S.P.R.E.A.D., chaired by the Rt. Rev. Dr. John H. Rodgers of the United States, is sending a full statement in support of the petition to all of the Primates and member Churches of the Anglican Communion around the world.

The purpose of S.P.R.E.A.D.'s petition is to persuade those provinces and bishops attending the Meeting of the Global South Provinces of the Anglican Communion in Egypt, who wish to follow the Anglican reformed catholic faith, to take the following actions to preserve the faith and to assure that the Church gladly submits to the sovereign authority of the Holy Scriptures:

(1) Become truly united in the Anglican reformed catholic faith;

(2) Rehabilitate the Anglican Communion to carry the Anglican reformed catholic faith by separating from the Communion those provinces and bishops who do not follow the faith; and

(3) If it is not possible to so rehabilitate the Anglican Communion, leave the Communion and form a new global Communion to carry the Anglican reformed catholic faith.

The burden of leading the efforts to rehabilitate the Anglican Communion or form a new one will necessarily fall primarily upon the churches of Africa and Asia, as their counterparts in the West are presently incapable of carrying the Anglican reformed catholic faith to their own nations, much less to the world.

For this reason the petition is timed to coincide with this historic meeting of 'southern hemisphere' churches, also called the Global South, in Egypt, October 24-29. This important context is underscored by the signature on the Petition of the Rt. Rev. John Rucyahana of Rwanda.

The need for the provinces and bishops at the Egypt meeting to so act has become apparent during the debate in the Anglican Communion over same-gender sexual relations.

The debate has revealed that the Communion is divided not only over the issue of whether the Church should approve of same-gender sexual relations, but also over the more profound issue of whether the Church is subordinate to Scripture.

The Communion is no longer united in the Anglican reformed catholic faith, which subordinates the Church to Scripture, and many of its members follow various other kinds of faith, which subordinate Scripture to the Church.

The petition urges those provinces and bishops who stand for the Anglican reformed catholic faith to immediately join together and begin the process of separating from themselves the provinces and bishops who propound a different kind of faith.

Any effort to perpetuate the Anglican reformed catholic faith by a group that includes persons committed to a different kind of faith is doomed to failure: "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand." (Matthew 12:25).

S.P.R.E.A.D. recognizes that there are those in the Communion, powerful and wealthy, who so reject the Anglican reformed catholic faith that it might not be possible to rehabilitate the Communion to carry the faith as it once did.

If so, the Petition urges the provinces and bishops to withdraw from the Communion as currently constituted, and form a new worldwide Communion to carry on the Anglican reformed catholic faith and its mission to the world.

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