Date: June 3rd 2008

On June1, St. Andrew’s, Highland Park, held a forum and panel discussion on whether the Diocese of Pittsburgh should realign. My latest blog post reports on that program and uses it to take the temperature of the hopelessly divided Diocese of Pittsburgh. My essay is called “Resigned to Realignment,” and it can be read at http://deimel.org/commentary/blogger/2008/06/resigned-to-realignment.htm. I wrote this essay, on one hand, for the benefit of Pittsburgh Episcopalians who could not attend the Sunday afternoon event. I also wrote it for the benefit of Episcopalians outside my own diocese who want to know the kind of arguments being advanced for realignment and who are interested in the current mood in the diocese.

My two intended audiences may not be equally enthusiastic about the length of this particular blog post. Anyone interested primarily in discerning the mood of the Pittsburgh diocese—to the degree that I am able to identify it, in any case—may want to skip over the central section of the essay that offers details of what individual presenters said.

The bottom line, as I suggest in my essay, is that those attuned to what is happening in Pittsburgh assume that schism is inevitable and that arguing about its merits is essentially pointless. This is not to say that the hearts and minds of Pittsburgh laity are not in play, but no one is betting on a “happy” outcome.

Best regards,
Lionel
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