The Anglican Communion: As many of you know, there is this thing running around the Anglican Communion called the “Anglican Covenant.” It was a product (at least its concept) from the Windsor Group convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, several years ago. At Lambeth Conference it was discussed, and while I have to admit that we were told that no decisions were going to be made at Lambeth, it does appear that a decision was made that a Covenant would be presented to be adopted by all of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion.
We have people from the Episcopal Church who have been working on this group (among others) to help write a Covenant. Quite honestly, they seem to be rather supportive of such a document. As I stated last year and previously, I support the concept of a Covenant. It is what it is ”“ a Covenant, not a legal Contract. It is a way of living together, and in the larger scheme of God’s Salvific Creation, the Anglican Communion is still relatively young and is suffering from growing pains. Something that helps us is probably not a bad thing. Those who worked on it have suggested that it is broad enough, with enough “mays,” “ifs,” “possiblies” and the like, that there is much latitude for the Episcopal Church, and other Provinces to continue to move forward where the Holy Spirit appears to be leading, but at the same time, an opportunity to remind everyone that we are in relationship.
Hm, interesting. Covenant as seen in the Bible, is the most serious and binding of relationships, it is indeed a legal and binding contract, stretching into the deepest parts of a relationship and requiring absolute faithfulness. The deepest expression of this is the Covenant between God and Israel, which God always observes, and under which he exercises mercy towards His people, even when they have wandered. But the people of Israel on the other hand, remained in a constant cycle of wandering from God, breach of covenant, disaster, repentance and return to God, who always, for the sake of His covenant restored them. Now as Christians, the New Covenant, sealed with the blood of Christ upon the cross is at the center of our relationship with Christ and through the Holy Spirit. The idea that the Holy Spirit would lead us away from Covenant by some new revelation is just, well, peculiar, shall we say?
Fortunately for us, God thought His covenant with His people was WAY more important than any legal contract.