Many of the reports of the vote therefore conclude that the Covenant is dead in the water — even before it is sent to the rest of the Communion.
That is a misreading. Although +Rowan Williams wants as many Anglican provinces as possible to sign up to it, he always knew that introducing a more Catholic ecclesiology — defining boundaries of doctrinal orthodoxy — would alienate both the conservative evangelicals and the liberal Anglicans. The loss of GAFCON and the Episcopal Church of North America are foreseen, if not intended, consequences of the Covenant process.
But the gain lies in a stronger, more unified, and more coherent Anglican Church, even if it will be considerably smaller than now. For Catholics that is good news, because Rome can again have a dialogue partner it can do business with.
Only a proclomation of the Gospel will work. Until the Anglican church repents of its actions then it will continue to have judgement rained down on it.
Who, in their right mind can for one second believe in “the loss of TEC” to the covenant. There is NOTHING in the Covenant that should cause TEC to worry about anything. The Covenant leaves any church signing it with the ultimate “out”.. It (the Covenant) is subservient to the Constitution and Canons of the signer, regardless of what it says. And, in a recent interview, the ABC said not signing would not change anything. SO, someone please tell me what’s the point?.
Grandmother
It preserves the Communion precisely because it does not do anything. It allows the proclamation of foux unity as the real thing. It also explains why the ABC had to render the Primates ineffective. They might have actually done something and that could have led to an actual split, so they had to be neutralized.
Groan. Groundhog Day, over and over. L
2. Grandmother, while it’s true that there’s nothing in the Anglican Covenant to cause TEC to object to it, they seem to have ‘manufactured’ an issue to which they object……as we all knew they would……and that issue, or non-issue, as far as we’re concerned, is the one called ‘polity,’ which is one of their bywords. They simply don’t want to be held accountable to anyone in the Communion. They are going to keep on doing their own thing, and they expect everyone else to follow their lead. That isn’t going to happen.
Isn’t “polity” the result of the constitution and canons of the church?
Anglicans United says, nothing in the covenant, overrules those. So it would seem either they are not aware of it, OR, are just using that as an excuse.
Grandmother
Grandmother, I am afraid that the leaders of TEC will sign the Covenant and then revise, they are Revisionists after all – that is what they do.