04/13/2006

Prelates Who Installed Gay Bishop Face Petition to Indict Under Church Law

WASHINGTON, April 13 -- Episcopal laypersons launched a national petition drive today to bring to church trial 35 bishops involved in the installation of a practicing homosexual bishop in New Hampshire. The target defendant group includes the gay bishop and the presiding bishop of about 2 million Episcopalians in the United States.

The petition’s purpose is to determine, in formal trials, the standing of church law, doctrine and practice, the sponsor said. The denomination has been fractured in both the United States and the worldwide Anglican Communion by what the sponsoring Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion (“LEAC”) called “reckless pursuit of a gay agenda that is hostile to Scripture and to the historic order of the church.”

The bishops were asked in a letter last week from LEAC to announce by April 28 their response to the group’s request that they recant, repent, resign or retire. Copies of the letter were subsequently mailed to 40 bishops who voted against Bishop V. Gene Robinson’s approval. The petitions will be given to the opposing bishops with a request for a prompt start in the church’s “presentment” (indictment) procedures.

Bishop Robinson’s approval for consecration by the denomination’s 2003 general convention was among “gay agenda” items adopted which led to disarray among American Episcopalians and disrupted their affiliation with the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The convention votes and later consecration of Robinson divided the U.S. province and led to de facto suspension of the American Episcopal church from the communion’s Consultative Council, the operating arm. Members of the American province (“ECUSA”) -- dioceses, churches and members -- are now in varying states of broken or impaired communion with foreign primates whose communicants comprise about 75% of the 78 million Anglicans in the international church. Outright division of the province from the communion is expected by most observers at or following the 2006 general convention in Columbus, Ohio, in June.

“Our purpose is to demonstrate the gravity of unilateral (non-Communion) actions already taken to advance a gay agenda in our American church. The homosexual thrust is real, aggressive and largely influenced by a shadow gay-lesbian-transgender hierarchy of bishops, priests and laypeople. The most persistent campaigner for accelerating the gay agenda in the Episcopal church is Integrity, a 30- year-old homosexual activist organization believed to comprise much less than one per cent of the national church.

“An atmosphere of doubt and confusion has been deliberately created. We will ask for official judicial determination in America of the validity of the Scriptural and canonical rules we have always lived by,” LEAC said. “These canonical presentments would help to clear the air, and we pray for prompt action by bishops who opposed Bishop Robinson’s consecration and who also oppose the radical gay agenda in our church.”

Canons require 10 bishops as complainants against bishops.

The sponsor said American Episcopal churches are inclusive in their membership, welcoming members of differing sexuality preferences, but there are clear Scriptural and operating prohibitions concerning ordainment of priests practicing homosexual lifestyles, “and certainly bishops in that lifestyle are covered,” the release said.

Bishop Robinson and his former wife and mother of his children divorced. He later met his homosexual partner.

“There is a great chasm. We believe our church judicial system should determine just where we stand canonically, for there is no doubt where our Episcopal rank-and-file in the pews stand spiritually. We have been and are a traditional church, despite radical measures achieved by votes pushed through by the influential shadow hierarchy’s gay agenda. That our beloved church was hijacked by gay agenda promoters in 2003 must not be confused with the popular will of Episcopalians, which is predominantly in line with the worldwide Anglican Communion’s positions. We need to get judicial interpretations and then proceed to determine whether the chasm dividing our faith can be closed through reconciliation and negotiation,” the release said.

Internet participation is expected to be the largest component of the petition drive, LEAC said, supplemented by members in parishes throughout the nation with petition forms. LEAC’s website: www.layepiscopal.org  “Our goal is to have petitioners from every diocese and every parish,” the press release said.

Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion LEAC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation. It is a national advocacy organization faithful to the authority of Christian Scripture and the Anglican Communion. LEAC: (240) 485-7357 Website: www.layepiscopal.org  Email: info@layepiscopal.org