There has been a flurry of interest around the references to what Archbishop Drexel Gomez (now retired) said in 2008. Here is the original report of those remarks.
Christian Challenge ARCHBISHOP GOMEZ: Need For Covenant Grows More Urgent by Robert England.
Leader Sees Good Chance That Final Covenant Will Go To Provinces Next Year; Expresses Openness To Possibility Of New North American Province
The process of finalizing an Anglican covenant needs to move forward more quickly if the Anglican Communion is to be preserved.
That was the message delivered Saturday (September 13) by West Indies Archbishop Drexel Gomez, the chairman of the group charged with formulating the pact intended to help ensure unity in basic beliefs, settle disputes, and administer discipline among historically autonomous Anglican provinces…
Another copy is over here.
++Gomez pounded that drum at Albany’s 2010 diocesan convention, joining +Love and the ABC (recorded) in an effective media blitz. With so many shepherds in play, it’s no wonder the sheep fell in line and endorsed the covenant.
Robert Dodd
There can’t really be any doubt that neither liberal churches nor extreme conservative churches are very fond of the Covenant and that they will probably not sign it.
So the Communion will be split in any case.
For me, the only question is where the CoE will find itself afterwards.
Bishop Gomez is the retired archbishop of the West Indies. However the archbishop emeritus remains on, ¨as needed¨, as chairperson for The Anglican Communion Covenant Design Group. Good, we badly ¨need¨ some redesigning and the removal/editing rooting out of ill-intentioned ¨cleansing instruments¨ in the 4th section of that same covenant. A self-eliminating clause, at least if we take Bishop Gomez at his word(s), that would outcast ¨bad¨ Anglican ¨family¨ members and make room for ¨good¨ and more virtueous Anglican family in North America/beyond. Bishop Drexel Gomez knows who´s good and whó´s bad already and claims there is a urgently needed… Read more »
Erika: Perhaps, I believe the Communion has already split. The same thing has happened in the Roman Catholic Communion. It too, has split. Perhaps new foundations are being built in both communions. I have no doubt “The Covenant” is a truly bad idea. It is time for those who believe that The Covenant is a good thing, to simply move on. They do not seem to want to do this. They seem to want “their cake and to eat it as well.” Thus, two models of Church are unfolding. This is nothing new. This has happened time and again. It… Read more »
Chris I agree that there is already a split but so far, it has been possible for individual provinces to move from one section the other other, or even to be in one camp on some issues and not on others. As soon as the Covenant is signed whatever is the status quo will be frozen. So if the CoE signs it, it will continue to have women’s ordination but it will never move to lgbt inclusion. All options of a gradual organic change of policy will be closed. Without the Covenant, the CoE still has choices, including the choice… Read more »
Erika: Thank you for making these points. Well taken and I salute you for the way you spelled it out. I agree with every word you wrote. It would be a very sad day for the C of E if lgbt people do not receive FULL inclusion. Again, thank you. I grow because of insightful comments such as yours.
Bishop Gomez, with his impoverished notion of what homosexuality is really all about, should have been retired and put out to grass – and not give any further responsibility for The Covenant.
I suspect Abp Drexel’s dislike of TEC is also fed by the fact the Province of the West Indies has lost some of its clergy to it over the years.