The 21st Century Lambeth Hexagon or Sextilateral, whatever...

In my post on section one of the Ridley Cambridge Draft Covenant (RCDC), dated 4/16/09 I wrote this about additions to the Lambeth Quadrilateral: "(1.1.7) concerning common prayer and liturgy, and (1.1.8) the apostolic mission of the whole people of God, are very good additions to the Quadrilateral, which I suppose will become the Lambeth Hexagon"

A much more comprehensive and useful post on the whole matter of the extension of the Lambeth Quadrilateral into a comprehensive statement is to be found in a posting on a blog site especially built for the occasion: The site, "sextilateral.blogspot.com" carries the new six element statement, mostly from the RCDC, under the title, "Comprehensiveness for the Sake of Truth: Comprehension in generous Catholicity."

Please read it. It is a fine statement. The first four elements of the six part statement are those of the Lambeth version of the Chicago- Lambeth Quadrilateral. The last two, "5) The Book of Common Prayer as authorized in this Church in General Convention as the normative standard of worship in this Church." and "6) Service of the needs of our neighbors and the world in the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ." differ from the RCDC additions on liturgy and common prayer, "1.1.7) the shared patterns of our common prayer and liturgy which form, sustain and nourish our worship of God and our faith and life together" and mission, "(1.1.8) its participation in the apostolic mission of the whole people of God, and that this mission is shared with other Churches and traditions beyond this Covenant."

The differences in wording in the last make them statements molded a bit more to the specifics of The Episcopal Church, but the general tenor is parallel to that in the RCDC document. Calling this a "sextilateral" document is a fine continuation of the "sided" language, although a bit of a stretch. Calling it a hexagon, as in six sided figure, is odd, since it is not a figure. But whatever, the document as put together by this good effort, is a fine six part comprehensive statement of what it means to be generously catholic. Hexagon or sextilateral, it is just fine. The authors are to be commended for this good work. Those muttering their way toward some sort of conclusion in their thinking about the RCDC proposal might wonder if this might not be enough.

To sign up, link to the email at the bottom of the document, found HERE