Bishop and Diocese of The Upper Shire, to the Most Rev. Bernard Malango, the bishop and diocese from which I received him. This transfer is effective today, 16 December, AD 2002. "I continue to pray for you daily, as I have always done. I continue to seek some happy issue out of this present conflict in our Church, a conflict symbolized by Rosemont. It is about so much more than the canons, but it is in the canons you continue alone to seek the answers. As such we are at the end of anything I can helpfully offer you or our beloved church. I trust, upon reflection, that you will understand why I have responded to your request as I have, and why I have thus removed myself from the middle of this dispute." END __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com