Two English church groups have united against passage of the Anglican Covenant during next month’s General Synod. Meanwhile, Bishop Alan asks if anyone, anywhere can say anything nice about the document–and if they can’t why should it pass?
Thinking Anglicans reports:
Thursday 28 October 2010
Church Groups Unite Against Anglican Covenant
Two major Church of England groups, Inclusive Church and Modern Church (formerly MCU) have joined together to campaign against the proposed Anglican Covenant.
In November the Church of England’s General Synod will be asked to approve the Anglican Covenant. Many Synod members do not realise it, but it could be the biggest change to the Church since the Reformation.
Each of the 38 Provinces in the Anglican Communion is being asked to sign it. By signing, it undertakes not to introduce any new development if another Anglican province anywhere in the world opposes it – unless granted prior permission from a new international body, the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion.
The campaign opens tomorrow Friday, when full-page advertisements appear in both the Church of England Newspaper and the Church Times. It will continue during the weeks leading up to the General Synod debate scheduled for Wednesday 24 November, and if the draft is not rejected, but referred to the dioceses, it will continue throughout 2011.
Last week, Bishop Alan Wilson asked what kind of tool the Anglican Covenant might be: a Swiss Army knife or a turkey turner.
I am slightly bemused when I am told some big signature project is perfectly safe because it won’t make any critical difference. If not, why bother? Is there anything worth doing instead that might make a difference? But a new General Synod is about to sign the C of E up to the Anglican Covenant, pretty much on auto-pilot, some say as much out of fear of giving offence as positive endorsement for its suposed virtues. Everyone else can then back-pedal, ignore it, even, depending on where they stand in the culture wars,
* because they fear it will spank TEC
or
* because they fear it won’t,
The Covenant then joins a select number of other magnificenti in the lumber room, like the Kikuyu declaration, and life carries on. But, inquiring minds will wonder, what kind of a tool is it? What for? Whose benefit? How?
There’s a scale for assessing tools, that runs from Swiss Army Knife to Turkey Turners.
Not to give away the ending, but “Turkey Turner” is winning his informal poll. But his question is a good one: will a document that is at best useless and at worst harmful to Anglicanism pass out of sheer niceness?