Canon Andrew Gross sits down with Kevin to talk about the Covenant adopted by the Global South at their Cairo meeting in October. This is ‘inside ‘baseball’, but valuable information everyone needs to know.
Canon Andrew Gross sits down with Kevin to talk about the Covenant adopted by the Global South at their Cairo meeting in October. This is ‘inside ‘baseball’, but valuable information everyone needs to know.
Bishops with their superior religious education, authority, historical justification, callings, networks, vestment badges, symbols of office, sacred vows, power of relics, authority of canon law, and on and on have been telling us for years we are to trust their decisions. They are on top of this thing called Christianity. And yet, our churches keep spiraling down. A fix is coming at the next conference, next paper, and a new covenant. Hell. The fix is in the wind.
I don’t trust Bob Duncan. ACNA needs to move beyond Church of Duncan. Why do I have a feeling these larger organizations will be tainted by too much influence by the old 1979 Episcopalians? My advice to George is stay within TEC on your Jesus island. The progressives will come after you soon enough. Keep pounding the salvation of Jesus.
Thanks to Canon Andrew Gross for a refreshingly non-controversial report on the Gafcon-Global South situation and the proposed covenant. My recollection is that back in 2004-05, the early proponents of a covenant were Egypt, Indian Ocean, South East Asia and West Indies. The new proposal from the Global South seems to me to draw from that first proposal, and eliminates most of the “compromise” changes introduced by the numerous “covenant” committees and groups dominated by Lambeth Palace functionaries.
If I understand Andrew+ correctly, the new covenant proposal drew “aye” votes from all the Gafcon primates present at the GS meeting, as well as the other GS primates present, and a near unanimous vote from other delegates.
An important aspect of the proposal is the recognition of the diocese as the principle unit constituting the Church. This is consistent with ancient practice, and also consistent with the “theory” of the church laid out by Rowan Williams in one of his letters (circa 2008, but I’m not sure the date). The proposal would allow for individual dioceses in some provinces to join, even if the province itself declines.
Unlike GAFCON, I don`t think that the Global South has a defined number of provinces. There are some who have been absent from Global South meetings in the most recent years, like Pakistan, North India, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia. I can think only about West Africa and Central Africa has two Global South provinces who currently aren`t in GAFCON.