Why do we need another covenant for the Anglican Communion?
We share:
The New Covenant
Q. What is the New Covenant?
A. The New Covenant is the new relationship with God given by Jesus Christ, the Messiah, to the apostles; and, through them, to all who believe in him.
Q. What did the Messiah promise in the New Covenant?
A. Christ promised to bring us into the kingdom of God and give life in all its fullness.
Q. What response did Christ require?
A. Christ commanded us to believe in him and to keep his commandments.
Q. What are the commandments taught by Christ?
A. Christ taught us the Summary of the Law and gave us the New Commandment.
Q. What is the Summary of the Law?
A. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Q. What is the New Commandment?
A. The New Commandment is that we love one another as Christ loved us.
....
The Creeds
Q. What are the creeds?
A. The creeds are statements of our basic beliefs about God.
Q. How many creeds does this Church use in its worship?
A. This Church uses two creeds: The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.
Q. What is the Apostles' Creed?
A. The Apostles' Creed is the ancient creed of Baptism; it is used in the Church's daily worship to recall our Baptismal Covenant.
Q. What is the Nicene Creed?
A. The Nicene Creed is the creed of the universal Church and is used at the Eucharist.
(From the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 850-852)
....
The Baptismal Covenant
Celebrant
Do you believe in God the Father?
People
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Celebrant
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
People
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Celebrant
Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
People
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Celebrant
Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
People
I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.
People
I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
People
I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
People
I will, with God’s help.
Celebrant
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People
I will, with God’s help.
(From the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 304-305)
We have common worship centered in the Book of Common Prayer.
We are joined by the sacraments of Baptism and by our sharing in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ.
We share the bonds of affection - or not - as the case may be.
What's missing? What can we add that will improve on what we already share? If the bonds of affection are not present, another covenant will not force them.
Pg 855 of the BCP --Q. Who are the ministers of the church?
ReplyDeleteA. LAITY, Bishops, Priests and Deacons...
See Grandmere, because of baptismal polity, the laity come first... Wish we could get THAT through a few bishop's heads!
And it has been this response --we don't need no freakin' covenant because we already got one! that has been so confusing to soooooo many.
Thank you for posting it Grandmere!
(Still painting...)
Thanks for the note about the laity, Margaret. And it's all right there in the BCP.
ReplyDelete(Still painting...)
Poor baby!
Well -- those seem to work. What is the problem? (no, don't tell me.)
ReplyDeleteSusankay, it works for me. I don't know what the problem is. We don't need another covenant.
ReplyDeleteI hear too many folks in the church talking about this part of the covenant or that part and what's right and what's wrong with the different parts. I worry that an Anglican covenant may come to seem inevitable and that we'll sign on to it, which would be a terrible mistake.
Thanks for this, Mimi. Sometimes the most important work in and of the institutional church is pointing out the obvious - over and over and over again - to those who are sworn to 'defend the faith'.
ReplyDeletewhat's missing Grandmere asks
ReplyDeletea patriarchal, monolithic, Vatican-like power structure for a bunch of hetrosexually-challened men to hide in, rather than meet God in the rather complex, confusing contemporary reality they have helped bring about.
does this honour the life and sacrifice of our Lord or bring God any glory?
not a chance!
do the people of God really need or want this?
(please see previous answer)
so what's this really about?
maybe, just maybe it's the fear and (whispers) .... impotence* of a bunch of guys in purple skirts and medieval costumes? Hmmmm.
just a thought
David@Montreal
* lack of imagination
'Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this reminder, Grandmère Mimi.
We take the Baptismal Covenant for granted. It emerged in the 1979 BCP. Much of the Anglican world does not have this in their liturgies. We are speaking a Paschal, ministry-of-all-the-baptized language that is, lamentably, not shared around the Anglican Communion. And that is one reason the various parties cannot understand each other.
ReplyDeletePaul, thanks for your information. I did not know that the Baptismal Covenant is not included in the prayer books of other Anglican communities, however, everything in the BC is in the creeds, which we say at every Eucharistic service, and, I assume, at every celebration of Baptism. The words of BC are from the Creeds, sometimes word for word.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I see that this could contribute, as you say, to misunderstandings:
We are speaking a Paschal, ministry-of-all-the-baptized language that is, lamentably, not shared around the Anglican Communion. And that is one reason the various parties cannot understand each other.
Other Anglican communities want their bishops to have much more power, or, at least, the bishops want more power than we are accustomed to in TEC. However, laypersons and non-bishop clergy have been participants in the governance of TEC from the beginning, and the rest of the Communion should have caught on to that by now.
Elizabeth, I like to keep things simple, if possible. One does not need to be a theologian to understand the Gospel message and the words of the prayer book. You're right. We will need to say the same simple and obvious things over and over.
ReplyDeleteDavid, if I wanted strong centralized authority in my church, I'd return to Rome.
Jay, I need to remind myself over and over not to get distracted from focusing on the essentials.
Oh, Grandmere: how dare you confuse them with what's already in the BCP!! Geez... that means they'd actually have to pay attention to all of that stuff. And that whole Baptismal Covenant business... mercy sakes! The Bishop asks the questions of the little lay people, and because they know that God was made in their image, they don't really have to answer those questions themselves.
ReplyDeleteGeez... you have really rained on their crisis parade!
What will be the purpose of another covenant? If people don't want to be in community with other people, they will not, covenant or not. Certain members of the Communion will not share the Eucharist with us now. What will we have to do to be acceptable to them?
ReplyDeleteright.............
ReplyDeleteliving the three commandments of love we do much more than merely follow the law for which we receive no righteousness, we do as christ did, WE FULFILL THE LAW.
CHRIST SAID FOLLOW ME.
WHAT MORE IS NECESSARY.
if king david had loved his neighbor as himself, he would never have stepped in the things he did with bathsheba.
Feetxxxl, yes. It's about being disciples, about following Jesus.
ReplyDelete