6/21/2013

The Anglican Covenant finds another taker.

The Anglican Communion News Service writes that "Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, the Hong Kong Anglican Church, has adopted the Anglican Communion Covenant."  According to the ACNS count that makes the seventh province to adopt the Covenant. The article mentions two provinces that have given a mostly "no" reaction - "The Scottish Episcopal Church's General Synod defeated a resolution to agree in principle to adopt the Covenant in June 2012. The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia  said it was "unable to adopt the proposed Anglican Covenant due to concerns about section 4, but subscribes to sections 1,2 and 3". 

No mention is made of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines and their "no" by way of their bishops.

No mention is made of The Episcopal Church's response nor of the fairly clear rejection by a number of Provinces who believe the Covenant is too lax.  The current text was set in 2009. Now, six years later only seven of the thirty-eight provinces have come out in support. 

Unless the current Archbishop of Canterbury can interpret the document and its value in a new way, at the current rate, acceptances a majority of the Communion might happen around 2040 at the earliest.  Of course that does not take into account the current negative responses (not a formal rejection but practically so) from a wide range of provinces. By 2040 most of the matters that are dealt with by the Anglican Covenant will be dealt with in other ways. 


1 comment:

  1. Mark,

    In May 2010, the N.Z. church accepted Sections 1–3 of the Covenant in principle. The church did not “subscribe” to anything. (See information here.)

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