Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette writes:
Three years after a traumatic split took the majority of its parishes, the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh is poised to become the first of four such fractured dioceses to elect a permanent bishop.
Five candidates visited the 11-county diocese last week. They have diverse convictions on some issues that led to the split. But all pledged to avoid imposing their own agenda on the 32 parishes, which range theologically from evangelical to moderately liberal. All have experience with mediation or reconciliation among feuding Episcopalians. All have led the revival of tiny parishes similar to many here. …
“The next bishop will have to be a missionary bishop, not an administrator,” said the Rev. R. Stanley Runnels, 60, rector of St. Paul’s Church in Kansas City, Mo., in a view expressed by all candidates.