The global crisis enveloping the Anglican Communion deepened this weekend.

At an Oct. 4 meeting, clerical and lay representatives of the Episcopalian diocese of Pittsburgh voted 240-102 to sever relations with the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church’s ordination of openly homosexual bishop Gene Robinson and its liberal stances on a number of other matters provoked the Pittsburgh diocese into joining San Joaquin, Calif., as the second Episcopalian diocese to break ties with the national church.

Like San Joaquin, Pittsburgh intends to place itself under the authority of the more orthodox Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

The liberal tilt of the Episcopal Church and the national Anglican Churches in other developed countries like Canada and the U.K. on issues like homosexuality and the ordination of women bishops has brought the Anglican Communion to the brink of global schism.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, warned in July that hopes of unity between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion have been compromised by the Anglicans’ shift away from fidelity to doctrinal orthodoxy and apostolic tradition.

It has also prompted some Episcopalians to explore the possibility of coming into communion with Rome.

— Tom McFeely