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Friday, July 20, 2012

Anglican Covenant: Much Ado About Nothing

I know this is probably passe by now, none the less.

I have waited patiently for the convention to act on the Anglican Covenant.  Each and every diocese and each and every parish/mission was requested to review and comment on the Covenant.  With all the "to do" about the Covenant I thought that something substantive would come out of the discussions.  Well folks, here it is in all it's glory and with all the decisive power we have in our great church.

B005

TOPIC: ANGLICAN COMMUNION


Ongoing Commitment to The Anglican Covenant Process
PROPOSER
Douglas, The Rt. Rev. Ian
ENDORSED BY
Doyle, The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew; Curry, The Rt. Rev. Michael

SPONSORED BY

PAGE NUMBER(S) FOR REFERENCE
Blue Book: p. N/A; Constitution & Canons: p. N/A

HOUSE OF INITIAL ACTION / LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
HD / World Mission
CURRENT FILING STATUS
Filed
REVIEW STATUS (PB&F, CONSTITUTION, CANONS)

not yet reviewed; N/A; N/A
RESOLUTION TEXT
Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 77th General Convention
express its gratitude to those who so faithfully worked at producing and responding to the proposed Anglican Covenant (www.anglicancommunion.org/commission/covenant/final/text.cfm); and be it
further

Resolved,  That the 77th General Convention acknowledge that following extensive study and prayerful consideration of the Anglican Covenant there remain a wide variety of opinions and ecclesiological positions in The Episcopal Church; and be it further

 Resolved, that as a pastoral response to The Episcopal Church, the General Convention decline to take a position on the Anglican Covenant at this convention; and be it further

 Resolved, that the General Convention ask the Presiding Officers to appoint a task force of Executive Council (Blue Book, 637) to continue to monitor the ongoing developments with respect to the Anglican Covenant and how this church might continue its participation; and be it further

 Resolved, that the Executive Council task force on the Anglican Covenant report its findings and recommendations to the 78th General Convention.


EXPLANATION

The first three resolves are the same as those offered by the Executive Council and the D020 Task Force. The fourth resolve substitutes “an embrace” of the Preamble and first three Sections of The Anglican Covenant for the Executive Council’s resolve that The Episcopal Church “is unable to adopt The Anglican Covenant in its present form.” The final two resolves call for a task force of Executive Council, as outlined in the Executive Council’s August 2011 report on The Anglican Covenant, to study and report back to the 78th General Convention with respect to The Episcopal Church’s ongoing participation in The Anglican Covenant process. The resolution affirms that The Episcopal Church is still in the process of adopting The Anglican Covenant and thus maintains our “participation in the decision making of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion or of the Instruments of Communion.” (The Anglican Covenant 4.2.8)

  Printed: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 06:10 PM. Page 1 of 1


(NOTE: This is not quite the format the resolution is in but the verbiage is correct.)


One of two things happened here.  First, the convention/delegates decided skip the heavy lifting since several of the resolutions passed  and already being acted on are already hot and so lets not piss off the rest of the world.  Or, two, let's hope this whole thing blows over before we have to really reject this silly and redundant document created by silly people for silly people who think that this is now the Ministry of Silly People (apologies to Monty Python).  At any rate, you all pick what you think happened.

Why did all our laity put so much heart and soul, blood, sweat and  tears into "let's think it over".  I do know our parish worked hard to read, digest and come up with our decision and now we realize that everyone was just kidding.  That is a good way to keep us all on  the same page.
 
BTW, Bishop Douglas is an expert on the Anglican Communion.

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