More backing for Anglican Covenant
By George Conger, Religious Intelligence
The Dioceses of Western Louisiana and South Carolina have endorsed the Ridley-Cambridge draft of the Anglican Covenant, joining Central Florida as the third American diocese to formally back the Archbishop of Canterbury’s plan for creating a structure to manage the divisions over doctrine and discipline dividing the Anglican Communion.
On Oct 24, a special convention of the Diocese of South Carolina approved a resolution by a margin of 88 to 12 per cent that “endorses” the Anglican Covenant “as it presently stands, in all four sections, as an expression of our full commitment to mutual submission and accountability in communion, grounded in a common faith.”
Delegates to the Oct 9-10 annual convention of the Diocese of Western Louisiana also affirmed their support for the Covenant and backed Bishop Bruce MacPherson’s endorsement of the Anaheim Statement, which reaffirmed his commitment to remain part of the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Covenant process.
By a show of hands the convention adopted a resolution which “fully affirms” Western Louisiana’s “commitment to the Windsor principles, including the formation of, and future adoption of an Anglican Covenant as a means of supporting the ongoing work of our bishop and the efforts of the broader Communion to preserve our unity.”
The convention further stated that it “supports the ongoing work on the Ridley Cambridge draft including section 4.”
The South Carolina convention restated its evangelical credentials, declaring it believed the “doctrine, discipline and worship” of the Episcopal Church was found in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, “the Creeds, the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral and the theology of the historic prayer books.” It also adopted a resolution authorizing the withdrawal “from all bodies of the Episcopal Church that have assented to actions contrary to Holy Scripture” and the “doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ” as held historically by the church and Anglican Communion “until such bodies show a willingness to repent of such actions.”
The resolution does not pull South Carolina out of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Mark Lawrence said, but states its rejection of the recent actions taken by the General Convention. South Carolina also declared the July 2009 General Convention resolutions authorizing gay clergy and creation of gay liturgies to be “null and void” in the diocese.
In his convention address Bishop Mark said the General Convention was “not the answer to the problems of the Episcopal Church,” but had “become the problem. It has replaced a balanced piety in this Church with the politics of one-dimensional activism. Every three years when the Episcopal Church train pulls into the station of General Convention more traditional, catholic and evangelical Episcopalians get off the train and do not return.”
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