Bishop Robert Duncan of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican) has been named primate- and archbishop-designate of a proposed new body of 100,000 theologically conservative Anglicans in North America, which hopes to win recognition from the global Anglican Communion.

Archbishop-designate Duncan, whose diocese left the Episcopal Church in October, said he was "elated" that 30 representatives of eight groups with ties to the Anglican tradition in the U.S. and Canada had unanimously proposed a constitution for a body called the Anglican Church in North America. They met yesterday in Wheaton, Ill.

"I believe we're at the beginning of something that is very significant for the Christian church in North America and for the Anglican Communion worldwide," he said.

He will remain head of the Anglican diocese in Pittsburgh because the constitution requires the primate to be a diocesan bishop, he said. He has been moderator of Common Cause Partners, the federation whose members -- including bishops, priests and laity -- drafted it.

An assembly representing about 20 dioceses and clusters, with 700 parishes, will vote on ratification in June.

The new church will include his diocese and three others that have left the Episcopal Church over the past year for the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. All four said the South American alliance was temporary, pending creation of a theologically conservative Anglican province in North America. The proposed province includes groups of U.S. and Canadian churches under the authority of Anglican primates in Africa and also the Reformed Episcopal Church, which broke with the Episcopal Church 135 years ago.

The current North American provinces are the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Mexico. Many conservative Anglicans believe the U.S. and Canadian churches have failed to uphold biblical theology on matters from salvation to sexual ethics.

"It is not our hope to be anything separate from Anglicanism. It is our hope to unite Anglicans who have been committed to maintaining what Anglicans have always believed," said Deacon Peter Frank, a spokesman for the Anglican diocese in Pittsburgh. Some parishes within Common Cause that have not broken with the Episcopal Church will not join the new province, he said.

Although provinces have traditionally been based on national boundaries, seven of 38 Anglican primates, mostly Africans, have called for a new, conservative North American province in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion. Archbishop-designate Duncan said he expects quick recognition from those primates, with a formal, bureaucratic process coming slowly.

Anglicanism comes from the Church of England, but is centered in Africa. While the Episcopal Church has about 2.1 million members, the Anglican Church of Nigeria has 18 million and Uganda has 9 million.

The dioceses of the proposed church do not agree on all matters, particularly women's ordination. The draft constitution allows each to decide about female deacons and priests but "we will not make any women bishops until the matter is resolved in the whole Anglican Communion," said the archbishop-designate, an advocate of women's ordination. Female priests in the drafting group supported that decision, he said.

About 20 of Pittsburgh's original 74 churches have remained in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh that is recognized by the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. James Simons, president of the Standing Committee that governs the Episcopal diocese, doubts the new body can win approval from a required two-thirds of the Anglican primates.

"I don't think that creating a province based on theological perspective is going to work," said the Rev. Simons, a theological conservative who was once a close ally of Bishop Duncan.

"I don't think there's a very high likelihood that these disparate bodies will be able to hold together. They have a history of schism and fracturing."

The Rev. Charles Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said that the Episcopal, Canadian and Mexican provinces were the only "official, recognized presence of the Anglican Communion in North America."

"There is room within the Episcopal Church for people with different views, and we regret that some have felt the need to depart form the diversity of our common life in Christ," he said.