US Church cannot sign Covenant, say Wright and American critics

11 September, 2009

THE Episcopal Church in the United States cannot in conscience sign the Anglican Covenant, a group of con­servatives says. The group includes the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright.

The criticism of the Episcopal Church comes in a 27-page position paper, “The Anglican Covenant: Shared Discernment Recognized by All”, published on Thursday of last week. The signatories are Dr Wright and four US conservatives: Canon Professor Christopher Seitz, the Revd Dr Philip Turner, the Revd Dr Ephraim Radner, and Mark McCall.

The group contends that the ongoing Covenant process, designed to bring some structure to the Anglican Communion, has inter­dependence at its heart. This ex­plicitly involves accountability — defined as being open to correction — to other provinces in matters that affect the whole Communion. The obvious case in point is the debate about the blessing of same-sex couples and the consecration of gay priests and bishops.

The paper states: “Without ac­counta­bility there is no commu­nion, and a Church that is unac­countable by definition has ordered its life outside the Communion of Churches.” the rest