Thursday 23 October 2008

How to Kick the Covenant into Touch

If the intended Anglican Communion Covenant is for any institution, it is for the exclusion or inclusion of The Episcopal Church. However, the next draft isn't even going to be considered, at least at any timescale to do anything about it, if the Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori gets her way.

The Episcopal News Service reports:

If a proposed Anglican covenant is released in mid-May for adoption by the Anglican Communion's provinces, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will "strongly discourage" any effort to bring that request to the 76th General Convention in July.

The dates are that the Covenant Design Group meets in April 2009 from when would come another draft. The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meets May 1-12, and this is the version that could be adopted. The Episcopal Church 76th General Convention meets July 8-17, and the Presiding Bishop thinks time is too short. It meets next time three years later.

Is two months enough between sending out and deciding upon it? If groups were swiftly organised, it could be, and with any doubt about it then it could be rejected. However, rejection would feed the opponents. Instead, take a lesson from British Governments. If they don't know what to do, they organise a Royal Commission to look into something. That usually goes on for a very long time, sometimes until after the issue has died down or something has overtaken the matter.

So, yes: keep it alive and kill it at the same time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's the classic Anglican way! by the way, what does 'kick into touch' mean?

Pluralist (Adrian Worsfold) said...

The ball is kicked over the line and goes dead: it wastes time as it needs to be thrown in to resume (football).

Kurt said...

I agree. Let's "study" this bad idea to death.

Kurt in Brooklyn, NY

WSJM said...

Aha. Well, that explains it. Now in American Football, the ball spends most of its time being dead (while the offensive team consults about what to do next, and the defensive team stands around looking at them). We also have something called a "dead ball foul," which is a way to prolong the time during which the ball is dead while the officials consult and wave their hands in various signals.

Sounds like an excellent way to deal with the Covenant.