Is it dead yet?

There has been very little significant news about the proposed Anglican Covenant for some time. Already three years have passed since the dioceses of the Church of England failed to vote in favour of considering the Covenant at their General Synod. At the time it was suggested that this did not mean the Church of England had said no to the Covenant, and that it still could say yes. Technically, this is quite true. The Church of England didn't say no because it didn't consider the question. And it hasn't taken advantage of the intervening three years to revisit the Covenant.

Now, the most recent news is that the Episcopal Church has similarly not taken advantage of an opportunity to say something about the Covenant - be it no or maybe, though decidedly not yes. At its recent General Convention, the Episcopal Church was offered two equal but opposite resolutions. Both resolutions proposed to affirm the membership in and common identity of the Anglican Communion. But one said that this was described in the first three sections of the Covenant, and the other said that the Covenant did not adequately describe membership and common identity of the Anglican Communion. Neither resolution proposed to adopt or reject the Covenant definitively, merely to comment on the value of the first three sections in describing the membership and common identity of the Anglican Communion. Both resolutions were clear in valuing membership in the Communion, and the common identity (however described) of Anglicanism. And both proposed to communicate the Episcopal Church's appreciation for the Communion to the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. In the end, however, the Convention chose to say all the positive things about the Communion without reference to the Covenant. Not yes, not no, not maybe, not even an unenthusiastic "meh".

Two things are clear from this outcome. First, the Episcopal Church values its membership in the Anglican Communion and appreciates its shared Anglican Identity. Second, it does not apparently see the need to bring the Covenant into that conversation.

Like the Church of England, the Episcopal Church has no apparent energy to discuss the project. Both churches seem to have moved on. The only thing missing now is a formal statement from some credible body (such as the Anglican Consultative Council) that the project is officially dead.

In the absence of such a pronouncement,  the Covenant process has ground to a halt, sitting on a long-forgotten list of things to do, gathering dust.

The Episcopal Church Walks Away from Covenant

The 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church had two resolutions before it dealing with the Anglican Covenant. Resolution A040, while not declaring that the church was adopting the Covenant, declared that most of the Covenant was acceptable and asked the church’s representatives to thank the Communion for the conversation around the Covenant. Resolution D022 was as gracious about offering thanks but categorically rejected the Covenant.

In the end, the convention passed on both A040 and D022 but reaffirmed its commitment to and financial support for the Communion by way of Resolution A019. That resolution, which received concurrence from the House of Bishops on the last day of the convention, June 3, makes no mention of the Covenant.

Thus, The Episcopal Church has essentially rejected the Anglican Covenant by simply ignoring it. All this might not be apparent to the casual observer. However, Lionel Deimel, Episcopal Church Convenor of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition, explains what happened in Salt Lake City on his blog. No doubt, the Anglican Communion Office will not view The Episcopal Church as having rejected the Covenant, but it has.

A General Convention Resolution to Reject the Covenant

No Anglican Covenant Coalition Episcopal Church Convenor Lionel Deimel has announced that a new General Convention resolution has been introduced. The resolution is D022, and it is not even on the General Convention Web site yet. The new resolution, which can be read here, goes somewhat further toward rejecting the Anglican Covenant than do Deimel’s earlier suggestions.

Deimel has written an essay on his blog arguing that The Episcopal Church has gone along to get along with the Anglican Communion long enough and needs to deliver a Covenant rejection once and for all. He argues that doing so will doom the Covenant, as its real purpose is to control Western churches like The Episcopal Church. Rejecting the Covenant will also encourage the Anglican Church of Canada to do the same at its General Synod next year.

In fact, Deimel has written two essays, titled “Time for a Definitive Response to the Anglican Covenant.” An abbreviated version is here, and the complete version is here. The essays not only include the text of A040 and D022 but also trace the troubled relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion since the 2003 General Convention consented to the consecration of the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson.

Those who will be participating in the Salt Lake City General Convention should definitely read Deimel’s essay and let others know about Resolution D022. It is our hope that the General Convention will pass D022 or something very much like it.
 

Covenant Proposal for Episcopal Church General Convention

A proposed resolution on the Anglican Covenant will be offered at this summer’s General Convention of The Episcopal Church. Episcopal Church convenor Lionel Deimel has written two blog posts about the resolution. Resolution A040 does not adopt the Covenant, but it is kinder than we in the No Anglican Covenant Coalition think appropriate. You can read Deimel’s blog posts here and here. If you are a bishop or convention deputy, you should definitely read these posts. Deimel suggests amendments that will improve Resolution A040.

Update: Lionel Deimel had written a third post on Resolution A040 here.

General Convention Brochure

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition distributed both buttons and brochures at the recent General Convention. For the benefit of those who did not attend, you can see one of our buttons in a previous post.

