The news warms my heart. In a sense, the Scottish Episcopal Church is our mother church, because she gave us our first bishops.Scotland says firm and clear No to Anglican Covenant. Yes to Communion. No to the Covenant.
The SEC joins House of Bishops in The Episcopal Church in the Philippines and the dioceses in the Church of England in rejecting the Anglican Covenant. I wonder if the Anglican Communion Office will report the rejection of the Covenant by the Scottish Episcopal Church. Thus far, we don't hear negative news on the Covenant from the ACO.
The rejection by the Scottish church will help the campaign at next month's General Convention of The Episcopal Church by those of us who favor a vote to reject the Covenant by TEC.
UPDATE:
The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church today voted against the adoption of the Anglican Covenant. Following a variety of views expressed by members of General Synod, the Motion that Synod agree in principle to adopt the Anglican Covenant was put to vote - 112 votes against; 6 votes in favour; 13 abstentions. The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, The Most Rev David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane then presented a resolution on the Anglican Communionin support of Motion 27, saying “The Anglican Communion matters deeply to us in the Scottish Episcopal Church. We invoke the history of Samuel Seabury, consecrated in 1784 by the Scottish bishops as the first bishop of the church in the United States of America. We want to be part of the re-founding - the bringing to birth of a new phase of Communion life.”Yes! I love the mention of Bishop Samuel Seabury.
UPDATE 2: From the ACO:
The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church today voted against the adoption of the Anglican Covenant.Primus David Chillingworth's address to Synod is here.