O God of truth and peace, who raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AmenFrom Lionel Deimel at Comprehensive Unity, The No Anglican Covenant Blog:
A year ago today, the No Anglican Covenant Coalition announced that it had come on the scene to defeat adoption of the Anglican Covenant. The date of November 3 was chosen because it is the day that Anglicans remember Richard Hooker, that quintessential Anglican theologian who, we believed, would be appalled at the direction the Anglican Communion seemed to be headed.Read the post in its entirety at the link above.
As the Coalition celebrates its first birthday, there is cause for both optimism and concern. The program to impose a repressive covenant on worldwide Anglicanism has lost momentum. Few churches have adopted it, and some of those that have have framed their actions in ways that undermine the intent of the proposed agreement. The GAFCON churches have largely rejected the Covenant as inadequate, and many Western churches are expected to reject it as too intrusive. The Covenant is not dead, but it is severely wounded.
....
Much has been accomplished in the past year, and there is reason to believe that the Anglican Covenant will never become the Anglican straightjacket that threatened to constrain Anglican thought and action. Defeating the Covenant is, nonetheless, an ongoing task. Re-imagining the Anglican Communion to allow it to move forward as an instrument of God’s grace and mercy in the twenty-first century will be an even more daunting enterprise. It is a task about which Anglicans everywhere should be thinking and praying.
Photo of the Richard Hooker statue from Wikipedia.
I blogged about it on my little space too. We are doing some good work and I think impacting the discussion. Without us, left to its own devices, the bureaucracy would stifle any conversation or debate.
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jimB
This abomination (The Anglican Contract) was DOA.
ReplyDeleteI think we should have a funeral service and get on with the important matter of the mission of the church.
Jim, I think we may have done some good work, and, at the very least, we gave our like-minded sisters and brothers in England moral support.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, the funeral may be a bit premature. The patient is on life support, but not yet quite dead, however the chances are slim that the patient will rally.
I would have thought a "happy birthday" is in order.
ReplyDeleteCathy, you have a point, but what's done is done. :-)
ReplyDeleteIn times of trouble, one common, and almost always wrong reaction is to vest authority in a single person who can, "DO SOMETHING!" The Covenant is an emanation of that emotion. Unfortunately, the emotion and the will to invest decisions in a tyrant will still be out there.
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jimB
Referred to by John Locke as "the Judicious Hooker". What to say?
ReplyDeleteWell Lapin, you could say that back in the 17th century the word 'hooker' was probably not in common use as a synonym for 'strumpet'.
ReplyDeleteJim, we surely do not want the ABC to 'DO SOMETHING!' He's already 'DOING ENOUGH!'
ReplyDeleteI was going to note that the modern "hooker" was named after a rather later Hooker, a Union general of above-average incompetence who apparently attracted a notable population of camp followers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I paused on the way past the OED, and I find that the word first appeared in print in 1845.
(Not my place to comment on the substantive matter here, except to be glad they didn't decide to establish it two days later: quite the wrong anniversary, that would be.)
Oh, wait: Anglican *Contract*? Would that be "contract between" or "contract on"?
I'm surprised that Hooker's not sitting on a three-legged stool.... :)
ReplyDeletePorlock, choosing the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot would, indeed, have sent the wrong message.
ReplyDeleteTim, you're a performer. You know what you must do. I wouldn't want to have to use the hook. ;-)
It may be because Hooker spoke of a triple strand not easily broken but not of a stool. That image came later, IIRC.
ReplyDeletePaul, thank you for the reminder of what Hooker actually said.
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