Our brochure was a tri-fold affair on glossy white paper:

 

Click here to see the content of the brochure, which was designed specifically for distribution at the 2012 General Convention.

You can find pictures of Malcolm French and me at our General Convention display on my own blog.

Why Not “Maybe”?

The essay below was published today in Issues 2012, a  newsletter distributed by the Consultation at General Convention.

Many deputies are wearing “Yes to Communion/No to Covenant” buttons. Meanwhile, the legislative subcommittee dealing with the Anglican Covenant, chaired by the Rev. Mark Harris, is considering advancing two resolutions, one expressing the church’s commitment to the Anglican Communion and the other saying neither “yes” nor “no” to the Covenant. The first resolution is likely to pass easily; no one is calling for The Episcopal Church to withdraw from the Anglican Communion. A resolution that somehow says “maybe” (or “not now” or “not this one”), however, is not only a bad idea, but a resolution that will invite spirited and possibly divisive debate.

Why is saying “maybe” to the Covenant not a good option? Quite simply, Episcopalians have never wanted a covenant and have no desire to surrender their church’s autonomy to centralized Anglican bodies that include representatives of churches whose theological, ecclesiastical, and moral proclivities differ radically from theirs. Historical ties—often very tenuous ones—do not justify such a surrender to a future Anglican magisterium, which would be the ultimate effect of Covenant adoption.

Episcopalians are understandably queasy about what they should do about the Covenant. They realize that its origin is in the reactionary response to non-“traditional” actions by our church, and they are loath to be seen as defensive or disrespectful of churches in former colonial nations. In short, we don’t like to say “no,” so we accepted the Windsor Report with some grace and passed 2006-B033, though with reluctance and without enthusiasm.

If no church had yet rejected the Covenant, we might do well to defer, as we would indeed seem reactive. But England has rejected the Covenant, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding; Scotland trounced a resolution to adopt the Covenant; New Zealand will likely vote it down; and Australia will almost assuredly be unable to adopt it. It is time for The Episcopal Church to say that the Covenant is a bad idea—indeed, and un-Anglican idea—badly implemented, and one that must be discarded quickly if the Communion is to move forward as an effective instrument of mission and not simply a venue for endless and divisive disputes.

We should say “no” to the Anglican Covenant; not only for our own sake, but for the sake of the Communion. “Maybe” is not good enough.

Lionel Deimel, No Anglican Covenant Coalition

Tracking Covenant Resolutions

I am tracking the progress of Covenant resolutions through General Convention. Please check out developments on my blog.

Support Our Presence at General Convention

Dear Coalition Supporter,

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition will send our moderator, Malcolm French, and me, our Episcopal Church convenor, to the 2012 General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. The convention begins in less than two weeks. Along with other Coalition members and friends, we will monitor the progress of Covenant-related resolutions and will lobby for The Episcopal Church to take a strong stand against the Anglican Covenant. We will also distribute buttons and brochures to convention bishops and deputies in support of our lobbying efforts.

For the first time, the No Anglican Covenant Coalition needs to solicit financial help in support of our efforts. To date, coalition members have run our operations on a shoestring, and some members have made significant personal sacrifices to enable us to oppose what we believe is a disastrous change in direction for the Anglican Communion.

Our presence at General Convention will be our most expensive undertaking so far, requiring funds for travel, lodging, meals, buttons, brochures, etc. We estimate that this project will cost more than $3,000 US. Your help is urgently needed. Please consider making a generous donation to this important effort.

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition is an unincorporated organization, and contributions are not tax-deductible. However, donations of $25 US or more will be acknowledged with our Yes to Communion button that we will be distributing at General Convention.

By making a donation through PayPal, anyone in the world can contribute to this effort. Note that I, as Episcopal Church convenor, am acting as treasurer, so you will see both the Coalition’s name and my own on the PayPal pages when you make your donation using the button at the bottom of this post.

Thank you for your support,
Lionel Deimel
NACC Covnenor for The Episcopal Church

THE “must have” button for GC 2012

Yes to Communion, No to Covenant buttons will be available at the No Anglican Covenant Coalition's booth at GC 2012 in Indianapolis. Look for The Consultation and the Women's Caucus booth, they are kindly sharing space with us. This is the button for General Convention.

Go to our website for information on the proposed covenant and reasons why it is not the document for keeping the communion together. See also our proposed resolution on this blog.

Resolution D007 is introduced.

The Coalition is happy to announce that our "model resolution" has been formally introduced to General Convention and assigned identifier, D007. The exact text and format of the resolution are below.

