The diocesan synod of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich has debated the Anglican Covenant, and voted against the motion put to it by the General Synod, i.e.
“That this Synod approve the draft Act of Synod adopting the Anglican Communion Covenant”.
The voting was as follows:
For Against Abstentions Bishops 2 0 0 Clergy 9 29 4 Laity 8 33 9
The papers provided in advance for this debate can be found here.
More details of the meeting will be posted on the diocesan website soon.
The bishops in the diocese stand rather far apart from the people they serve. Surprise!
Lets hope and pray that this is the beginning of the rejection of the covenant by the rest of the provinces in the UK. For the sake of the good health of the Anglican Communion.
Each province autonomous.
Fr John
Perhaps the whole situation in the Anglican Communion could be fairly quickly settled by calling a special Lambeth Conference – noting which Provinces attend (presuming their consonance with the openness of the Church towards the Gospel Inclusion of Women & Gays); and those who prefer to go it alone with GAFCON.
This might more expeditiously sort out those willing to remain with ‘Scripture, Tradition and Reason’ as against those who prefer Sola Scriptura
The questions in Bishop Cameron’s document are wonderful.
Just by looking at the questions, you realize that the Covenant is controversial, it centralizes power, it is designed to punish, it will create more conflict, and it has already been rejected.
And that’s the “positive” view!