Adrian at Pluralist Speaks posted "Heads you Lose, Tails you Lose" on his "further thinking on the Anglican Communion...."
Imagine, however, what happens should the House of Clergy defeat the thing and throw it out.
It is necessary to stop it if the Church of England is to remain flexible about the future. My guess is that the biased powers that be will then panic, and try desperately to bend the rules to bring the thing back in. If not, and if they cannot, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will have to resign because it is his policy, steered and forced through so far by him. It is his flagship. Also arguments will be made beforehand to support the Archbishop, and so if he then loses he really will be done for. Even the Archbishop of York might go too (gosh, this gets better!). I actually think Rowan Williams should go, and should have a long time ago as he has been nothing but a disaster. But, with or without that resignation, the level of recrimination will be huge, especially against those who have led the campaign.
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A weakness of the campaign against is that it has come from the liberal side of the Church, and that means it will be easier to target the recriminations. The hierarchs and bureaucrats as well as evangelicals will set about marginalising the liberals through various legislative and other means, if that is the way needed to reattach to the Covenant or something similar.
The entire post is well worth reading. My thinking is, as I said in the comments, that Adrian may be right that those in the Church of England (and elsewhere) who oppose the covenant may suffer from their stand, even in the unlikely event that the covenant is voted down in General Synod (and elsewhere), and the opposition achieves its goal. Still, I see it as a good thing to go down fighting, win or lose. Of course, since I speak as one of the fortunate who has nothing to lose by voicing my opinion, I have no right to urge others on in activities that may be injurious to them. I fully understand why some may choose not to speak out against the daft covenant.
I posted my contribution as someone with nothing to lose either, but the idea that some relative minnows could topple the Archbishop's own key policy for his duration in office without come back seems to me to be incredible. A victory will be a big victory - no doubt about it - but many and high up will be more than upset, because their way forward will have been wrecked.
ReplyDeleteTo lose will be to be boxed in for the future. It would mean Lambeth 1:10 1998, that has no status in the C of E, would be come de facto policy in obedience to the Covenant.
the idea that some relative minnows could topple the Archbishop's own key policy for his duration in office without come back seems to me to be incredible.
ReplyDeleteIncredible, but perhaps not entirely impossible for the minnows.
The Church of England is in such a sorry condition now, and the adoption of covenant will serve to make it appear all the more irrelevant.
Now that's not to deny the good work of the folks in the trenches of the CofE, who still labor mightily in difficult circumstances to be Body of Christ.