Aspects of the global Anglican Communion are very unhappy with the US (and Canadian) church, and are demanding that we 'conform'. One major bit of trouble with this demand is that is just not the way the communion has worked in the past. Each nation's church basically ran itself, with it leader (ours is a woman, another sore point for some) working as equals with the leaders of the other churches in the communion. How a church operated within it's own jurisdiction was (for the most part) it's own concern.
Well, to address the demands of the less progressive churches in the communion, the The Archbishop of Canterbury, is floating some new ideas, including what appears to be a rule book for membership.
Under his long-term plan, first disclosed in The Daily Telegraph last month, all provinces will be given the chance to sign a "covenant", which will restrain them from acting unilaterally on contentious issues.
Those that did not - up to a third have expressed doubts - would be able to continue pushing through their divisive reforms without destroying the rest of the Church. But they would lose their voting rights at key Anglican summits where policy is decided.
The key point that struck me was that this action will effect far more than the US and Canada. It is a safe bet that Scotland and New Zealand will refuse, and it is clear that others may be strongly inclined to resist the efforts to force central control onto a body that has never embraced it in the past.
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Episcopal
3 comments:
A nice example of how one "species" can diverge from its parental lineage under different conditions - speciation. :D
AMEN
...goota love teaser/trailers like this for "Papacy Part 2: ...It's for your own good"
The ABC knows he doesn't have this authority...
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