Assisting Bishop Henry Scriven of Pittsburgh will be leaving the diocese and returning to his native England to take up a new position as part of plans to integrate the South American Missionary Society (SAMS) and the Church Mission Society (CMS).
 
The CMS and SAMS are planning to join together progressively from January 2009, subject to final negotiations and decisions by their respective governing bodies.
 
Bishop Scriven will initially work in a leadership role within SAMS but it is planned that he will ultimately become the Mission Director for South America for the new joint entity, according to release prepared by the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
 
“My decision does not reflect any change of heart regarding realignment, or my confidence in the vision and leadership of the diocese,” Bishop Scriven said in an Aug. 15 letter announcing the pending change. “I know realignment will bring fresh incentive for mission, both local and worldwide. My experience at both GAFCON and [the] Lambeth [Conference] assure me that orthodox, biblical Anglicanism is very much alive and ready to continue God’s mission.”
 
Bishop Scriven received approval to serve as an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Pittsburgh during a contentious meeting of the House of Bishops in fall 2002. Consent to his appointment was complicated by the fact that Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh had given a canonical license to the Rev. David Moyer, whom Bishop Charles E. Bennison, Jr., of Pennsylvania had deposed without trial.
 
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