I interrupt my intended program of Advent antiphons... to spend a moment or two going "huh?" at this Anglican Covenant nonsense. I remain baffled by the whole thing. Churches aren't made out of committees following rules, though those may be necessary for the smooth operation of the work of any church. Churches are made out of people doing their best to follow God.
I mentioned it to our Delightful Reader at Nearest Church and she hadn't a clue what I was talking about. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, or perhaps she didn't really want to talk church politics on the Lord's day -- fair enough, really. I didn't pick up this most recent news on it until today because I haven't been reading much but it has been kicking around for a while now, and I'd have expected Delightful Reader to have noted it if it had any relevance. So maybe it really just isn't that relevant. Delightful Reader mentioned the Lambeth Quadrilaterals, which was before I really got interested in Christianity again so I'm not terribly familiar with the details (though I probably ought to be), and I mentioned that surely things like the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed were also statements of what we as a church believe and that clarifications which are divisive are perhaps unhelpful. There are those who would posit that really, we messed all this up a bit at the Council of Chalcedon.
I don't believe that revelation just stops; I'm not disputing the need for communication between different branches of the church as part of a process of discerning God's will. But it strikes me that all this emphasis on who is in and who is out, who is Anglican and who is not, who is "in Communion" and who is not, is all a bit misguided.
I think I said all I have to say about this in another post, way back in May:
If you must, go ahead and waste your time and energy and money trying to legislate who is a member of your church and who is not.
Dither away. The rest of us have work to do.
Time for me to get on with my bit of that work...
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1 comment:
Song,
The Anglican Convention is a Gentleman's agreement between subscribing Anglican's, who agree to disagree. In other words a fudge.
It is intended to stop one national church, doing something, which others disagree with or at least to think before they jump.
I think it is a case of being to much and to late and completely unworkable and unenforceable.
It does nothing to resolve issues of Gender or Sexuality in a loving acceptance of difference way, and is designed to deter - but like the Nuclear Deterrent, will never be used as it would create to much harm.
Or am I being my normal, naive self?
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