Just what we all want for Christmas

The Joint Standing Committee of the Primates Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council, which has been renamed the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion (which suggests that it may be about to attempt to exercise more power than it has) will consider the revised fourth section of the proposed Anglican Covenant when it meets next week in London.


The mysterious and frequently changing group known as Global South Anglican Primates Steering Committee is apparently ready to ratify it, sight unseen:

We aim to affirm the Anglican Covenant as the basis in intensifying the ecclesial life between churches in the Communion, and explore ways churches should stand firm side by side in one spirit and with one mind for the faith of the Gospel of Lord Jesus Christ. The Steering Committee emphasised that provincial and invited participants should be unequivocally committed to uphold the spirit and intent of the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 and the proposed Anglican Covenant (full Ridley Draft).

Emphasis added.

Posted by Jim Naughton on December 12, 2009 6:01 AM | |
Comments (5)

"...ratify it, sight unseen"?
I'm a lawyer's kid. Never sign anything without reading the fine print.

Posted by EH Culver [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 12, 2009 8:52 AM

Yes, but in this case, these folks have written the fine print, so they don't have to read it. One suspects TEC will not be happy campers when the whole covenant thing is done. Section IV looks to be a doozy, looking at the people who are pushing it.

(Editor's note: Thanks, Baker. We need your full name next time.)

Posted by baker24 [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 12, 2009 8:59 AM

So what's really going on here is some kind of a coup. If they are redefining their role and by virtue of that, the entire definition of being Anglican, maybe someone needs to sound the alarm and rouse the troops. As Americans, we are all too familiar with these sorts of things from our own politics in the last generation. If our experience is any indication of what may happen here, we need to nip this in the bud.

Posted by Peter Pearson [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 12, 2009 9:51 AM

It isn't the Gospel of Jesus Christ that's the problem; it's the presenting issue of pastoral theology, addressed by Lambeth 1998.1.10 -- a topic on which the Gospel is silent, (unless one wishes to see that action of Lambeth as contrary to the Gospel -- you know, the bits about refraining from judgment, laying burdens on others one is not prepared to bear, preventing folks from entering into salvation by requiring more than love of God and neighbor, scandalizing the little ones who have faith in Jesus, &c.)

Posted by tobias haller [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 12, 2009 10:14 AM

I have heard tell that the report of the committee reviewing Section 4 will make their report this week. This may be an effort to preempt that report, whatever it might say. If the Committee leaves it unchanged, these folks have asserted their commitment. If it changes things, they have asserted their commitment to Section 4 especially.

Marshall Scott

Posted by Execute [TypeKey Profile Page] | December 12, 2009 12:57 PM

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