In Lent we realize our limitations – both those we choose and those that confront us when our choices fail. Our limits are real, and we can grow from recognizing them.
Tobias Haller offers a skillful dissection of the most recent draft of the Anglican Covenant which prompts two questions: What does the covenant add to the life of the Communion other than a means of expelling members? And, why would parties with no interest in expelling other members consent to the creation of a club that they will never wield, but may well be wielded against them?
A careful comparison of the new draft of the Covenant with the previous ones serves to highlight the changes that were made to in response to comments from around the Communion. The role of the Primate’s meeting is made less central and an explicit format for conflict resolution is now introduced.
The mainstream media greeted the release of the St. Andrew’s Draft of the proposed Anglican Covenant with a yawn. Coverage in the United Kingdom was light, coverage in the United States nonexistant. The media’s lack of interest in the ongoing struggle for control of the Anglican Communion has both an upside and a downside for the Episcopal Church.
The first media reports have appeared that interpret the St. Andrew’s draft of an Anglican Covenant. Jonathan Petre, religious correspondent for The Telegraph writes, ‘An international “court of appeal”, with the Archbishop of Canterbury at its centre, is to be created to avert the collapse of worldwide Anglicanism, it has been announced.’
From the Global South Anglican website: The Global South Anglican Theological Formation and Education Task Force submitted their Interim Report to the Global South Primates
Updated 2008-02-06 5:45 PM –
We will be updating this story throughout the day, and would be grateful for your evaluation of the document, particularly the conflict resolution process outlined in the appendix.
The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Rev James Jones, a conservative evangelical, expressed the views in a book, A Fallible Church, in which he apologised for objecting to the appointment of the gay cleric Dr Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading. He was one of nine bishops to sign a public letter criticising the proposed consecration.
Ruth Gledhill reports that Archbishop Drexel Gomez, chair of the Anglican Communion’s Covenant Design team says the group has found a new way forward, and adds: “[H]e indicated that the Episcopal Church of the United States was unlikely to face discipline or any form of exclusion from the Anglican Communion as a result of consecrating Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
Archbishop Peter Jensen has announced that he and the five other bishops from the Diocese of Sydney have decided not to attend the Lambeth Conference.