It is with sadness, but also with anticipation, that I write to you now that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church has provided the clarity for which we have long prayed. By almost every assessment the General Convention has embraced the course of "walking apart."

I have often said to you that the decisive moment in contemporary Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion history occurred at General Convention 2003. At that time, in the words of the Primates, the Episcopal Church took action that would "tear the fabric of our Communion at its deepest level."

Since that time, the tear has widened. While we had hoped that this Church would repent and return to received Faith and Order, General Convention 2006 clearly failed to submit to the call, the spirit or the requirements of the Windsor Report. The middle has collapsed. For that part of the Network working constitutionally within ECUSA as over against the dioceses represented by the thirty progressive bishops who issued their Statement of Conscience, we are two churches under one roof.

Even before the close of Convention, Network and Windsor bishops began disassociating themselves from the inadequate Windsor resolution, and thus far one Network diocese has formally requested alternative primatial oversight.

More initiatives are underway. Pastoral and apostolic care has been promised without regard to geography. All I can tell you is that the shape of this care will depend on a very near-range international meeting. Other actions will follow upon continuing conversations with those at the highest levels of the Anglican Communion. Over the course of the month of July, many of the things we have longed for will, I believe, come to pass or be clearly in view for all.

The Anglican Communion Network has never been more united. We are gaining strength, both domestically and internationally. This is the time for biblically orthodox Anglicans to hang together, supporting one another in solidarity, in prayer and with expectancy.

My prayers are with you all, especially those whose plight is most difficult and whose patience is most worn. Pray for me and for all the leadership in Network, Episcopal Church, and Anglican Communion, and most especially for the Archbishop of Canterbury in this crucial moment in modern Anglican history. Again I say to you that a new day is dawning.

Faithfully in Christ Jesus,

+Bob Pittsburgh Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network

23rd June, A.D.2006

TO THE CLERGY AND PEOPLE OF PITTSBURGH:

Beloved in the Lord,

With this communication comes a letter I have just written to all within the Anglican Communion Network.

I realize that not everyone in our diocese is a part of the Network, twelve vestries having disassociated. What these vestries have done follows the very same pattern that Network and Windsor bishops followed toward the conclusion of General Convention in our disassociating.

Whether part of the Network or not, everyone in the diocese needs to know what your bishop's assessment is. Whatever is ahead - and we will be resolute in maintaining our rightful claim to be the Episcopal Diocese of the Episcopal Church in this place - I will continue to work to serve you all and to faithfully exercise my office and ministry as your bishop, for all the people and all the parishes.

Tomorrow morning we will have our General Convention report-back at Donegal Lake, and next week the Standing Committee will gather to begin to assess how to respond to the developments of recent days.

Everyone of you, whether conserving, progressive or caught-in-between, is in my prayers. Please hold me and one another in yours.

Faithfully in Christ,

+Bob