STATEMENT FROM NO ANGLICAN COVENANT COALITION

COALITION STATEMENT ON THE DEFEAT OF THE PROPOSED ANGLICAN COVENANT IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

LONDON – No Anglican Covenant Coalition Moderator, the Revd Dr Lesley Crawley, has issued the following statement on the defeat of the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant in the Church of England.

“With today’s results from the dioceses of Oxford and Lincoln, the proposed Anglican Covenant is now dead in the water in the Church of England. This also poses serious problems for the Covenant in other Provinces as it seems nonsensical to have the Archbishop of Canterbury in the second tier of the Anglican Communion and excluded from the central committees.

“When we launched the No Anglican Covenant Coalition 18 months ago, we were assured that the Anglican Covenant was an unstoppable juggernaut. We started as simply a band of bloggers, but we would like to thank the hundreds of supporters and our patrons for their dedication to promoting debate. The Covenant needed the approval of 23 diocesan synods, as of today, that result is no longer possible.

“Especially we would like to congratulate people in Diocesan Synods across the Church of England who, despite attempts in many dioceses to silence or marginalize dissenting voices, endeavoured to promote debate, ensuring that the Anglican Covenant was subjected to significant and meaningful scrutiny. We found, as the debate went on, that the more people read and studied the Covenant, the less they liked it.

“Under Church of England procedures , this proposal to centralize Communion-wide authority in the hands of a small, self-selecting group cannot return to the agenda of General Synod for at least three years.

“We are seeing the momentum turning internationally as well. The Episcopal Church of the Philippines has officially rejected the Covenant, the opposition of the Tikanga Maori virtually assures that the Covenant will be rejected in the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, and we are seeing increasing opposition in other Provinces of the Communion.

“While today’s diocesan synod results are exciting and gratifying, we are well aware that there is still work to do. However, if the proposed Anglican Covenant does not stand up to scrutiny in the Church of England, we are confident that it will not stand up to scrutiny elsewhere.

“We hope that the Church of England will now look to bring reconciliation within the Anglican Communion by means of strengthening relationships rather than punitive legislation.”

ANGLICAN COVENANT DEFEATED IN CHURCH OF ENGLAND

With 22 votes against the covenant, the deed is done.  Thank you Lincoln and Oxford!  As further results from the dioceses come in, I will post them.

Blackburn - For
Exeter - For
Guildford - Against
Lincoln - Against
Oxford - Against
Peterborough - For

TO PEOPLE OF SYNOD ON THE ANGLICAN COVENANT...

Why not click over to Paul Bagshaw's post at Not the Same Stream to read his excellent advice writ large in LIVING COLOR on casting your vote on the covenant.  Best of all, Paul is English and not some ex-colonial interloper interfering in England's affairs.

Alas, the covenant is the affair of everyone who is a member of a church in the Anglican Communion.

MIXED METAPHOR FROM THE BIBLE

And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart,
and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness.

This post may be the start of a series on biblical mixed metaphors.  Not that there's anything wrong with them!

UPDATE: Actually, the 'Prayer of Manassah' is not included in the canon of most Bibles, but it is included in 'The Daily Office' of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.  Alas, I seem to have chosen a rather poor starter for my series of biblical mixed metaphors.   

DIARMAID MACCULLOCH ON THE ANGLICAN COVENANT

Tomorrow, March 24, 2012, six diocesan synods in the Church of England will vote on whether to adopt the proposed Anglican Covenant.

• Blackburn
• Exeter
• Guildford
• Lincoln
• Oxford
• Peterborough

There are 12 dioceses yet to vote.

Dioceses for the Covenant to date: 12

Dioceses against the Covenant to date: 20

For the Covenant to succeed 11 more dioceses must vote in favor

For the Covenant to fail 2 more dioceses must vote against

Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with those who take counsel and vote on Anglican Covenant. Teach them in all things to seek first your honor and glory. Guide them to perceive what is right, and grant them both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church (edited).

Diarmaid MacCulloch is Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. He was knighted for his service to scholarship in January 2012.

OOPS! WRONG PARTY

From the Quad-City Times:

By all accounts it was an honest mistake, political party convention attendees said.
Republican congressional candidate Dan Dolan of Muscatine arrived early at the Monroe County Courthouse for the Republican convention being held Saturday in Albia, Iowa.

Unfortunately, the county Democrats were holding their convention in the same building, and Dolan spoke to the wrong group of people.

“Nobody asked enough questions before he started speaking,” Monroe County Supervisor Denny Ryan said. “It finally got to the point in the speech where one of the people said, ‘Are you sure you’re at the right convention?’”

Dolan laughed Monday when he described the encounter.

“It was a crazy day,” Dolan said. “We had scheduled 10 speaking engagements through the district.”

Well, Dolan gave his Republican speech to a group of Democrats, and the story has a happy ending in that the parties involved in the situation remained civil with each other.  Campaign politics in the US have strayed so far into the Bizarro World that the incident didn't surprise me at all, but it did give me a laugh.  Cynic that I am, I think both political parties are bought, and it's not ordinary folks that paid for them.  For me, it comes down to which party will screw the powerless the least, and I believe you know my answer.

Thanks to Paul (A.) for the laugh and the link.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

May we stop calling it the defense budget and start calling it the war budget?

The thought is not original with me, but I forgot where I read it first.

IT IS SO GOOD WHEN SOMEONE WAITS FOR YOU AT HOME

No real harm done?  Umm....

Thanks to Suzanne. 

BEAR IN MIND...

President Barack Obama campaigned on energy issues on Wednesday, visiting a handful of oil wellheads on Federal land in New Mexico and a solar installation in Boulder City, Nevada.

The subtext of this Obama campaign is public unhappiness with the price of gasoline and the hypocritical attacks on him over this issue by his Republican opponents. The fact is that there is only one thing Obama could have done to bring down oil prices, and that would have been to veto the National Defense Authorization Act until Congress took back out the provisions for crippling sanctions on Iran. Republicans back these sanctions to the hilt, which is why it is dishonest of them to attack Obama on high gas prices.

Juan Cole at Informed Comment.

ANGLICAN COVENANT - COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Archbisop of Canterbury Rowan Williams



Bishop James Jones - Presidential Address - Diocesan Synod March 2012 from Diocese of Liverpool on Vimeo.

Six dioceses in the Church of England will vote on the proposed covenant this coming Saturday, March 24, 2012:

• Blackburn
• Exeter
• Guildford
• Lincoln
• Oxford
• Peterborough

I'm told the video by the Archbishop of Canterbury will be shown at synod in the Diocese of Lincoln before the vote on the proposed Anglican Covenant with no accompanying visual giving the opposing view.