The Mad Priest writes from England on the covenant design group and the covenant in general :
My friends, this is the end of the Anglican Church. And when I say “Anglican Church” I mean the church that began when the first group of natives from what is now called the British Isles, met together, in the early days of Christianity, to break bread in remembrance of our Lord, Jesus Christ and which then went on to find fresh expressions of itself throughout the world.
Why is it the end?
Because the Grand Tufti is selling our birthright. He is illegally imposing upon the people who employ him an illegal covenant. We are children of the Spirit of God, we are not bound by laws unless, individually, we choose to be. For goodness sake, I doubt if two people in my congregation agree with each other about everything, and we should rejoice in that.
This so called covenant will be a piece of misguided diplomacy that will alienate the intelligent and drive people from our churches in droves. At least, for a start, the self-appointed powers that be will have to be seen to enforce conformity of thought and this will lead to the loss, especially in places like England, of many good, hardworking, loving, Christian priests and church employees. It will encourage dishonesty and duplicity among both clergy and laity. It will destroy education in the faith as nobody will feel able to ask questions. It will lead to the splitting of the Anglican Church into two factions. One will be reabsorbed into the Italian Church, initially as an uniate church. The other will become an evangelical church, still referring to themselves as Anglican but as far from real Anglicanism in their beliefs as Taoism is.
Make no mistake – this is nothing but A COUP D’ETAT. Our Church has been taken over by “the generals.”
I am an Anglican. I am not a friggin’ Italian or a Bible bashing puritan. I do not give the Grand Tufti my permission for a bunch of career men to decide, in a few hours, what I am supposed to believe. This is my church, it has been from the day I was born – the Tufti’s not even English.
Who on earth came up with the stupid idea of putting a Welshman in charge of something in the first place? Tony Blair probably – it stinks just like one of his cock-ups.
The best we can now hope for is the American Church will reject the covenant and go it alone. As the last vestige of inclusive Christianity they will grow stronger and will eventually be in a position to re-evangelise the world and one day the church of this land will return to this land.
Servants of the servants of God? My arse. They are a bunch of power grabbing politicians and wimps boxing above their weight.
Heaven help us all.
The rest is here.