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

General Convention Resolutions Analyzed

The General Convention of The Episcopal Church meets next month and will take up Covenant adoption. To date, depending on how one counts, as many as seven resolutions have been proposed to deal with the request from the Anglican Communion to adopt the Anglican Covenant. These will go to a legislative committee that will determine just what legislation will come before the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. Almost certainly, that legislation will be an amalgam of what has been proposed thus far.

Blogger Lionel Deimel has written a helpful post explaining and comparing the seven resolutions. Anyone who wants to understand the resolutions should read his post, which you can find here.
 

This Just In From Scotland!

It takes courage to stand for the right. The Scottish Episcopal Church has that courage. They have officially said no to the Covenant and yes to Communion. The news is posted on their official web site at this page.

The address by their primus is worth reading. It is a solid endorsement of the Anglican Communion, not the unwelcome hierarchical "Anglican Church" Dr. Williams and his myrmidons have been so eager to inflict on us. FWIW jimB

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.

Our Man Malcolm in the Anglican Journal

Reprinted on this blog with permission from Wounded Bird.

The Rev Malcolm French, Moderator of NACC

From the Anglican Journal in Canada:

An international coalition of Anglicans [No Anglican Covenant Coalition] hopes a model resolution to reject the Anglican Communion Covenant will be accepted by The U.S. Episcopal Church at its General Convention in Indianapolis in July.

The covenant was intended to be an agreement to bind the global Anglican Communion together despite differences about the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of bishops in same-sex relationships.

The coalition's resolution declines to approve the covenant and claims there are better ways to unify the Anglican Communion. It calls on the church to “at every level to seek opportunities to reach out to strengthen and restore relationships between this church and sister churches of the Communion.”

The covenant was never intended to bind the churches in the Anglican Communion together, but rather to discipline the churches in the Communion which strayed from the straight and narrow path by extending equality to all members of the church without exclusions because of sexual orientation.

The resolution submitted to the TEC General Convention 2012 is numbered D007.  "French here.  Malcolm French."

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.

Coalition Plans Next Steps

No Anglican Covenant Coalition

Anglicans for Comprehensive Unity

noanglicancovenant.org

NEWS RELEASE

 MAY 1, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COALITION PLANS NEXT STEPS

LONDON – With diocesan synod voting in the Church of England completed, and with 26 dioceses having rejected the proposed Anglican Covenant, the No Anglican Covenant Coalition is preparing for the next steps in its international campaign, including the appointment of a new Moderator, the Revd Malcolm French, a parish priest in the Anglican Church of Canada. The Revd Jean Mayland, a retired priest, will be the No Anglican Covenant Coalition Convenor for the Church of England.

“We have accomplished what many thought was an impossible task,” said the Coalition’s first Moderator, the Revd Dr Lesley Crawley. “After a full and fair debate, the Church of England has rejected the Anglican Covenant, and it cannot be considered again prior to 2015. As the campaign moves on to other fronts, this is an opportune time for me to hand over the leadership of the Coalition. Malcolm and Jean have been key members of the Coalition from the start, and I am confident the Coalition will experience continued success under Malcolm’s leadership.”

“Lesley stepped up to lead the Coalition with courage and commitment,” said French. “As we move forward, I will look to Lesley’s example of empowering leadership. The defeat of the Anglican Covenant in the Church of England has changed the playing field in the rest of the Anglican Communion. We are confident that a fair debate on the merits will lead to the defeat of the Covenant in several more Communion churches, just as we saw in the Church of England.”

Over the next six months, several more churches will consider the proposed Covenant, including the Scottish Episcopal Church, in June, and The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, both in July. Canadian dioceses have begun studying the Covenant in preparation for General Synod 2013.

A model General Convention resolution has been prepared to assist General Convention deputies in the Episcopal Church who may wish to submit a resolution on the Covenant. The model resolution, along with other supporting material, is available at the No Anglican Covenant website (noanglicancovenant.org/resources.html).

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The No Anglican Covenant Coalition is an international group of Anglicans concerned about how the proposed Anglican Covenant would radically change the nature of the Anglican Communion.

noanglicancovenant.org

The Revd Malcolm French (Canada)	+1-306-550-2277
The Revd Jean Mayland (England)	+44 07966 921247
The Ven Lawrence Kimberley (New Zealand)	+64 3 981 7384
The Revd Canon Hugh Magee (Scotland)	+44 1334 470446
Dr Lionel Deimel (USA)	+1-412-512-9087