Updated finally on Monday morning
For the latest reports from those actually in Jamaica, go here.
Earlier in the week, Ruth Gledhill published this article, Covenant: Is this an instrument to castrate Gafcon?
In that article, she links (though currently the links are broken) to several other analyses:
Today, Stephen Noll has published another article, The Anglican Communion Covenant: Where Do We Go from Here? in which he argues that the Covenant is now dead.
Saturday evening update
Charles Raven has also written a new article, this is titled Tipping Point in Jamaica.
Jamaica is not only the end of the Covenant process, but is also likely to mark a decisive shift of confidence away from the Lambeth based Instruments of Unity and a fresh appraisal of GAFCON by those of the orthodox Anglicans who have been wary. A Communion which looks for leadership from this Archbishop of Canterbury and the existing Instruments of Unity will surely descend into deepening chaos.
The Anglican Church League in Sydney has issued Apostacy and deception: Statement on ACC-14 from the Anglican Church League.
“We have once again been shown how firmly apostasy and deception is embedded in the international structures of Anglicanism. There is no hope for the future there.”
Sunday evening update
Stephen Noll has written another article today, RESUSCITATION OR RESURRECTION? Second Thoughts on the Demise of the Anglican Covenant in which he expands his thoughts.
And, the Anglican Communion Institute has published ACI Statement on the Anglican Consultative Council.
Monday morning update
A.S. Haley has published Shine, Perishing Communion
Stephen Noll put his left foot in, and has now taken his left foot out. He is blaming the machinations of the ACC, as he thought politics might happen, for the failure of a situation where GAFCON type Churches might all rush in and make the Covenant their own (and Gregory Cameron, against that of Kenneth Kearon, did talk about a weight of Churches that sign up to this thing one by one and that might affect its inclusion/ exclusion). But the ACC takes its authority from the spread of Anglican institutions, and whilst Noll thinks Canterbury might have ‘campaigned’… Read more »
Little wonder that the Fourth Moratorium nearly failed. The Episcopal Church has done an extremely poor job of explaining to the rest of the Communion what its schismatic congregations are actually up to, as may be gauged by the following comment on the (English, moderate Evangelical) Fulcrum Forums: “But to be even handed – Schori’s statement on the earlier motion for a fourth moratorium on legal action that ‘I would urge you to vote against this amendment. The reality is that those that remove property from TEC have done so without dialogue…the Archbishops of Sudan, Harare, and Brazil have had… Read more »
Archbishop Rowan is right. Reconciliation takes as long as long as it takes. The present muddle comes from forcing ourselves as a Communion to take decisions when we are perhaps half a century or longer away from being ready to decide. The ACC has many fine people as members. What they lack, again as +Rowan understands, is a theology that helps us all to understand what the Spirit is saying to the church when there is root-and-branch disagreement.
Is an English translation avaliable of Pluralist’s last post?
“Our Lord said: “For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men (Matthew 19:12). The Covenant is to be numbered among the latter” – Stephen Noll – What Stephen Noll omits to include in his biblical quotation here is the closing words of Jesus discourse, mentioning a 3rd category -Eunuchs who have made themselves that way, quote: “For the sake of the kingdom”. One could be led to conclude that a re-wording of Section 4 of the Ridley Draft of the Covenant could indeed be “For the sake of the kingdom”. I… Read more »
“One delegate from Uganda described what was taking place as nothing short of “demonic possession.” – David Virtue – V.on line web-site – As there is only one offical delegate from Nigeria at ACC14, David Virtue is attributing this inflammatory statement to her. One wonders if this is the theological reality encountered in the minds of more than one of the accredited delegates to the ACC? To gleefully report of such a point of view from the membership of the world-wide Anglican Consultative Council shows the measure of disrespect which Virtue (as a reporter) and others from the GAFCON and… Read more »
Culpa Mea AGAIN! In my last post (at 7.15am) the country mentioned in the second line of text should, of course, have been Uganda – not Nigeria. It was Uganda that has only one delegate.
Indeed, as Brian says, this is all too hasty and it has all the signs of something to be repented of at leisure. The language of the CDG has been punctuated with calls for speed and Bishop Gomez’s plea last week was all about quickly grasping the opportunity or disaster was imminent. I always feel I am being hustled when I hear: ” Sign! Sign! Or you will miss a wonderful opportunity. Like Brian (who hangs out somewhere from a century to 50 years) I think our family of churches is likely to be transformed into a Church sometime in… Read more »
T19 has some interesting responses to Noll, with extensive cross-comments by Noll & by C Seitz.
http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/22480/
No Brian. I disagree. Our theology of how we understand what the Spirit is saying happens precisely through on-going conversation. That is the Anglican theological method. Archbishop Williams’ want to on the one hand promote conversation and on the other impose an Anglo-catholic style centralism modeled on Rome has sent very mixed signals and heighted a sense of crisis. I suspect that the reason the Indaba was so well received because in their hearts, many bishops felt a return to the Anglican method rather than the pull and push of Evangelical, Anglo-catholic, and Liberal solutions.
“God might well use what we see as the ‘manipulations’ of others to bring about God’s perfect will.”–Fr. Ron Smith. My own meditations keep being drawn back to Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Forgive me if I quote at length from its conclusion: “Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. [Sc. the growing acceptance of gay people as such in Western societies, and the recent political changes in the US.] Each looked for… Read more »
How can I help? from a conservative point of view (opposite from mine) the Covenant is distrusted because it is ineffective. No, said Stephen Noll, GAFCON theologian, because it has entry conditions, even if not exit disciplines, that give it a conservative integrity. However, ‘politics’ might undermine this. ACC in Jamaica took anti GAFCON steps that he calls politicking, and his rather lonely voice from that perspective in support of the Covenant has now become another against it. He does though want one made by the Global South, but he forgets that sections of the Global South do not trust… Read more »
Thank you creepy rabbit, Seitz is very agitated and well he might be!
