FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dr. Christopher Wilkins at: 412/831-1737 or 412/760-8817 (cell); ciwilkins@juno.com.

Via Media USA Objects to IRD Meeting with Lambeth Commission
 
June 16, 2004, Pittsburgh, PA

Via Media USA, an alliance of diocesan-based groups committed to holding the Episcopal Church together, is protesting that a staff member of a conservative private advocacy group was reportedly allowed to attend a recent gathering of international church leaders.

Via Media USA is objecting that a staff person from the Institute for Religion and Democracy attended last weekend’s Lambeth Commission meeting in Kanuga, NC, as was reported by the Rev. John Yates in a letter to his Falls Church, VA, parish.  Dianne Knippers reportedly represented the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, a conservative Episcopal dissent group, but her IRD affiliation should have disqualified her attendance.

“It is inappropriate for a staff person for a private foundation intent upon sowing discord among Episcopalians, Methodists and Presbyterians, to be present at a hearing which purportedly was an opportunity for dissident Episcopalians to voice their concerns,” said VMUSA Facilitator Christopher I. Wilkins. The Institute for Religion and Democracy, originally organized to promote opposition to so-called “leftist” religious groups has, according to its website, since the fall of the iron curtain, devoted itself to influencing or realigning American denominations they deem too liberal.

The Lambeth Commission, chaired by Archbishop Robin Eames of Ireland, was established to explore the dissension created when the delegates at the 2003 General Convention of The Episcopal Church confirmed the New Hampshire election of an openly gay priest as their bishop and continued a policy of local diocesan option with respect to blessing of same gender unions.  Some primates of the worldwide Anglican Communion have threatened a rupture in fellowship unless the American church, with its democratic decision making processes, is punished.

“The Institute for Religion and Democracy has no accepted role in the life of The Episcopal Church,” said Dr. Wilkins.  “In the wake of faithful, prayerful, and open decisions by our duly authorized legislative body they have pulled together a small minority of the dissenting clergy and laity to disrupt the processes of The Episcopal Church in the hopes of bending the entire church to their will—or at least acquiring property and trust funds. Conservatives in the church—dissenting or loyal—surely deserve better representation than this.”

Via Media USA will submit a protest to the Lambeth Commission for accepting input from the IRD as in any way representative of the processes represented in the Constitution of The Episcopal Church.

For more information on Via Media USA, please visit www.viamediausa.org.

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