My patient readers may think that I’ve been ignoring the proposed Anglican Covenant. I have not. But I’ve been having issues with time and energy. Plus it is not easy to get my arms around my thoughts on the Covenant. So I’ve thought it best not to post on it.
But now I will take a stab at it.
Although I am not quite as negative on the Covenant as Still on Patrol, I agree with him that it is ineffective and irrelevant and “will not solve anything.”
And that is not because the proposed Covenant is a horrid document. It is not that horrible in my view, though I could surely pit-nick it if I wanted. The core problem is not a lack of standards to abide by; the problem is a lack of will to enforce standards, especially the lack of will on the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Rowan Williams, although not a pope, has a number of powers to discipline The Episcopal Church and has declined to use them. He could have disinvited from Lambeth Presiding Heretic Schori and other “bishops” who consecrated Gene Robinson and have not disavowed that. Or he could have put TEC’s apostasy front and center on Lambeth’s agenda. Instead, he invited all the TEC bishops save one and indabaed Lambeth into irrelevance.
Dr. Williams could have followed the lead of several Global South Primates and declared impaired or broken communion with The Episcopal Church. He has done nothing of the sort.
Instead he has been an enabler. And when he absolutely, positively has had to make a decision, he has given The Episcopal Church a pass – even when he had to undermine the rest of Primates to do so.
The Anglican Communion under Rowan Williams is like the parent who threatens and threatens a misbehaving child . . . but never actually disciplines. For effective discipline, including church discipline, there not only has to be good standards and timely warnings, there has to be the will to discipline.
The Anglican Communion, and especially the Archbishop of Canterbury, lacks that will.
Without that will, the Covenant is close to pointless.
1 comment:
RW did NOT have to put Shori on the Standing Committee/ACC either.
Problem is NOT 'gay' bishops, but 'gay' priests, liberal theologians, seminaries, etc. Problem is tolerance of unbiblical views that started around 1896...according to this Episcopal theologian cited on Touchstone Blog:
http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2009/12/fin-de-si%C3%A8cle-assessment-of-orthodoxy-among-the-clergy-and-laity.html
The Church of England is only slightly less infected and populated by the GBLT agenda than TEC.
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