There are very influential players who are quite sure that the ACC would have passed the Covenant had it not been for the uncertainty over who could sign it initiated and stirred up by his mate Radner…
I am sure that when the history is written the fault will not be fixed on the Primate of Uganda or any they blame for the failure of their plots – it will fall where it belongs on Radner/Seitz and their partners, whose arrogance and public crowing is simply breathtaking.
No Sydney are deceptive as they are playing ball with Anglo-Catholics…which goes against their real belief in what Anglicanism stands for.
Noll and many of his crowd seem to see the Covenant as reactive: a way to punish the “wayward” TEC and ACoC for past actions, since no such mechanism for punishment exists in the current structures of the Communion. From the beginning, they have not realized that what is done is done (though even the Windsor Report did not talk about undoing actions that had already been taken, merely expressing regret for the actions and their consequences). The real (and perhaps the ONLY) value of a covenant is forward looking: how can we order our common life so that the… Read more »
“One wonders if this is the theological reality encountered in the minds of more than one of the accredited delegates to the ACC? “ It certainly seems that demonic possession and witchcraft form major landmarks on the mental maps of at least some African Christians. Remember the impromptu exorcism of a gay man at Lambeth a few years ago? The African pastor laying hands on Governor Palin in order to protect her from witches? The periodic killing of old women in parts of rural Africa? Full disclosure: I admit the possibility of demonic possession. I’m pretty sure, though, that simply… Read more »
The ACI is squealing like a stuck pig. I guess they had this whole “What is a church” timebomb waiting to go off and Radner blew it by mentioning it publicly on T19. That itself opened the door to a “this isn’t finished” attitude. He doesn’t like that someone else has taken on the job of cleaning up his draft. Plus, the drafts are taking the turn that they can just as easily be used against the GAFCON provinces for their cross-border hegemony which makes it sort of difficult for them to sign on to the current draft. The whole… Read more »
Instead of stampting their feet and throwing accusations around the ACI should actually produce evidence of so-called procedural irregularities/illegalities. There is nothing in the ACC Bylaws and Guidelines to support their accusations. The ACC chairman has the power to rule conclusively on any matter regarding procedure: 1.c “Conduct of business at any meeting of the council shall be regulated by procedural rules adopted from time to time by the council, and insofar as any procedural matter shall arise that shall not be dealt with in the procedural rules currently in force, the chairman shall have power to determine such matter… Read more »
Given the various factions, from GAFCON (a movement born of rebellion) to various slants pro-/anti-/different- Covenant, what is the desired state of play? Which is better: a world in which the Communion becomes a legalistic body with its own decided treaty, or one in which such a thing is unnecessary and unused and people accept their differences and act as friends, out of love for each other? IMNSHO you can’t preach “not under Law but under grace” and be pro-Covenant. The “old” anglicanism I would hold as ideal is more accurately characterised by “grace” than anything else, especially in such… Read more »
“One could be forgiven for thinking that the debate on Friday morning about the covenant was actually about matters of faith. However it was actually about the issues of property and litigation in the United States.” Damn right it was all about the issue of property and litigation in the United States! The Secessionists, faced with the realization that they face an imminent avalanche of rulings against them in the property cases currently before various US courts – evidence that even their hyped-up wishful thinking can no longer ignore – made an all-out push for an end-run around any and… Read more »
These words from the Anglican Communion Institute speak volumes of irony: “Members were given complex resolutions right before the vote without sufficient time to study them and understand their consequences. Resolutions that had been distributed earlier were replaced by resolutions drafted by a committee largely composed of members from provinces known to be opposed to the Ridley Cambridge Draft.” Now, change the word “resolutions” to “proposals for a Covenant” and “largely composed….” to “including individuals personally involved in efforts to undermine the integrity of TEC, and even chaired by an ex-Primate who has improperly involved himself in the affairs of… Read more »
Reading around and around, I thought I really do want to know, as simply and as logically as possible, what happened. Here is what I think what happened, with a minimum of comment other than explanatory. Is this right?
http://pluralistspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-it-was-done-acc.html
I find it interesting that the voices who claim to be speaking for the Global South are protesting the procedures, and specifically that proper (i.e., Western) parliamentary procedure, such as only discussing the motion or amendment on the floor, and considering different motions serially and disjointedly, were not followed, and therefore the members from the Global South were confused as to what was going on and what they were voting on. On the other hand, after the Canadian General Synod in 2004, their allies were arguing that procedures were followed to the letter, and that this overemphasis on parliamentary procedure… Read more »
The range of outcomes in Jamaica were always: (A) Realignment dominates, and TEC plus Canada are punished. Also, maybe the covenant is pushed ahead. Dissenting conservatives rush to sign it, making it a realignment covenant as signing takes hold. Or, (B) Lefty To Middles believers dominate, so the covenant or parts of it are subject to more talk and more redrafting. Or, (C) a messy mix of all people and all views attending. We got (C). I think common sense tells us we will be enduring messy mixes for the foreseeable time being. The USA court cases need time to… Read more »
You know how it goes, Jim Pratt: they argue whatever they think they need to argue to make their case at that moment, and never mind what they argued yesterday. Someone really ought to compile a list of the contradictory statements made over the years by Anglican Mainstream, the AAC/Network, CANA/CAPA/ACNA and various other spokesmen for the right: e.g. that the Archbishop of Canterbury was all-powerful in the Communion (when they thought they could make him do whatever they wanted) as well as useless and irrelevant (when they realized they could not) or that Primates are the rulers of the… Read more »
“a messy mix of all people and all views attending.”
A pretty succinct definition of Anglicanism, if ever there was one!