Showing posts with label NACC resolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NACC resolution. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

NACC RESOLUTION FILED AT TEC GENERAL CONVENTION 2012

D007 TOPIC:

Response to the Anglican Covenant

PROPOSER
Russell, The Rev. Cn. Susan
 

ENDORSED BY

Hopkins, The Very Rev. Michael; Lee, Ms. Lelanda


SPONSORED BY

Buchanan, The Rev. Susan; Engstrom, The Very Rev. Marilyn; Gracey, Mr. R. Stephen; Hart, Mr. Christopher; Kandt, Mrs. Pamela; Leigh , Ms. Robyn; Moore, The Rev. Stephen; Russell, The Rev.Michael; Shaw, The Rev. Lee; Williams, Ms.Sandra; Bronson Sweigert, The Rev. Cynthia

RESOLUTION TEXT

Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That the 77th General Conventiongive thanks to all who have worked to increase understanding and strengthen relationships among the churches of the Anglican Communion; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention reaffirm the commitment of this church to the fellowship of autonomous national and regional churches that is the Anglican Communion; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention recognizes that sister churches of the Anglican Communion are properly drawn together by bonds of affection,  in the common mission of the gospel, and by consultation withoutcoercion or intimidation; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention, having prayerfully considered the merits of the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant and believing said agreement to be contrary to Anglican ecclesiology and tradition and to the best interests of the Anglican Communion, respectfully decline to adopt the same; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention call upon the leaders of The Episcopal Church at every level to seek opportunities to reach out to strengthen and restore relationships between this church and sister churches of the Communion.

EXPLANATION

Churches of the Anglican Communion have been asked to adopt the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant. The suggestion for such an agreement was made in the 2004 Windsor Report, which recommended "theadoption by the churches of the Communion of a common Anglican Covenant which would make explicit andforceful the loyalty and bonds of affection which govern the relationships between churches of the Communion."
The Windsor Report was produced at the request of Primates upset with the impending consecration of GeneRobinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and the promulgation of a liturgy for the blessing of same-sex unions bythe Diocese of New Westminster in the Anglican Church of Canada.
Archbishop Drexel Gomez, of the Anglican Province of the West Indies, was entrusted with leading thedevelopment of the first draft of a covenant. This same Archbishop Gomez was one of the editors of "To Mendthe Net", a collection of essays dating from 2001 and advocating enhancing the power of the Anglican Primates to deter, inter alia, the ordination of women and "active homosexuals," as well as the blessing of same-sexunions. Archbishop Gomez's punitive agenda remains evident in the final draft of the proposed Covenant.

Despite protestations to the contrary, the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant attempts to create acentralized authority that would constrain the self-governance of The Episcopal Church and other churches of the Communion. This unacceptable inhibits Communion churches from pursuing the gospel mission as they discern it.
The Church of England has already declined to adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines has indicated that they will not support the Covenant, andthe rejection of the Covenant by the Tikanga Maori of the Anglican Church in Aoteroa, New Zealand andPolynesia renders it virtually certain that those churches will also decline to adopt.

The deficiencies of the proposed Covenant would lead to an Anglican Communion further divided rather thanmore unified. Declining to adopt the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant not only avoids permanent,institutionalized division, it opens the way for new opportunites to build relationships across differencesthrough bonds of affection, by participation in the common mission of the gospel, and by consultation without coercion or intimidation.