Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh
Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh
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Press Release From: Albany Via Media, Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, Fort Worth Via Media: Date: December 17, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Anglican Mainstream Christmas Petition Effort Criticized as Deceptive Pittsburgh, PA; Schenectady, NY; Fort Worth, TX, U.S.A.: When you see the Anglican Mainstream Christmas announcement claiming One Million signatures supporting the call for a "Network of Confessing Dioceses and Parishes, DON'T BELIEVE IT. To us, the petition campaign (www.anglican-mainstream.net/million.htm) uses a dubious signature counting method that does not meet any Christian ethical standard for honesty or truth-telling. Questionable counting. Most petition signatures are assembled the old-fashioned way, one signature at a time. Electronic websites now permit worldwide sign-up, such as this world-wide effort. Still, one should be able to assume that each signature represents one person. But in this counting, it seems one signature can sign up the whole family, a whole parish, or even a whole diocese. Is this honest? Do all members of such communities really want to be counted? By December 4, the Anglican Mainstream online campaign had already counted 393,205 signatures. Since then, more worldwide "signatures” have been gathered as the American Anglican Council joined the effort. But as an example of questionable counting, just two bishops accounted for 168,000 people: Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth and Rt Rev Stephen K Nyorsok of the Diocese of Kitale, Kenya, together claimed their whole dioceses. In these cases a single individual has acted on behalf of the individuals thus counted in the signatures. We believe that those counted have not personally signed the statements in the “petition.” Many may not even know that they are being counted as supporters. It matters not whether a bishop has limited the numbers of “signatures” to the proportion he believes support his position. The count was made without asking the individuals where they stood on this statement. Such “mass signatures” account for over 97% of the total signatures on this “petition.” The Anglican Mainstream is a coalition of worldwide Anglicans uniting to support conservative US Episcopalians in their efforts to create a separate network of "confessing" parishes and dioceses, with Pittsburgh Bishop and AAC member Bob Duncan as convener. We call on our Diocesan Bishops Herzog, Iker and Duncan, who belong to both the Anglican Mainstream and to petition co-sponsor the American Anglican Council, to uphold the Ten Commandments and not "bear false witness" when seeking support for their network. For further information contact: Albany Via Media http://www.albanyviamedia.org/ Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh http://progressiveepiscopalians.org/ Fort Worth Via Media http://fwviamedia.org/
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