Common Cause College of Bishops Formed in Pittsburgh

http://www.livingchurch.org/publishertlc/viewarticle.asp?ID=3842

[The Living Church] 1 Oct 2007--In a meeting which partially coincided with the House of Bishops’ meeting in New Orleans, seven diocesan bishops of The Episcopal Church agreed to form a college of bishops with 43 other Anglican bishops from North America as part of a Common Cause Council meeting held Sept. 25-28 in Pittsburgh.

“We have begun the process of creating the separate ecclesial structure we will ask the primates to recognize,” said Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh in an interview with Anglican TV. “A year from now we will be well along with the structural things that will make this partnership possible.”

In addition to creating a college of bishops which will meet every year, the partners also agreed to share sacramental ministry and episcopal acts, to consult with each other before consecrating new bishops and to deploy clergy interchangeably subject to the canons of each jurisdiction. A timeline developed during the meeting in Pittsburgh commits the partners to holding a constitutional convention early in 2009.