BISHOPS JOHN SAXBEE AND PETER SELBY: ¨ We believe that the Covenant [the Anglican Covenant] is to be resisted.¨

Lack of diocesean [Church of England] debate on the Anglican Covenant are grounds for real concern

A SNIPPET From the Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee and the Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby letter to Church Times:

¨Sir, — Whichever side of the argument you are on there are grounds for real concern about the way the debate about it is progressing. It cannot be good to learn, as we do, that many bishops who are against the Anglican Covenant don’t want to say for fear of seeming disloyal, that diocesan synods are “debating” the issue without hearing both sides of the argument equally presented, and that there is so much boredom and weariness about the whole issue.

This is a major proposal with potentially serious consequences for this and future generations of Anglican Christians, and for those ecumenical partners with whom we are in conversation. Nothing will be worse than for the Covenant to be yawned through at a July Synod preoccupied with debating the ordination of women as bishops, passed and then put in a drawer — only for us to discover that those who now brand it “toothless” then use it and propel the Communion into a litigious and factious future.

The Archbishop of Canterbury made it clear in his Advent letter that such is not his purpose. But the proposed Covenant cannot now escape the identity it has acquired as an instrument of exclusion...¨ please read it all, by subscription, HERE

·  Thanks to the Rt Revd Dr John Saxbee and the Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby
·  Thanks to CHURCH TIMES, HERE