Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, I am writing to you at the conclusion of our recent House of Bishops' Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, where we have been gathered since Wednesday.

At our meeting, we had a chance to share our reflections and experiences of Lambeth. As you might expect, the feelings were all very favorable. We all felt that we had made many new friends and have strengthened our relationships with the rest of the Communion. There was general agreement that the Lambeth Conference exceeded our expectations and gave us a greater understanding of the contexts in which we function as bishops around the world. We also had the chance to hear reports about theological education, to visit the beautiful new Cathedral Center of the Diocese of Utah, and to hear via phone patch from the bishops of the Diocese of Texas who are on the ground in the clean-up efforts after the recent hurricanes. Many of their parishes have been severely damaged and I will be exploring ways that we might be of help to them in the coming weeks.

The main matter at our meeting however was the deposition of the Bishop of Pittsburgh, Robert Duncan. Although we have issued several official statements about this action (which are available on the Episcopal News Service website and are worth reading), I thought you might be interested in some thoughts from one who was there.

I am concerned that our action will be misrepresented by those who wish to discredit The Episcopal Church. I want you to understand above all that our action had nothing to do with Bishop Duncan's theological position. There are many bishops in our House who are as conservative as he, and who are faithful and valued members of our body. We took our action, after long and prayerful debate, and by a vote of 88 in favor and 35 against, for one reason only: Bishop Duncan's repeated failure to honor the discipline of our church, and his efforts for almost a decade to destroy this church and to defraud it of its lawfully held property. His actions are well documented and are a matter of public record. Even those who voted against his deposition do not dispute his guilt, rather they were concerned with its timing (that such discipline would further alienate members of his Diocese) or with questions they had with the canonical process of deposition.

As you may know by now, within minutes of the House of Bishops vote, Bishop Duncan (who declined to attend our meeting) announced that he had been accepted into the Province of the Southern Cone. It is assumed that a major part (but hardly all) of the Diocese of Pittsburg will vote to follow him at their Convention in a few weeks. Sadly, we can expect costly lawsuits, as the separatists attempt to claim the property of the diocese.

Please know that our vote was taken with a great deal of pain. None of us wished to see our body diminished in anyway. Yet we are firm in our belief that our office requires accountability to each other in Christ, and that we have an obligation to protect the interests of the loyal Pittsburgh Episcopalians against a clear and present danger.

I am also sad to say that this deposition will not be the only one, as three or four other bishops have indicated that they will attempt to join other provinces of the Anglican Communion, in open disregard of their ordination vows.

I believe that most of us in The Episcopal Church have moved past our obsession with these divisive issues, and are ready to live together, united by our common call to Christian mission. I would ask your continued prayers for our brothers and sisters in places where this is not the case.

Faithfully,

+Kirk