Presiding Bishop Explains Process Used to Depose Bishops for Abandonment

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2008/4/30/presiding-bishop-explains-process-used-to-depose-bishops-for-abandonment

[The Living Church] 1 May 2008--A variety of appointed experts on Episcopal Church canon law concur with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who does not believe it is necessary to obtain an inhibition prior to holding a vote to depose a bishop charged with abandonment of communion. Bishop Jefferts Schori sent a two-page letter that sets out her understanding of the abandonment canons for the House of Bishops on April 30.

Once the nine-member Title IV [disciplinary] Review Committee has certified that a bishop has abandoned communion, Bishop Jefferts Schori said “the bishop in question is given 60 days to respond. In her letter, she explained that the provision requiring the consent of the three senior active bishops of the church in order to inhibit the accused bishop does not grant the three senior bishops veto power “over consideration of the merits of the deposition by the House of Bishops,” and she notes that a significant number of persons, many of whose positions are filled by appointment of the Presiding Bishop, agree with her.