To make that happen, the Rev. Canon David Roseberry has organized a cadre of orthodox clergy voices, 1,000 plus, from 83 dioceses who have not bowed the knee to 815, 2nd avenue in New York, and they have signed a petition urging ECUSA's bishops not to approve any more gay bishops or bless same-sex unions. Putting it positively, they are calling on the bishops to uphold the recommendations of the Windsor Report as a roadmap for maintaining full communion with the worldwide Anglican Church and by turning the attention of the church to the mission of reaching the lost for the sake of the Gospel. (Their petition can be found at www.bcp526.org).

Wrote Roseberry, rector of Christ Church, Plano, Texas, the largest most attended parish in the Episcopal Church saying: "It is our hope to demonstrate to the House of Bishops with absolute clarity that the clergy of this church want to return to our historical, biblical roots."

Mr. Naughton is very unhappy with this large figure and he is trying to spin it by saying this represents only 7 percent of all the priests in the Episcopal Church, and therefore this group should not be taken seriously.

What really irked him was that the story made it to the Religions News Service and Beliefnet, a widely read religious cyber website. So he wrote to his fellow Washington diocesan liberals who, incidentally, are supported largely by the Soper Fund, and told them that the 2006 Clergy "Red Book" of the Episcopal Church lists 17,209 clergy. Of those about 300 are bishops and 2,200 are deacons. That leaves somewhere in the vicinity of 14,700 priests.

"So putting aside for the moment the difficulty of verifying the authenticity of internet signatures, and allowing for the fact that the petition might garner more names by its May 31 deadline, we are looking at a document which in a best-case scenario would be signed by about 7 percent of Episcopal priests."

Naughton then goes on to deliver the now usual fiction that "the Episcopal right has spent millions of dollars over the last three or four years fomenting rebellion in our Church, [and] they have rallied an anemic level of support."

In times past orthodox clergy would have just wimped away and not responded. Not any more. Roseberry blasted right back at Naughton saying that his 1,000 plus clergy represent far more Episcopalians than he is letting on.

Wrote Roseberry: "I have read your dismissive comments about the clergy petition, and I am proud to have organized an opportunity for well over 1000 clergy to make their voice heard. We have labored to create an opportunity for the clergy in our denomination to register their voice before the House of Bishops. It has succeeded beyond my expectations."

Roseberry then went on to say that a decision to sign this document by some orthodox clergy caught up in revisionist diocese was costly and could have rebounded negatively on them with repercussions. (One wonders what Bishop John Chane would do to any orthodox clergyman in the Diocese of Washington who signed on, for example.)

Roseberry then rips Naughton's "7 percent figure: "You say that we represent only 7% of the clergy. The actual number maybe more than twice that. There are a total of 14,000 clergy according to the Church Pension Fund, but we all know that there are far fewer in active ministry. Our research tells us that there are a total of less than 6,000 in active ministry. Most of our signatories are in that category. It is hard to dismiss 15% of the church, I think."

"We organized this as a totally independent and grass roots efforts. No outside sponsorship and no national marketing campaign. A few ads, a few email addresses and a month's worth of effort by four people who already had fulltime jobs...and we have a huge list! I'd say our return rate has been extraordinary."

"The rectors behind the petition have not spent millions of dollars...and we certainly have not fomented rebellion. In fact, the actual cost of this project is less than $4,000, including three expensive ads in The Living Church."

Roseberry then takes the gloves off and says this: "You couldn't have known this, but the clergy persons who have signed on represent a disproportionately large part of the whole church. Remember that almost 80% of Episcopalians attend 20% of the Episcopal Churches. And it is, for the most part, our churches that they attend. We received emails from lay people from all over the country who wanted to participate in our effort in some way. There is no telling how many tens of thousands of signatures we would have collected had we had the resources to offer the opportunity to everyone."

Roseberry said his organization had been collecting data on those who have signed. "One statistic that touches my heart is this: the clergy on this list have given a total of over 20,000 years of service to the Lord and His Church. Neither you, nor General Convention, should disregard them."

Another blogger, a layman, noted that his rector was one of the signees as well as two other rectors down the road. "They are clergy who are entrusted with the care of at least 8,000 Episcopalians - and that is just three clergy in one diocese! 8000 Episcopalians in my diocese is significant. But I know that more than three clergy in my diocese signed this petition - and so the numbers in my diocese are even higher. And my diocese does not even belong to the Network!"

Mr. Naughton castigates the orthodox for "fomenting rebellion," when the truth is, that it has been nearly 40 years of open and back room politics that finally erupted in public rebellion with the consecration of the homoerotic Bishop of New Hampshire, an action that has fomented worldwide rebellion and may yet split the Anglican Communion.

The chaos unleashed by this very arrogant and elitist group of pansexual bishops and their cadre of homosexual and pro-homosexual activists is precisely why Canon Roseberry's band of 1,000 clergy needs to stand firm.

We must never forget that the message of Judges (ch.7) was that out of the power of weakness God told Gideon to chose a mere 300 to destroy over 135,000 Midianites!

'The Gideon' is where God takes weak people and difficult situations, and turns them around for His glory. God has been doing it for thousands of years and He is not about to stop now!

Let the Battle Begin!

END