**************************

D007 TOPIC: Response to the Anglican Covenant

PROPOSER 
Russell, The Rev. Cn. Susan

ENDORSED BY 
Hopkins, The Very Rev. Michael; Lee, Ms. Lelanda

SPONSORED BY

Buchanan, The Rev. Susan; Engstrom, The Very

Rev. Marilyn; Gracey, Mr. R. Stephen; Hart, Mr.

Christopher; Kandt, Mrs. Pamela; Leigh , Ms.

Tobyn; Moore, The Rev. Stephen; Russell, The Rev.

Michael; Shaw, The Rev. Lee; Williams, Ms.

Sandra; Bronson Sweigert, The Rev. Cynthia

RESOLUTION TEXT

Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That the 77th General Convention

give thanks to all who have worked to increase understanding and strengthen

relationships among the churches of the Anglican Communion; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention reaffirm the commitment of this church

to the fellowship of autonomous national and regional churches that is the

Anglican Communion; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention recognizes that sister churches of the

Anglican Communion are properly drawn together by bonds of affection, by

participation in the common mission of the gospel, and by consultation without

coercion or intimidation; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention, having prayerfully considered the merits

of the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant and believing said agreement to

be contrary to Anglican ecclesiology and tradition and to the best interests of the

Anglican Communion, respectfully decline to adopt the same; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention call upon the leaders of The Episcopal

Church at every level to seek opportunities to reach out to strengthen and restore

relationships between this church and sister churches of the Communion.

EXPLANATION

Churches of the Anglican Communion have been asked to adopt the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant.

The suggestion for such an agreement was made in the 2004 Windsor Report, which recommended "the

adoption by the churches of the Communion of a common Anglican Covenant which would make explicit and

forceful the loyalty and bonds of affection which govern the relationships between churches of the

Communion."

The Windsor Report was produced at the request of Primates upset with the impending consecration of Gene

Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and the promulgation of a liturgy for the blessing of same-sex unions by

the Diocese of New Westminster in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Archbishop Drexel Gomez, of the Anglican Province of the West Indies, was entrusted with leading the

development of the first draft of a covenant. This same Archbishop Gomez was one of the editors of "To Mend

the Net", a collection of essays dating from 2001 and advocating enhancing the power of the Anglican Primates

to deter, inter alia, the ordination of women and "active homosexuals," as well as the blessing of same-sex

unions. Archbishop Gomez's punitive agenda remains evident in the final draft of the proposed Covenant.

Despite protestations to the contrary, the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant attempts to create a

centralized authority that would constrain the self-governance of The Episcopal Church and other churches of

the Communion. This unacceptably inhibits Communion churches from pursuing the gospel mission as they

discern it.

The Church of England has already declined to adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant. The House of

Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines has indicated that they will not support the Covenant, and

the rejection of the Covenant by the Tikanga Maori of the Anglican Church in Aoteroa, New Zealand and

Polynesia renders it virtually certain that those churches will also decline to adopt.

The deficiencies of the proposed Covenant would lead to an Anglican Communion further divided rather than

more unified. Declining to adopt the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant not only avoids permanent,

institutionalized division, it opens the way for new opportunities to build relationships across differences

through bonds of affection, by participation in the common mission of the gospel, and by consultation without coercion or intimidation.

Model Covenant Resolution for 2012 General Convention

A big test for the Anglican Covenant comes this summer when the General Convention of The Episcopal Church takes up the matter of Covenant adoption.

For the benefit of non-Episcopalians, I should explain that the General Convention has two houses, the House of Deputies (clergy and laypeople) and the House of Bishops (bishops, of course). For a resolution to be passed by the governing body of the church, the same text must be approved by both houses.

It has been widely assumed that the Covenant will not be adopted by the American church. Three resolutions about the Covenant have been announced publicly. The church’s Executive Council has proposed a polite resolution that declares that “The Episcopal Church is unable to adopt the Anglican
Covenant in its present form.” Two groups of bishops have offered much more positive resolutions that say something less—even a good deal less—than “no” to the Covenant. (Those three resolutions can be read here.)

It is the view of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition that The Episcopal Church must reject the Anglican Covenant definitively, an action that we hope will encourage other Communion churches to do likewise. It is clear that not all Communion churches—perhaps not even many—will adopt the Covenant, creating the ironic situation of having the Covenant divide the Communion into covenanting and non-covenanting churches. It is our hope that, eventually, churches that have adopted the Covenant will reverse their action, so that the unity of the Anglican Communion can be enhanced and our churches can once again concentrate on the work of Jesus Christ and not on political battles.

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition therefore proposes the model resolution below for consideration by the 2012 General Convention. We commend it to deputies who will, we hope, submit our resolution or a similar resolution to be considered in Indianapolis. Note that, when many resolutions are offered dealing with the same issue, the resolution brought to the floor for consideration is some amalgam of the submissions.

