Walking With Integrity: Integrity Responds to Primates' Communique

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Integrity Responds to Primates' Communique

February 5, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MOBILE, AL--Integrity USA is disappointed but not surprised that the communique issued by the primates of the Anglican Communion earlier today repeated the all-too-familiar call for moratoria on the election of bishops in same-gender unions, rites of blessing for same-sex unions, and cross-border interventions.

"There's an American superstition that 'bad things come in threes,'" said Integrity President Susan Russell speaking from the Episcopal Urban Caucus Annual Assembly in Mobile. "And accepting the lumping together of these three issues in one moratoria package would be a very bad thing for the Episcopal Church as a whole and its LGBT faithful in particular.”

"Calling a halt to actions that violate the polity and boundaries of the autonomous national churches that are constituent members of the Anglican Communion is preserving the historic unity of the church. Scapegoating a percentage of the baptized by excluding them from a percentage of the sacraments of the Body of Christ is participating in the appeasement of bigotry. They're apples and oranges."

Russell continued, "Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is absolutely correct in stating that moratoria are a matter for General Convention in Anaheim this summer. Resolutions have already been submitted that would move the Episcopal Church beyond the non-canonical restraints imposed by B033 and forward on marriage equality. Integrity USA believes that General Convention will reaffirm that all the sacraments are open to all the baptized. We will be working with our allies to achieve that gospel agenda item next July."

"Integrity encourages all concerned Episcopalians to contact their bishops and General Convention deputies and dialogue with them on these issues as they prepare for Anaheim," concluded Russell. "The question on the table is whether or not we mean it when we renew that Baptismal Covenant's promise to respect the dignity of every human being. Integrity is counting on the Episcopal Church saying, "We will with God’s help."

Visit www.integrityusa.org/all for more information.

Press Contact:
The Rev. Susan Russell, President
(626) 583-2741 office
(714) 356-5718 mobile
president@integrityusa.org

No comments:

Blog Faerie Commandments

Thou shalt be a current Integrity member; for as the
Psalmist says, “No good thing will YHWH withhold from those who walk with integrity.”
Thou shalt post legitimate news and public opinion
from recognized sources; for few blogs are fonts of true wisdom.
Thou shalt not post gossip; for it is serious sin that nobody preaches about anymore.
Thou shalt not include thine own opinions in posts; but thou mayest post thine own opinions using the comments feature.
Thou shalt not post hate speech nor engage in personal attacks against thy neighbor—neither in posts nor in comments. Love thy neighbor as thyself.
Though shalt post items that emphasize the LGBT-positive side of issues whenever possible; for there are more than enough blogs devoted to denegrating us.
Though shalt mostly post items dealing with LGBT
equality in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion; but thou mayest post some LGBT secular news and LGBT news from other faith traditions.
Thou shalt not post copyrighted material in its
entirety; for it is abhorrent to the United States government. Rather, thou shalt post an excerpt or summary with a link to the original source.
Thou shalt cite the original source (author,
title, affiliation, publisher, date) of a post whenever possible; thus may readers direct their rants and raves in the right direction.
Thou shalt be wise with the quantity of material thou posteth to the blog; for the reader unsubscription rate is inversely proportional to the number of daily posts.
Thou shalt replace shaped quotation marks and
apostrophies (“ ” ’) with straight equivalents (" " ') whenever possible; for shaped characters are not supported by all e-mail servers.
Though mayest embed YouTube and Google video clips in a post but thou shalt also provide a hyperlink to the clip; for the clip itself may be stripped out of the e-mail version.
Thou shalt include graphics with thine posts when possible; for plain text is really boring.