La Provincia Anglicana del Cono Sur ”“ the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone ”“ has endorsed the Anglican Covenant.
Meeting in Asunción, Paraguay from 3-11 November 2011, the provincial executive committee and the province’s House of Bishops endorsed the inter-Anglican agreement that sets the parameters of doctrine and discipline for the Anglican Communion.
In a statement released on 20 Dec 2011, Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia stated the province believed the covenant was a “way forward” in the midst of a difficult time when “certain provinces” were proposing “novel ways of Christian living” that rejected “Biblical norms.”
“The Episcopal Church’s Executive Committee has raised objections to what it sees as an aggrandizement of powers by an unaccountable bureaucracy in London, while the Diocese of Australia and the Gafcon primates have urged its rejection.”
Unless I am mistaken, Southern Cone is represented at Gafcon. If so, that makes this adoption all the more intriguing.
Dr. Seitz,
Of course, you are correct that the Southern Cone is indeed a GAFCON/FCA province. That certainly does make this decision to endorse the current Covenant, even with its extremely problematic and flawed Section 4, not only “intriguing” but even surprising. Maybe the fact that TEC is clearly rejecting the Covenant helped.
David Handy+
If the Gafcon provinces accept the Covenant — and TEC rejects it — that’s pretty significant.
I don’t see how it particularly affects communion discipline since the Covenant doesn’t provide for consequences. It looks like you’d have a bunch of the conservative/moderate provinces signing on — with some of the liberal provinces as well — and TEC/Canada/some SA/some European provinces not — and then everybody proceeds on as before doing whatever they think they should, according to whatever gospel they believe.
But still — I suppose it will be an interesting “array” of provinces lined up neatly.
What’s the “Diocese of Australia”? :o)
#4 — a (rare) Conger blunder? Presumably he means Sydney.