If Resolution 4 passes this November at the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s annual Convention, the Diocese will reopen a study process that considers the advantages of combining the existing diocese with the Diocese of Northwestern PA.
The text of the resolution reads:
Resolved: that this 144th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church direct the Standing Committee (or Ecclesiastical Authority) of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh to form a broadly based task force, including at least three clergy and three lay persons, to study the possibility of the reunion of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania under the provisions of Title I, canon 10, section 6 of the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, 2006 [see below], and to prepare a report on the results of that study and any recommendations to the 145th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, in the fall of 2010. The Task Force shall consider specifically the potential long-term impact of such reunion on the financial and administrative resources of the two dioceses, and shall invite the Bishop and Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania to participate in the study.
Speaking as a former Diocesan Council President of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, this is prennial topic of conversation, with this issue arrising regularly even back into the ninties. If the resolution should pass, the study group would report back to Pittsburgh’s Convention. To my knowledge, there’s been no similar resolution on the part of the Diocese of Northwestern PA.
From here.