04.10.2010
Southern Africa: Major step in adopting Covenant
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa voted on Friday, 1 October, to
adopt "The Anglican Covenant", the document setting out a statement of
common "affirmations and commitments" by churches of the worldwide
Anglican Communion which has been drawn up in response to disagreements
over issues around human sexuality.
A resolution adopting the Covenant was proposed at the triennial meeting
of the church's Provincial Synod by the Archbishop of Cape Town, the
Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, and seconded by the Dean of the Province, the
Right Revd Paddy Glover, Bishop of the Free State. The decision will
need to be ratified by the next session of the Synod in three years'
time.
Motivating the resolution, Archbishop Makgoba said he believed the
church in southern Africa needed to try to "play a reconciling role"
amid the current disputes over human sexuality in the Communion. He said
the Covenant "is not a guarantee of an easy solution to the problems we
face in the Communion" but hoped it would be a way of "healing and
moving the Communion forward..." It was a document which, although not a
complete statement on the nature of the Anglican Communion, sought to
"describe our common identity in the Anglican Church... What is at stake
here is to try to articulate our relationship in words."
Bishop Glover said the Anglican Church could best be likened to a
family: "There are no outsiders; we are all insiders... We are all
different but we are members of a family... bound together by bonds of
affection and bonds of loyalty." The covenant sought to reinforce this
relationship.
The resolution was passed by an overwhelming majority, although some
speakers who supported it expressed reservations. The Revd Drake
Tshenkeng of the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman asked whether the
Church was not giving "centralizing power" to the communion's Standing
Committee. The Dean of Grahamstown, the Very Rev Andrew Hunter said the
covenant raised the questions: "How far does diversity stretch, who
defines diversity and who sets the boundaries?"
The full text of the Synod's resolution reads:
This Synod,
1. Noting that:
1.1. The Synod of Bishops, meeting in September 2009, agreed that
Provincial Standing Committee be asked to support the Covenant and that
a resolution be brought to that body to that effect;
1.2. PSC passed a resolution at its September meeting that, "This PSC
agrees in principle to support the adoption by ACSA of the Anglican
Covenant subject to ratification by the Provincial Synod of 2010."
2. Resolves that ACSA adopt the Anglican Covenant as approved by the
Bishops; and
3. Requests that it be ratified at the next sitting of Provincial Synod.
Article from: Anglican Church of Southern Africa