Mexico has become the first Communion Province to adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant following its VI General Synod in Mexico City on 11 and 12 June.
The Episcopal Diocese of Albany endorses the Anglican Communion Covenant.
The resolution most heavily debated was Resolution #2 which stated: “RESOLVED, that the Episcopal Diocese of Albany endorses the Anglican Communion Covenant (final text, approved for distribution December 18, 2009) and recommends its adoption by all the Provinces of the Anglican Communion."
The House of Bishops commends the adoption of the Anglican Covenant by the Church of England.
1.On the Anglican Communion Covenant, the House agreed
(a) to commend it for adoption by the Church of England;
(b) to invite the Business Committee to schedule the beginning of the adoption process for the inaugural Synod in November 2010, with a view to final approval in February 2012;
(c) not to propose special majorities for its adoption; and
(d) to authorise the House’s Standing Committee to oversee the production of necessary material for the Synod.
As a palate cleanser to all of the above, read Savitri Hensman's brilliant opinion piece in the Guardian.
The Church of England's House of Bishops is urging it to accept an Anglican Communion Covenant. This would give top leaders of overseas churches more power over the C of E and (strictly in theory) vice versa. The Archbishop of Canterbury has been a champion of greater centralism among Anglicans worldwide, supposedly to strengthen unity. But recent events have exposed the tawdry reality behind talk of "interdependence" and "bonds of affection".
Is the Roman Catholic Church to be our model for Anglican unity? The Roman Catholic Church which presently appears to be imploding from the top?
From Mark Silk at Beliefnet:
I grant you that it isn't every day that the authorities hold a country's bishops for questioning for nine hours, confiscate their computers and cell phones, and drill into the sarcophagi of a couple of their deceased number. But when Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone protests that the Belgian bishops had been held without food and water when they haven't, and the Belgian bishops have to issue a correction, that's tells you the wheels are coming off the popemobile.
Is this the direction that we want to go? Away from "the bonds of affection" to an ever more constricting control by a central authority? With a quasi-Anglican pope?
As Hensman says:
In power-play of the type the Covenant encourages, global church politics will trump love, justice and even logic. This is a poor substitute for freedom in Christ.
To which I can only say, "Amen".