Episcopal Press and News
PITTSBURGH: Assistant Bishop Henry Scriven to resign, take up mission post for South America
Episcopal News Service. August 20, 2008 [082008-01]
The Rt. Rev. Henry Scriven will step down as assistant bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh in mid-December in preparation for a new leadership role with the U.K.-based South American Mission Society (SAMS), an August 15 diocesan news release announced.
Scriven, a British citizen, will begin the new position in the U.K. on January 1, 2009.
According to the diocesan news release, the Church Mission Society (CMS) and SAMS are "planning to join together progressively from January 2009, subject to final negotiations and decisions by their respective governing bodies. Bishop Scriven will initially work in a leadership role within SAMS but it is planned that he will ultimately become the mission director for South America for the new joint entity that SAMS and CMS will set up together."
In a letter announcing Scriven's decision, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan said, "We will miss Henry's grace and humor, his international insights, his leadership of our diocesan networks, and his pastoral caring."
Duncan plans to make the Diocese of Pittsburgh a member of the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone and at the diocese's annual convention the first weekend in October delegates will be asked to vote on realignment.
In a letter to the diocese, Scriven expressed his deep appreciation for the six years he and his wife, Catherine, have spent in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. "We have enjoyed living and working here more than any of the other 12 places we have lived in the last 33 years of marriage," he said. "We have incredibly gifted clergy and lay leaders and I know realignment will bring fresh incentive for mission, both local and worldwide."
Formerly suffragan bishop of the Church of England's Diocese in Europe, Scriven "has a long history of involvement in mission work, including serving with SAMS in Argentina [and] serving as the chaplain of the British Embassy Church in Madrid," the diocesan news release notes.
An announcement on the SAMS website says: "We are delighted that Bishop Henry is to become our mission director for South America … If our proposed link-up with CMS goes ahead, this will ultimately become a post in the new joint entity that we will set up together. If for any reason it does not happen, +Henry will become the executive director of an independent SAMS."
A biography for Scriven is available as a downloadable pdf here.