Source:  Anglican Taonga

July 9, 2012

As expected, the General Synod said a final: ‘No' to the proposed Anglican covenant today.

But it did so quietly, and the original motion was amended to stress this church's desire to remain tightly knit with the Communion.

And to suggest that the early parts of the covenant - the non contentious bits about "Our Inheritance in Faith" etc - "are a useful starting point" for future Anglican thinking about their church.

The first clause of the draft motion, as proposed by Dr Tony Fitchett and Ven Turi Hollis, and set out in the Synod agenda, was short and to the point.

That simply proposed that this church: Declines to adopt the proposed Anglican Covenant.

That's been replaced by the resolution which says this church:

Is unable to adopt the proposed Anglican Covenant due to concerns about aspects of Section 4, but subscribes to Sections 1, 2, and 3 as currently drafted as a useful starting point for consideration of our Anglican understanding of the church.

And where the second clause of the proposed motion - as set out in the synod papers - had proposed that this church affirms the commitment of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia to the life of the Anglican Communion.

The resolution passed turns the fullstop after ‘Communion' into a comma, and adds a clause which reads: including the roles and responsibilities of the four Instruments of Communion as they currently operate. . .

Read the entire article here.