Anglican Communion News Service reports today that a “recent” meeting (six weeks ago) in Asunción, Paraguay, saw the endorsement of the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant by the bishops and Executive Committee of the Province of the Southern Cone of America.
The voters in question weren’t circumspect in their reasoning: if the Communion is indeed a family, certain members are acting like bratty siblings – irrationally and with too much independence – and must bridled.
….The Province views the covenant as a way forward given the difficult circumstance of watching certain Provinces of the Anglican Communion propose novel ways of Christian living in rejection of Biblical norms.
In response to these novel practices the Southern Cone had held churches in North America under its wing for some time while the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) was formed. However, the Province has not maintained jurisdiction over any local churches there for over a year. As a result, all so called ‘border crossings’ by any provincial members ceased (as of October, 2010) even though the Southern Cone still remains in impaired communion with US and Canadian Provinces. It is hoped that the Covenant can now provide Communion stability.
One of the Bishops commented, “We believe that life in the Communion must be maintained by a basic level of accountability if, in fact, we are a family of interdependent churches. The Covenant helps fulfill this role. Naturally, house rules should be kept to a minimum. But being a member of a family has responsibilities that must be ‘lived into’. Right now, a small faction in the Communion continues to do ‘its own thing’ enjoying many privileges and few responsibilities of family.”
The Province of the Southern Cone contains the dioceses of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Northern Argentina, Paragua, Peru, and Uruguay. It