Spoiler Alert: The Anglican Communion is – drumroll, please – a communion. Dark predictions that a Covenant will only further promote autonomy may be ignoring the fact that that’s the way things have been for a long time.
The General Synod’s vote on the Anglican Covenant (Synod, 26 November) had been well prepared. The organisers made it clear that voting in favour was The Right Answer. Contrary to normal practice, nobody was given the task of summarising the case against, either in the prior paperwork or in the debate itself. The GAFCON Primates [announcement] then turned it into farce.
Meanwhile a heated debate might be underway in England, with questions in Parliament about the possibility that grieving six-year-olds might be told that their beloved grandparents were burning in hell,…
The Anglican Communion doesn’t need a Covenant because Anglicanism is a covenant. It is a way of Provinces listening, living distinctively apart from each other whilst remaining part of one another. That is a way of doing difference differently from the ways in which groups and individuals usually do difference. It is predicated on grace and goodwill.
“One is left wondering what, exactly, their game is and why they should adopt these tactics at this stage.”
A roundup of news and blogs on the Anglican Covenant vote at the Church of England’s General Synod…
General Synod has backed the Anglican Communion Covenant by lopsided margins in all three houses.
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s
The Church of England will begin its General Synod today (Tuesday). #synod is the hashtag for Twitter for those who want to follow along. The
Much of the evil in our world exists because it serves the self interest of powerful people and powerful institutions. These are people who can always arrange for a fuss to be made on their behalf—who can always claim that any attempt to rectify the balance of power in this world “tears at the fabric” of whatever community has summoned the fortitude to challenge their dominance.