Episcopal Church (United States) by the House of Deputies for a nine-year term. The Presiding Bishop is the chief pastor and primate of the Episcopal Church and is charged with providing leadership in the development of the Church's program as well as speaking on behalf of the Church. The Presiding Bishop does not possess a territorial see; since the 1970s, however, the Presiding Bishop has enjoyed extraordinary jurisdiction (metropolitical authority) and has authority to visit dioceses for sacramental and preaching ministry, for consulting bishops, and for related purposes. The Presiding Bishop chairs the House of Bishops as well as the Executive Council of the
Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh Duncan's removal, diocesan leadership went ahead on October 4, 2008 with the necessary second vote required to amend the diocesan constitution and canons. At that convention, 119 of 191 lay deputies and 121 of 160 clergy deputies voted on the second reading of constitutional changes intended to facilitate withdrawal from the Episcopal Church. In additional votes, canonical changes were approved that were intended to move the diocese into the Province of the Southern Cone. This is similar to what happened in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin in 2007. One member of the diocese's Standing Committee, the ecclesiastical authority in