Tools Offered Episcopalians to Facilitate Feedback on Draft Anglican Covenant

PROGRESSIVE EPISCOPALIANS OF PITTSBURGH
4530 William Penn Highway #109
Murrysville, PA 15668

Contacts:
Joan R. Gundersen, President
Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh
Telephone: +1 (412) 799-0440
E-mail: jrgunder@hotmail.com

Lionel E. Deimel, Board Member
Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh
Telephone: +1 (412) 343-5337
E-mail: lionel@deimel.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Tools Offered Episcopalians to Facilitate Feedback on Draft Anglican Covenant

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — May 17, 2007 — Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh (PEP) announces the availability of two tools to help Episcopalians submit answers to the 14 questions asked in "A Short Study Guide to aid The Episcopal Church in Responding to the Draft Anglican Covenant as Prepared by the Covenant Design Group." The Episcopal Church has requested that responses be in by June 4, a week before the church's Executive Council meets.

Shortly after announcing its on-line form for responding to the Study Guide, PEP has released a digital collection of background and original material related to the "Draft Anglican Covenant." The new resource, "Evaluating the Draft Covenant," is meant to facilitate study and analysis of the Communion proposal. The anthology includes an annotated version of the report containing the covenant and a listing of all the scripture cited in the draft.

PEP developed these resources from materials offered at a recent membership meeting. "At the meeting, it quickly became clear that the church had asked some hard questions about the covenant that required serious study and thought," explained Christopher Wilkins, PEP's first vice president and Via Media USA's facilitator, who was one of the panelists leading the discussion.

PEP president and church historian Joan Gundersen prepared the annotations in "Evaluating the Draft Covenant." She also suggested listing the questions from the Study Guide separately, an idea that board member Lionel Deimel developed into a Microsoft Word form that PEP has called a "worksheet" to encourage church members to offer informed feedback to church leaders.

"Evaluating the Draft Covenant" and the Study Guide worksheet are available on PEP's Web site.


Contacts:
Joan R. Gundersen, President
Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh
Telephone: +1 (412) 799-0440
E-mail: jrgunder@hotmail.com

Lionel E. Deimel, Board Member
Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh
Telephone: +1 (412) 343-5337
E-mail: lionel@deimel.org


On the Web:
This document:

http://progressiveepiscopalians.org/html/2007-05-17tools.html

Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh:
http://progressiveepiscopalians.org/ (main page)
http://progressiveepiscopalians.org/html/sgworksheet.html (worksheet)
http://progressiveepiscopalians.org/html/eval_cov.html (collected documents)

The Episcopal Church:
http://episcopalchurch.org/ (main page)
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/CovenantStudyGuide_English.pdf (study guide)


Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh is an organization of clergy and laypeople committed to the unity and diversity of The Episcopal Church, and of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. It is a member of the Via Media USA alliance.

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