AN OLDIE, BUT GOODIE FROM GILES FRASER

From the Church Times:

I THINK I have partly resigned my self to the fact that this Anglican Covenant thing is going to happen. Published in its final form last week, it reminds me of that awful state ment of belief that Christian Unions force their speakers to sign before they are allowed to say a word to their stu dents.

In both cases, it is not so much the content that I object to. I object to the Covenant’s very existence. I’d object to it even if I agreed with every word.

Let me be clear. There is nothing wrong with the expression of mutual commitment, and for this mutuality to have a formal aspect. The marriage service, for instance, is precisely that. But the Anglican Covenant isn’t at all like the commitments of a marriage service. It is more like the anxious and untrust ing legalism of that thoroughly distasteful feature of modern life, the pre-nuptial agreement.

And no amount of Lambeth Palace spin is going to persuade me that, like the pre-nuptial agree­ment, this Covenant isn’t a way of arranging, in advance, the terms of some future divorce. The only people who are going to love this document are the lawyers. (My emphasis)

The column is not really that old, only as old as January of this year, but Giles' words are more pertinent than ever as the vote on the Covenant approaches in the Church of England General Synod this month.

Giles' final words:

There must be no down hearted fatalism about the inevitability of the Covenant. We must fight it on the beaches. . . (My emphasis)

And they all said, "Amen!"

NO ANGLICAN COVENANT!

Please read Giles' entire column.