Bishop Selby rejects the Covenant idea
Bishop Peter Selby, the former bishop of Worcester in England has written of his deep concerns regarding the proposed Anglican Covenant. He is afraid that its adoption would signal what others have suggested is a primarily structural solution to theological questions.
"Dr Selby said that both of the main arguments made in the Archbishop’s paper had a two-edged character. The requirement that, in order to be recognisable, Anglicans needed patterns and convictions such as those proposed in the Anglican Covenant, raised the fundamental biblical question ‘recognisable to whom?’ Being recognisable to ‘the least of the brothers and sisters’ (Matthew 25) mattered at least as much as being recognisable to other provinces, Dr Selby contended.‘The bullying, the threats, the withdrawal of communion, the unilateral invasions of others’ territories, have made Anglicanism quite unrecognisable to a significant number of people,’ he said. Moreover, the history of Anglicanism did not support the way of sanctioning developments proposed in the Covenant draft.
‘When the C of E changed its practice [on divorce and remarriage], we did not wait to decide the principle until we had consulted with other provinces; we did not await ecumenical consensus.’"
Read the full article here.
How great to hear another measured voice from England who genuinely values what we love in Anglicanism and the way our four hundred fifty years of stumbling forward together, separately, and more or less in communion has kept us falling into grace (or at least more often falling into grace than falling on our faces).
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October 9, 2009 6:14 PM