The No Anglican Covenant has issued a
news release remarking on the status of Covenant voting in the Church of
England and emphasizing that the Coalition is against the adoption of
the Covenant but not opposed to the Anglican Communion. You can read a
PDF version of the news release here. Below is reproduced the title and body of the news release.
YES TO COMMUNION – NO TO COVENANT
LONDON – With more than half of English dioceses having voted, leaders
of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition are cautiously optimistic. To
date, a significant majority of dioceses have rejected the proposed
Anglican Covenant. Coalition Moderator, the Revd Dr Lesley Crawley,
welcomes the introduction of following motions at several recent synods
emphasizing support for the Anglican Communion. Four dioceses have
already passed following motions (Bath and Wells; Chelmsford; Worcester;
Southwark) and a further six have following motions on the agenda (St
Alban’s; Chester; Oxford; Guilford; Exeter; London).
“The more widely the Covenant is read and discussed, the more likely
people are to see it as a deeply flawed approach to the challenges of
the Anglican Communion in the 21st century,” said Crawley. “The
introduction of following motions in several dioceses has emphasized
what has been our position from the beginning: we oppose the Covenant
because we love the Anglican Communion.”
“The proposed Covenant envisages the possibility that Provinces of the
Communion may be barred from representing Anglicanism on certain
councils and commissions with the clear implication that they are no
longer sufficiently Anglican,” said Coalition Patron Bishop John Saxbee.
“It is precisely this dimension of the Covenant which renders the
Covenant itself un-Anglican.”
“Some have argued that the Covenant is necessary for ecumenical
relations to indicate how Anglicans understand catholicity, even though
this is already laid out in the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral and the
Declaration of Assent,” according to Coalition Patron Bishop Peter
Selby. “The Covenant adds nothing to these other than a bureaucratic
disciplinary regime which denies to Anglicanism a distinctiveness which
ecumenical partners might come to appreciate or even envy.”
“I’m very disappointed that some Covenant supporters have tried to turn
this into a contest about who loves the Communion more, like
self-centred parents in some ugly divorce drama,” said Canadian
Coalition member, the Ven Alan Perry. “Our position has always been that
‘No’ to the Covenant really is ‘Yes’ to the Communion. Companion
diocese relationships came into being without the Covenant and will
continue to exist, Covenant or no. Anglicans from around the world care
about their Anglican brothers and sisters in places like Haiti or
Zimbabwe, and we will continue to care about them with or without the
proposed Anglican Covenant. Our current ecumenical relationships began
long before the idea of an Anglican Covenant, and they will continue
whether the Covenant is accepted or rejected. We are a family, and we
shall continue to be a family regardless of what happens.”
To date, the proposed Anglican Covenant has been approved by ten
dioceses of the Church of England (Lichfield; Durham; Europe; Bristol;
Canterbury; Winchester; Sheffield; Bradford; Carlisle; Coventry) and
rejected by 17 (Wakefield; St Edmundsbury and Ipswich; Truro;
Birmingham; Derby; Gloucester; Portsmouth; Rochester; Salisbury;
Leicester; Sodor and Man; Chelmsford; Hereford; Ripon and Leeds; Bath
and Wells; Southwark; Worcester). Approval by 23 diocesan synods is
required for the Covenant to return to General Synod for further
consideration. Rejection by 22 dioceses would effectively derail
approval of the Covenant by the Church of England.
From the
No Anglican Covenant Coalition.
