Saturday, July 07, 2012

What I said when I spoke at the Open Hearing last night to reject the proposed Anglican Covenant

I rise to speak in favor of Resolution D007 and urge this committee to move its adoption as the Episcopal Church’s response to the proposed Anglican Covenant. Despite protestations to the contrary, the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant attempts to create a centralized authority that would constrain the self-governance of The Episcopal Church and other churches of the Communion. This unacceptably inhibits Communion churches from pursuing the gospel mission as they discern it.

You will hear this evening from a variety of voices speaking from a variety of perspectives on this issue, and I come to speak as a traditionalist. Our scripture and our tradition tell us to value the ideal of covenant while our reason tells us to reject this proposal lest we throw out the baby of historic Anglican comprehensiveness with the bathwater of hysteric Anglican politics. Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the proposed Covenant is nothing less than coercion in covenant clothing – and I urge its rejection.
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4 comments:

  1. Muthah+10:37 PM

    preach it, Susan!

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  2. JimB11:21 AM

    Well said! I could not agree more.

    FWIW
    jimB

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eliza S5:26 PM

    Thank you. I've felt for many years now that we cannot let an ideal of unity compromise our moral values.

    Eliza in New Jersey

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  4. MarkBrunson11:55 PM

    I hate the Covenant with a passion, but . . .

    . . I didn't expect the response to be this brave.

    What I mean is, we've punted it out of the way - the easy way, yes, not to say yes or no - but added a resounding condemnation at the same time. Can't adopt it at this time for pastoral reasons.

    It's a lovely bit of contempt - and I approve mightily - toward the handling of the Communion. It's saying, "Yes, we're a communion, but you people have ceased being pastors to your flock. Once you get your heads out of deep, dark recesses, we may be willing to fully engage with you again."

    It's a hard slap with a velvet glove.

    ReplyDelete

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