We will update this page during the day.
Updated Tuesday evening
Morning
Official summary of the morning’s inauguration: General Synod – Summary of business conducted on Tuesday 23rd November 2010 – Inauguration
Afternoon
Official summary of the afternoon’s business: General Synod – Summary of business conducted on Tuesday 23rd November 2010 PM
Both official summaries include links to audio recordings of the sessions.
Archbishop’s Presidential Address – General Synod November 2010. This includes the full text.
‘it does not seek to override any province’s canonical autonomy….’
This seems to be the point that the Covenant’s fans want to repeat. And it’s probably true: the covenant does not override autonomy, but it does provide the possibility of sanctions being applied to those who exercise their autonomy in ways that displease the instruments of communion. So autonomy is not affected in one sense, but that’s probably not the real point.
Perceptive comments on the Archbishop’s Presidential Address over at the Episcopal Cafe:
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/anglican_covenant/abc_defends_covenant_warns_of.html
Despite the effect of undergoing a shuffle, rhetoric used and then qualified, the Archbishop in his speech says the gays and lesbians issue should move on as theology used in Synod. This surely means other than his previous statements that Lambeth 1998 1:10 is settled. What else can it mean? There is theology done, says he, outside Synod, there is a need for theology inside, and a need to move the debate on. But if positions should not be fixed, he is fixed in one opinion – to get the Covenant passed. More rhetorical devices to be seen for what… Read more »
The only important part of Rowan’s speech is this:
“If we ignore this, we ignore what is already a real danger, the piece-by-piece dissolution of the Communion and the emergence of new structures in which relation to the Church of England and the See of Canterbury are likely not to figure significantly.”
Which states *everything* that bothers him:
The loss of his little empire. He and CofE will no longer be important (or, at least, think of themselves as such).
Rowan Williams is no bishop, but a cowardly self-promoter.
I must agree with the tenor of Mark Brunson’s comments in this thread in that it all seems to boil down to a loss of power for Archbishop Rowan Williams and he is not looking like a shepherd/servant of his flock but instead as a man who sees himself in the Roman Catholic imperial model of bishop who is mourning the loss of his empire known as The See of Canterbury. This is so sad to me. I had higher expectations of the man. It would not surprise me in the least if he renounced his Anglican heritage for Roman… Read more »