Retired
conservative Episcopal bishops leave denomination

The retired bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Albany, N.Y., has left the denomination to join the Roman Catholic Church.

Daniel Herzog informed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of his decision in a March 29 letter. He asked to be removed from the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church.

Herzog, who had retired from the diocese in January, had disagreed with the liberal direction of the Episcopal Church, including the 2003 consecration of its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Herzog was the second Albany bishop to recently switch affiliations. The diocese announced March 5 that a retired assistant bishop, David Bena, was transferring to the theologically conservative Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Bena plans to work as a missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a network of Episcopal conservatives created as a rival to the U.S. denomination.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of the global Anglican Communion. The world fellowship of churches, which traces its roots to the Church of England, is on the verge of splitting up over conflicting interpretations of biblical verses on sexuality, truth, salvation, and other issues. (AP)