Thinking Anglicans

Canadian response to Draft Covenant

At its recent meeting, the Council of General Synod approved the following initial response to the draft Anglican Communion Covenant and asked that it be forwarded to the Communion offices.

Read it all at A Preliminary Response to the Draft Covenant by the Anglican Church of Canada.

Reference is made in that to the 2007 Canadian response to the Windsor Report.

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Ford Elms
Ford Elms
16 years ago

How long before the Right starts howling that the Canadians are being duplicitous, engaging in double speak, rejecting the covenant, etc.? Why do I get the feeling that conservatives will see anything other than full acceptance of the first draft as not merely rejection of them, but full on apostacy?

Malcolm+
Malcolm+
16 years ago

My Church’s Council is far more generous than I.

I think the draft covenant is nowt but the legislative apologia for a coup d’eglise by foreign prelates. The proposed role of the Primates is nothing but the establishemnt of centralized authority and curial dominance with the utter destruction of synodical government.

The so-called “Draft Anglican Covenant” is not so much “Anglican” as “Puritan,” and less “Covenant” than “Hostile Takeover.”

Ford Elms
Ford Elms
16 years ago

“The so-called “Draft Anglican Covenant” is not so much “Anglican” as “Puritan,” and less “Covenant” than “Hostile Takeover.””

And as I said before, if we can’t keep the New Covenant given by God Himself, why do we think a man-made one will be any better?

Fr Mark
Fr Mark
16 years ago

I always thought Presbyterians were the ones who went in for Solemn Covenants, anyway. Their record on schism ain’t that good, is it…

Ford Elms
Ford Elms
16 years ago

“Their record on schism ain’t that good, is it”

Ah, but according to the good Dr. Packer, it isn’t schism if you break with the other side because they have abandoned ‘orthodoxy’. Thus there have never been schisms in the history of Christianity.

Prior Aelred
16 years ago

I pretty much agree with Malcolm+ (not Malcolm X — well, on some things I agree with him as well) — but we have polite Anglican speak here — “perhaps the emphasis …” = “the manifest lies …” Ford Elms — on the contrary, the Canadians seem to get away with anything they want — it is the US & TEC that is hated (perhaps because it is US dissidents who are funding this entire mess) — Canadians are just unarmed Americans health coverage (they also say, “eh” a lot):) Fr Mark — nonsense — the Presbyterian record on schism… Read more »

Tobias Haller
16 years ago

Perhaps what is really needed is a Daft Anglican Covenant. 😉

Cheryl Va. Clough
16 years ago

As Ford asked “If we can’t keep the New Covenant given by God Himself, why do we think a man-made one will be any better?” The proposed covenant does nothing to address cruelty from primates or bishops. It does nothing about restoring the everlasting covenant of peace, nor does it remove Baal-like attempts to sacrifice chidren or this earth. They have a false promise for their heaven because they are incapable of creating it simply because they eschew peace and love violence. There is no rest for the wicked. We don’t need more rules; we need hearts that faithfully love… Read more »

Amalarius Metensis
Amalarius Metensis
16 years ago

As a happy (and happily) lay Episcopalian, but former Presbyterian minister, I’m a little weary of the cheap shots about the Presbyterians. Yes, certainly divisions are part of Presbyterian history. So are mergers, unions, and re-unions. Certainly the “Solemn League and Covenant” in Scottish history damaged episcopacy in that country, but episcopacy had already seriously compromised itself. Anglicans of any stripe who are committed to historical accuracy will also recognize Presbyterian leadership in ecumenism, and occasional instances of courage and “spine” where Anglican prelates collapsed –witness the flap about the Falklands memorial services under Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s,… Read more »

Fr Mark
Fr Mark
16 years ago

Amalarius: I’m from a Presbyterian family background, in fact; and they do have quite a history of schism in Northern Ireland (and what about the Wee Frees?). I wasn’t trying to be malign (merely light-hearted, something we don’t get enough of in ecclesiastical controversies) and sorry if it sounded that way. The Church of Scotland has made a great contribution to reasonable theology, which I’m proud of. Irish Presbyterianism has not quite gone that way, though, has it?

Göran Koch-Swahne
16 years ago

Are you trying to say that there really are no caricatures about and that people are just being mean for the heck of it?

Or are you saying that there are so many that behave like the caricatures they are, to make sure language is correct and appropriate?

Ford Elms
Ford Elms
16 years ago

“on the contrary, the Canadians seem to get away with anything they want”

So far, but how long will it last? At what point will we be too Christian? “The Devil goeth about like a roaring lion.”

choirboyfromhell
choirboyfromhell
16 years ago

So about Canadian Presbyterians we know full well were the term “frozen chosen” came from…..

To the tune of National Hymn in the background….

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