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ACN Encourages Support for Priests' Petition
The Anglican Communion Network encourages all Episcopal priests to sign an online petition that will be delivered to the presiding bishop and each member of the House of Bishops before General Convention 2006. The petition urges the Episcopal leadership “to refrain from approving any further consecrations of same sex partnered bishops; to stop all actions that allow or promote the blessing of same sex unions of any kind; to fully endorse the Windsor Report as the roadmap for maintaining full communion with the worldwide Anglican Church; and, to turn the attention of the church to the mission of reaching the lost for the sake of the Gospel.”
“I applaud Father David Roseberry, a priest of the Network Diocese of Dallas, for this grassroots initiative to activate the voice of orthodox Episcopal priests,” said the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Moderator of the Network. “This petition simply, but emphatically, states that those that sign it are in agreement with the millions of Anglicans worldwide who have asked us to do the very things stated in this petition to remain in fellowship with them. I urge every Episcopal priest to sign his or her name to this petition and to encourage their fellow priests to do the same.
The petition that can be accessed at the web address http://www.bcp526.org was the idea of Fr. Roseberry, of Christ Church, Plano, Texas, and other rectors. “We are all aware that the Episcopal Church is led by its convention meeting in both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. However, we also know that each member of the House of Bishops has a unique leadership role and solemn responsibility: to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the church,” said Fr. Roseberry. “Several months ago a group of rectors and I had a vision that we could strengthen the bishops to do the right thing by the faith, unity and discipline of our church and this petition gives us a vehicle to lend our support to the Primates’ mandate.”
Six hundred ninety clergy have already signed the petition whose deadline is May 31. “I am not normally one for signing petitions, online or otherwise, but I have made an exception in this case,” said the Very Rev. Canon Robert Munday, Dean and President of Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin. “This coming General Convention could be the most momentous in the history of the Episcopal Church. I care deeply for the unity of Christ’s Body, the Church—and that means caring for the unity of the Church in all its expressions, especially our Anglican Communion and our Episcopal Church. I encourage all clergy to sign this petition to ask our bishops to take wise and godly steps to keep the Anglican Communion whole and to return our focus as a Church to reaching our world with the Good News of Jesus Christ.”