Defining the Faith

The Revd. Canon Alan T. Perry has written an interesting essay on his blog. The entry is called “Defining the Faith.” In it, he considers Section 1 of the proposed Anglican Covenant. This section, titled “Our Inheritance of Faith,” is, I think, meant to be uncontroversial. Indeed, it has attracted little criticism.

I criticized at least a small part of Section 1 in my own post “Rule and Ultimate Standard of Faith.” Perry, however, takes a broader view, pointing out that, although Anglican churches have historical connections to one another, it is somewhat of a stretch to say they have a shared history. The events and documents that have played major roles in the history of Anglican churches are different from church to church.

Perry finds that Section 1 simply pays too little attention to context, in terms both of time and place. He concludes:

In setting out the fundamentals of the faith, Section 1 pays lip service to context, but it really doesn’t seem to be aware of the implications of context for how we might be able to live out the same faith in different ways in different contexts, and how we might be able to build creative relationships across the apparent boundaries of our different contexts.

“Defining the Faith” can be read here. An entry for it has also been added to the Resources page of the No Anglican Covenant Web site here.