By George Conger
February 3, 2009
Moral suasion, not binding legislation will be the backbone for the proposed Anglican Covenant, Australian Archbishop Philip Aspinall told reporters on Feb 2.
In their second business session at the 2009 Primates’ Meeting in Alexandria, the primates were briefed by Archbishop John Chew of Singapore on the work of the Anglican Covenant Design Group — the group tasked by Archbishop Rowan Williams with crafting a document that would set the permitted boundaries of Anglican diversity.
Dr Aspinall said that it was his impression the Covenant designers were “pulling back from the language of sanctions and teeth” in the draft document. The Covenant would be about “koinonia … fellowship .. of communion” between churches. Given the legal structures of the 38 autonomous member churches of the Anglican Communion, he said it was unrealistic that the final Covenant would be a legal mechanism whose ultimate sanction would be “not inviting you to a meeting.”
“Hitting people over the head with sticks” was not the best way forward, Dr Aspinall said. . . .
Read it all at Geo Conger's blog
No comments:
Post a Comment