A.S. Haley: ECUSA and the Anglican Covenant - Who Decides?

Monday, September 14, 2009

It does not seem that anyone else in the Anglican/Episcopalian blogosphere is saying it, so I might as well be the one to point out a few inconvenient facts.

Much cyberink is being spilt on whether the Episcopal Church (USA) should "sign on" to the proposed Anglican Covenant. An equal, if not greater, amount is devoted to whether any Episcopal Dioceses in the Church could sign on to the Covenant separately.

First of all, let us be plain-spoken here. The Episcopal Church (USA) is a voluntary association of dioceses. The dioceses come together every three years through their elected bishops, clergy and lay deputies in a representative legislature called General Convention. It is the business of General Convention to (a) approve editions and amendments to the Book of Common Prayer; (b) adopt Canons and Constitutional amendments for the Church as a whole; and (c) adopt non-binding statements of intent, called "Resolutions". The latter are not binding on anyone, because General Convention passes out of existence as soon as it has adopted them. There is no one to "enforce" the Resolutions even if they were to be worded with enforcement language (which they are not). the rest