Cif belief has published an article, written by me, on the Covenant.
The covenant is a waste of time and money
Everyone agrees the Anglican Communion is in a mess, but increasing the power of a central committee won’t fix it.
Gregory Cameron, Andrew Goddard, and Graham Kings have all criticised attacks on the covenant as misinformation and scaremongering. But strikingly none of them has explained what benefit to the Church of England comes from endorsing the covenant. There’s a very simple reason for this: none exists…
The Covenant was originally proposed as a way of bringing The Episcopal Church (of the United States of America) into line. It was wanted by certain Provinces which have shown they are unwilling to abide by the Windsor moratoria that apply to them, to desist from cross-border actions in other Churches of the Anglican Communion. Given their unwillingness to abide by agreements their Primates have signed up to what right have they to impose their will on others? Should General Synod give credence to this toothless document by signing up to it next week or not? Personally I agree that… Read more »
As we cannot even agree as to what the Covenant means, or whether to sign on or not, why should anyone imagine it will help us come to agreement on anything else?
The Anglican Communion ¨covenant¨ punishing potential makes me sad. The St.Andrews draft of the Anglican Communion Covenant is a premeditated and dangerous contract that will further harm many of us who have been hurt, demonized and ostracized at The Body of Christ and beyond already. We are your sisters, brothers, cousins, coworkers and best friends…we live amongst you in our Anglican families in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America, in North America and Europe and way down under too–we are not different than you, we are with you this moment and have been always–we have shared our lives with all… Read more »
I respect and applaud the comments in this thread by Roger Stokes. I sincerely agree with Mr. Stokes. “The Covenant” is indeed a waste of time and money. I hope it is defeated.
Maybe, just maybe, the Communion is right where we ought to be?
“Yes, there are problems in the Anglican Communion. No, the covenant is not the solution. The only way forward is to establish the principle that these are issues on which it is OK for Anglicans to disagree with each other. And carry on talking.” – Simon Sarmiento, C.i.F Belief – Simon, this last paragraph of your article puts everything into its proper context. If Global South people are not going to sign on to the Covenant – because of their culpability on the matter of illict border-crossing – and those of us who support the action of TEC and the… Read more »
Simon, this was a very good article. Thank you. The GAFCON/FCA Primates Council is quoted as saying: “The Anglican Communion will only be able to fulfil its gospel mandate if it understands itself to be a community gathered around a confession of faith.” Um, no. Gentlemen, your grade for Church History 103 is D-minus. Rewrite this paper and have it on my desk by Monday morning. The history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries suggests that as a way to foster the unity of the church and to support the fulfilling of the gospel mandate, “confessions of faith” (beyond the… Read more »
‘The only way forward is to establish the principle that these are issues on which it is OK for Anglicans to disagree with each other. And carry on talking.’ I largely agree. But the principle has a downside – which I think one has to embrace through gritted teeth: toleration of things one thinks wrong (in some sense or senses). Purely for example: the right of FiF people who wish to remain within the C of E to have what they regard (not what we regard) as adequate protection for their position. Where I don’t agree, is that sometimes ‘keeping… Read more »
If the Anglican Communion is to be a community gathered around a confession of faith then is is pretty obvious I would have thought that the Church of England won’t be part of it…nor Wales, Scotland, TEC, Canada etc etc