Within the past week, lawyers for the two dioceses claiming to be the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh filed five new motions and attended a hearing in a case that was initiated in 2003 by the rector and wardens of Calvary Church, Pittsburgh.
 
In October, a majority of clergy and lay deputies voted to leave The Episcopal Church and join the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone on a temporary basis. The leadership of the Southern Cone diocese has been active in the development the new Anglican Communion province in North America. The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, who was deposed from the ordained ministry of The Episcopal Church prior to the diocesan convention last fall, has been designated archbishop of the new province. Bishop Duncan was also re-elected bishop of the Southern Cone diocese shortly after his deposition.
 
At the heart of the dispute in the latest filings and an April 17 hearing was whether the diocese’s withdrawal from The Episcopal Church violated a stipulation order on real and personal property that the two sides signed in 2005 to settle the lawsuit. After the majority at the annual convention voted to leave last fall, members of the diocese who wanted to remain Episcopalians held a reorganizing convention and petitioned the court to be added as plaintiffs to the Calvary lawsuit.
 
The original case was reopened by the rector and wardens of Calvary in November 2006 after they learned of plans by Bishop Duncan and other leaders to remove the entire diocese from The Episcopal Church. The court declined to prevent the withdrawal motion from being voted on during the annual meeting. Instead a special master was appointed to inventory which property was covered by the stipulation order.
 
Lawyers for the Southern Cone diocese contend that the stipulation order does not address withdrawal by the entire diocese and they have asked the court to hold a trial to determine if the vote at the annual convention was lawful. Lawyers for the Episcopal diocese want the special master to award them the diocesan endowments and other assets. Access to most of the funds was frozen by Morgan Stanley in January.
 
According to a press release from the Southern Cone diocese, all parties at the April 17 hearing, including lawyers for the leadership of the Episcopal Church, agreed to a future hearing based on the assumption that the diocese’s withdrawal from the Episcopal Church was valid. No date for that hearing has been set.
 
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