'The Irish Book of Common Prayer of 1878: "What is imperfect with peace, is often better than what is otherwise more excellent, without it".

Amongst its many functions, one function of Canon Law is to give expression to the moral requirements and obligations (and, indeed, the collective moral conscience) of a Church'.
(Kenyon Homfray (C. of I.)

It seems that, here again, the Church of Ireland is able to point a possible way forward for the Provinces of the Anglican Communion to co-exist - if even in a 'less excellent' manner than might otherwise be possible.

What has to be determined, is whether all of the Provinces would prefer to remain in Communion with one another - at peace (but with differing understandings of The Scriptures, vis-a-vis gender and sexuality issues); or whether the need to preserve a 'moral equivalence' - a common standard of perceived morality - agreeable to all parties, is more important for the mission of the Church.

Fr. Dunlop's essay reminds us that policing and punishment in the new fangled conservative covenanted Anglican Church nee Communion may end up being something of a two-edged sword. A good reminder, then.

That is: complicated laws and regulations for policing and punishment may discover ambiguities and grey areas in application that did not seem possible, nor were anticipated, in their original drafting. Even Billy Budd innocents may get ground up in those wheels turning. The same conservative Anglican believers who cannot, say, exactly agree on high vs low church rituals as lex orandi, or on womens' ordination, or on free market capitalism run rampant and greedy, may find they have similar difficulties agreeing on whom to police and punish and how, especially if their current fav targets of queer folks and progressive Anglicans are graciously removed from the realignment picture? (Do come quickly, Lord Jesus?)

Without progressive believers or queer folks, what is the point? Yes, attack filthy modernity with all your might, and good luck, then.

That is: the implementations of policing and punishment may be readily viewed according to a huge global existing body of secular international law and related geopolitical concepts, such that unfairness is still common sense unfairness even if it be technically and religiously legal in the new conservative church that the Anglican Communion is supposedly doomed/destined to become via the realignment campaign. Mean people suck, as USA teens say on tee shirts. Teens wear the shirts because they mean it. A whole new generation is coming up that starts with bedrock fairness in human rights, and has little time for feisty holiness cults that need to target outsiders in order to get the theological or moral salvation engines up and running.

This covenant campaign replays just exactly the general fated trends of the USA neocon political and economic movements, alas. Are we surprised? Just about the same set of funding foks is running the realignment, as ran the USA neocon movement. Learning that difficult set of lessons over again inside worldwide Anglicanism may be very, very, very painful if not also quite destructive.

Alas. Lord have mercy.