Wednesday, June 28, 2006
An Anglican Covenant?
Recently, the Archbishop of Canterbury released his theological reflection, post-General Convention, version 1.0. As a part of his conclusion, he begins to float an idea about an "Anglican Covenant" that he says would necessarily be an "opt-in" statement. There could also be, he posits, varying levels of committment. Constituent churches, for example, would be those who could sign the document in full, while associated churches would be those on the periphary. Voice and vote would probably only be permitted to constituent churches, or at least that's my guess.
As I began thinking about this, I thought such a Covenant, should it desire to include those fringe churches in our Communion (of which ECUSA now represents the left/more liberal fringe), would have to be fairly innocous, and that, to me, ruins the point of having a confession of faith type document (sidebar: something from which Anglicans have historically shied away).
Then I thought further. Don't we already have something that is suppossed to work like this? I flipped back to the small print pages of the BCP, specifically pages 876-878 and found what I was looking for. The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral 1886, 1888. Read it over. Let me know what you think. If that isn't what the Quadrilateral does, then what does it do? And if that isn't it's intended purpose, could it not be used as a basis for Rowan's proposal? What do you think?
-R
As I began thinking about this, I thought such a Covenant, should it desire to include those fringe churches in our Communion (of which ECUSA now represents the left/more liberal fringe), would have to be fairly innocous, and that, to me, ruins the point of having a confession of faith type document (sidebar: something from which Anglicans have historically shied away).
Then I thought further. Don't we already have something that is suppossed to work like this? I flipped back to the small print pages of the BCP, specifically pages 876-878 and found what I was looking for. The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral 1886, 1888. Read it over. Let me know what you think. If that isn't what the Quadrilateral does, then what does it do? And if that isn't it's intended purpose, could it not be used as a basis for Rowan's proposal? What do you think?
-R
1 Comments:
It will all go well until we get to the "revealed word" part. If those opposed to lgbt full participation will forego shrimp, menstruating women, divorce, and polyester blends, I'll start taking them seriously.