Here is our model resolution, which is also available here as a Microsoft Word file and here as a PDF file:

Title: Relation to the Anglican Communion

Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That the 77^th General Convention give thanks to all who have worked to increase understanding and strengthen relationships among the churches of the Anglican Communion, and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention reaffirm the commitment of this church to the fellowship of autonomous national and regional churches that is the Anglican Communion; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention believe that sister churches of the Anglican Communion are properly drawn together by bonds of affection, by participation in the common mission of the gospel, and by consultation without coercion or intimidation; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention, having prayerfully considered the merits of the Anglican Communion Covenant and believing said agreement to be contrary to Anglican ecclesiology and tradition and to the best interests of the Anglican Communion, respectfully decline to adopt the same; and be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention call upon the leaders of The Episcopal Church at every level to seek opportunities to reach out to strengthen and restore relationships between this church and sister churches of the Communion.

______

Explanation: Churches of the Anglican Communion have been asked to adopt the so-called Anglican Communion Covenant. The suggestion for such an agreement was made in the 2004 Windsor Report, which proposed “the adoption by the churches of the Communion of a common Anglican Covenant which would make explicit and forceful the loyalty and bonds of affection which govern the relationships between the churches of the Communion.”

The Windsor Report was produced at the request of Primates upset with the impending consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and the promulgation of a liturgy for the blessing of same-sex unions by the Diocese of New Westminster in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Archbishop Drexel Gomez, of the Anglican Province of the West Indies, was entrusted with leading the development of the first draft of a covenant. This same Archbishop Gomez was one of the editors of To Mend the Net, a collection of essays dating from 2001 and advocating enhancing the power of the Anglican Primates to deter, inter alia, the ordination of women and “active homosexuals,” as well as the blessing of same-sex unions. Archbishop Gomez’s punitive agenda remains evident in the final draft of the proposed Covenant.

Despite protestations to the contrary, the Anglican Communion Covenant attempts to create a centralized authority that would constrain the self-governance of The Episcopal Church and other churches of the Communion. This unacceptably inhibits Communion churches from pursuing the gospel mission as they discern it.

The Church of England has already declined to adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines has indicated that they will not support the Covenant, and the rejection of the Covenant by the Tikanga Maori of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia renders it virtually certain that those churches will also reject the Covenant. A number of Global South churches have indicated that they will decline to adopt the Covenant.

The deficiencies of the Covenant are legion, and the Anglican Communion faces the prospect of becoming a fellowship not united but divided by the Covenant. It is essential to reject the Anglican Communion Covenant in order to avoid the Communion’s permanent, institutionalized division.
 

Message to Episcopal Church Supporters

The message below was sent today to members of The Episcopal Church who have signed up as friends of the Coalition on our No Anglican Covenant Web Site.

April 20, 2012

Dear Episcopalian No Anglican Covenant Coalition Supporter,

It has been quite some time since I wrote to our supporters in The Episcopal Church. Much has happened since then, but the big news is that the Church of England has failed to adopt the Anglican Covenant. In principle, this is not a rejection for all time, but, at the very least, adoption cannot be considered again before 2015.

We now need to turn our attention to The Episcopal Church and to the 2012 General Convention that meets this summer in Indianapolis. It has been widely assumed that the General Convention will reject the Covenant, and the resolution proposed some time ago by Executive Council would do essentially that. Recently, however, a group of bishops, led by Ian Douglas, has proposed a resolution that does not accept the Covenant but puts our church on the road to eventually doing so. Another group of bishops, led by John Bauerschmidt, has offered an even stronger pro-Covenant resolution that commits to adoption and looks to constitutional and canonical changes to make the Covenant “active and effective.” Suddenly, the independence of The Episcopal Church appears to be at risk. (If you want to read the resolutions on the Covenant proposed so far, you can do so here. Mark Harris has posted an analysis of the resolutions on his blog.)

I am writing to ask for your help. If you are a deputy or an alternate deputy to the General Convention, please let me know, so that you can help us defeat any attempt to adopt the Covenant or to cause The Episcopal Church to expend any additional resources on the “Covenant process.”

Even if you are not a deputy, please do what you can to encourage your lay and clergy deputies to reject the Anglican Covenant outright. If possible, speak to or write to your bishop(s) about the need to put the Covenant behind us.

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition is planning to propose our own model resolution for the 2012 General Convention. If you have any thoughts as to what that resolution should look like, please send them along to me.

I urge you to continue to look for updates at our Web site, our blog, our Facebook page, and on Twitter.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Faithfully,
Lionel
___________________________
Lionel E. Deimel, Ph.D.
Episcopal Church Convenor
No Anglican Covenant Coalition
828 Rockwood Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15234
+1 412-343-5337
http://deimel.org
lionel@deimel.org