So the circus continues.

I find the Anglican Covenant offensive (it is neither Anglican nor a covenant): under its terms, could my church go to the Standing Committee and ask it to consider relational consequences for churches that *approve* the AC?

That's not really much more nonsensical than what we've already heard offered as explanations of the AC. And now the Church of England votes to give the Standing Committee juridical powers to apply in this Alice-In-Wonderland world.

There was a proposal to append a statement that the CofE will not participate in the sanctions set out in Section 4 of the Covenant.... did that pass and was that statement appended?

Never mind, I see that the Section 4 proposal lapsed.

Much as I hate to come off criticizing ++Cantuar or the CoE, it's about what I expected, & an untenable position. It honks off the Global South because it doesn't go far enough (IOW, 100% of what they want,m no compromise), & it honks off TEC & others because it wqent as far as it did. Peace in the family notwithstanding, common sense says that if you pacify a bully by enabling or by giving them more their share ("First among *equals*"?), you don't get peace or unity, you get war or domination.

JMH$.02W; your mileage may vary. -grin-

Bill Nichols (with apologies; attempt at login yesterday would not work with any of my ID's except twitter, which should have automatically included my name)

I'm not upset about this. Rowan bullied the wee first form into submission and they gave him what he wanted --validation that he is not the worst ABC in world history because they didn't tell him "get lost".

But, and this is a large but, they knew the debate would go to the dioceses. That's where the rubber will meet the road.

In response to the vote, the neo-donatists have given the two-finger salute to the COE and the rest of us. Great move, in my opinion. They've shown England and Rowan they are (1) not Anglican (2) not interested in working sane Anglicans.

My only question is, how many times do they have to shaft Rowan before he "gets it?" He's too bloody minded to believe the writing on the wall. Poor Rowan.

James Holloway

Their timing is impeccable: Happy Thanksgiving... think back to when the various drafts appeared: Ash Wednesday, Good Friday.

The vote does not surprise me at all, especially when bishops say to the press they were voting to be loyal to the archbishop.

How wonderful for the CofE, an overwhelming vote made irrelevant by the well timed release from the very group it hoped to appease. But Britain has experience with appeasement, so the exquisite timing of the release may well tweak some long dormant memories.

As for GAFCON, leaders who suborn both theft of assets and the imprisonment and murder of a minority group hardly have any moral ground upon which to stand. Once you've justified violating two Commandments from the actual moral law in Scripture, the rest of their verbiage becomes empty blather.

The No Anglican Covenant Group got started a little late, but as noted the Diocese will now become some sort of battleground for a document that is already irrelevant.

The split in the Anglican Communion is here, time for GAFCON to just do the deed so they can see what happens.

The bit in the GAFCON "Oxford Statement" that "We are, however, determined to lead our churches away from unhealthy economic dependency" is hilarious.

In the communal spirit, I gave the Covenant a thorough reading today. Personally I'm fine with the vast majority of it. My worries still stem from the reasons that brought about the "need" for a covenant... The sections 4.2.5-4.2.7 really confuse me as well. How can a group really decide when an action is "incompatible with the Covenant"?

I still hope and pray the Episcopal Church decides against any formal agreements such as this.

Eric Sinkula

There's a nice place in Wales, Swansea way, called Gwernllwynchwyt. The air is (sea) brisk, the people kind, and the pint ale cheap--on the order of 70p.

Perhaps if some of these ne'er do wells met there and came face to face with the possibility of issuing Gwernllwynchwyt Statements, we would have fewer of these kinds of things.