From the Anglican Journal New resources help unpack the Anglican Covenant
Canadian Anglican parishes and individuals who would like to learn more about the proposed Anglican Covenant will soon have a study guide at their fingertips.
The Anglican Church of Canada’s Anglican Covenant Working Group has released the study guide on the national church’s website in time for Pentecost, June 12.
“We’re encouraging people to look at the [details of the Covenant] and to reflect on what its implications are,” diocese of Ontario Bishop George Bruce, chair of the working group, said in an interview.
And on the official church website, Anglican Covenant study now available.
The Anglican Church of Canada has released a study guide to help parishes and dioceses consider the Anglican Covenant, a document that, if adopted, would define the relations among the provinces of the Anglican Communion. The material was prepared by the Anglican Communion Working Group, chaired by Bishop George Bruce…
Exploring the Anglican Covenant is available as a PDF file from here.
As a Canadian, I think it is fair for me to say that Bishop George Bruce is quite conservative and pro-Covenant. He is known for his anti-gay position in the Canadian Church and in his Diocese of Ontario. He retires this summer.
“Whether you agree with the Covenant or not, there is much to be learned about our Anglican heritage and practice, by engaging in the study process. The Anglican Communion has been in turmoil over the past several years. This Covenant may or may not be of assistance in leading us towards a clearer mission together.” – Bishop Susan Moxley & Suzanne Lawson – In their letter of preamble to the discussion document of The Covenant, these two Canadian members of the A.C.C. are bold enough to suppose that the Covenant ‘may or may not’ be of assistance to the Anglican… Read more »
So far, there has been no comment from “Stop the Anglican covenant” folks here in Canada.I’ll be interested to get their take on the study materials. Meantime,my diocese has just passed a resolution asking our bishop to give the green light to clergy and parishes that wish to bless the marriages of same sex couples who are married in a civil ceremony. We are the eighth out of twenty-nine dioceses to do so– and now much of urban Canada has some sort of liturgical mechanism for blessing same gender marriages. So, what will conservative sections of the Communion make of… Read more »
As the Canadian Convenor for the No Anglican Covenant Coalition, I was in touch with Bishop Bruce early to press the point that the Canadian study guide must be scrupulously fair – unlike the pro-Covenant propaganda piece coming out of the Pravda and Ishvestia . . . I mean Lambeth and the ACO.
Conservative and pro-Covenant Bruce may be. Overall, I think he did manage to lead a process which has brought us the first fair and unbiased study piece I;ve seen from any official source at the provincial or Communionwide level.
I’m encouraged to read +Malcolm’s assessment of Canadian Study materials. If the “stop the Anglican Covenant group” find them acceptable, that is a good sign. The materials, on the face of it, look fairly even handed. There are further questions. What kind of process will be used to gather and report to GS? Will there be an actual open parliamentary style debate at GS 2013 , or will it be another process using conversation minders like last time? I’m wondering if Malcolm knows the membership makeup of Bishop Bruce’s working group. I tried searching the GS and Anglican journal sites… Read more »
I don’t have details on the membership of the working group, but the work so far suggests to me the process will at least make an effort to be fair. In addition, I know that there are at least a few bishops very unsympathetic to the Covenant stitch-up. That can only be helpful in ensuring we don’t have an unethical Lichfield style rubber stamp. I do rather expect that the Anglican Communion Office will dispatch their Canadian colleague to work the rooms in favour of the Covenant, and there are certainly those in the Canadian Church who are highly supportive.… Read more »