Church of England General Synod backs drafting of Anglican covenant
Episcopal News Service. July 9, 2007 [070907-06]
The Church of England's governing General Synod has agreed to support the drawing up of a draft of an Anglican covenant.
The twice-yearly meeting of the Church of England's general synod July 8 approved by an estimated two-thirds majority a resolution that also noted that “such a process will only be concluded when any definitive text has been duly considered through the synodical processes of the provinces of the Communion.”
The Archbishop of the West Indies, Drexel Gomez, told the synod meeting in York, in northern England, that a covenant was needed because of rifts between Anglican churches, mainly over homosexuality.
"While some feel that there will be inevitable separation, others are trying to deny that there is a crisis at all. That is hardly a meeting of minds," Gomez said, according to a report by the Ecumenical News Service. He added, "Unless we can make a fresh statement clearly and basically of what holds us together, we are destined to grow apart."
The Windsor Report, released in October 2004, proposed an Anglican covenant as a possible way for the Anglican Communion to maintain unity amid differing viewpoints. The Primates of the Anglican Communion released a draft during their February meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, asking for comment from of the 38 provinces by January 1, 2008.
Based on those responses, it is expected that a revised version of the covenant will be presented to the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops, to be followed by a final text that would be proposed to the 2009 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council(ACC). If the ACC adopts the text, it would offer it to the provinces for consideration.
General Synod member the Rev. Miranda Threlfall-Holmes of Durham University is among those opposed to the measure on the grounds, they assert, that it would lead to exclusions and undermine the Anglican tradition of tolerance. Threlfall-Holmes said that history was littered with pieces of paper that had no effect on the subsequent behavior of those who signed them.
The Rev. John Plant of Leicester also disagreed with the measure and asserted that doctrinal certainty was not always a virtue.
The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who is chairing the synod in the absence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who is on study leave, said, "Rowan and I will not sign a document that betrays our church life in this country."
The Episcopal Church, via Resolution A166passed by the 75th General Convention in June 2006, has also agreed to support the process of developing a covenant "that underscores our unity in faith, order, and common life in the service of God's mission."
During the March meeting of the Church’s Executive Council, the members saidthat "responding to the draft covenant does not presuppose agreement with the terms and principles advanced in the draft.”
The General Synod beganon July 6 and runs until July 10. It is due to convene again in February 2008.
In other action on July 8, the synod passed a resolution “reaffirming our abhorrence of the grave sinfulness of covert, overt and institutional racism” and requesting all dioceses “to assess what further developments of their structures and practices are needed to secure a greater use of the gifts of minority ethnic people in the life of the Church at all levels and an increase in the number of ethnic minority young people in leadership.”
On July 9, Sentamu, giving the synod’s presidential address, spoke about the recent bombing attempts in England and Scotland, saying that “our fear of terrorism can lead us to false conclusions about our Muslim neighbours.”
“Therefore the question is in fact about our discernment between those Muslims who, being loyal to the holy Qur’an, are dedicated to a vision of Allah who is merciful, holy and kind -- in contrast to those who tendentiously make Allah vengeful, violent and merciless -- promising paradise now through acts of brutality and mass murder,” he said. “In remaking God in their own image, they commit the ultimate act of blasphemy.”
Sentamu said that Christians “must beware of taking the holiness of God to imply that his wrath and judgement are out to destroy sinners instead of redeeming them, loving them and forgiving them.”
Sentamu, expanding on his theme about fear, said that “the Church is in danger of being paralysed by fear of schism in the Anglican Communion; by much painful disagreement over the controverted issue of ordaining people in same sex relationships, and the blessing of such relationships.”
In such an atmosphere “Christ can easily be pushed out of the way as we try to show others that we are right and that they are wrong,” he said.
He reported that in visiting the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in June 2006 and the more-recent General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada “people spoke of their pain and sadness about the resulting brokenness of the Church, the body of Christ.”
The full text of Sentamu’s address is available here.