++DREXEL GOMEZ and his ANGLICAN COMMUNION COVENANT intentions: ¨Mechanisms¨ for ¨Determining Violations¨ and ¨Removals¨

Bishop Drexel Gomez*, Jamaica and West Indies/retired, Chairperson/Designer of The Anglican Covenant

Reflection: Bishop Gomez* and his Anglican Covenant warnings and intentions, September, 2008 HERE

¨In the most recent St. Andrews Draft of the covenant, provinces would pledge to uphold historic Christian faith inherited by Anglicanism and to promote and proclaim the Biblically-based Gospel through mission.

Signers of the covenant, Gomez* explained, are called on to pledge themselves to the understanding that the Anglican Communion requires mutual accountability among provinces and that the constitutional autonomy of provinces exists within a larger framework of communion that sets limits on that autonomy.

The covenant also would provide a mechanism or process by which provinces, once they have signed the covenant, could be determined to have violated the covenant and, thus, to be deemed to have removed themselves from the Communion.

Is the St. Andrews/Anglican Covenant anti-Anglican?

Gomez* noted that there is a distinct minority of bishops who oppose the covenant as being anti-Anglican. “They don’t want anything that even appears to be putting up barriers to exclusion.”

Presiding Bishop Kathryn Jefferts Schori, Primate of the Episcopal Church

One reporter at the press conference noted that TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in an online briefing following Lambeth that a majority of bishops at Lambeth claimed the second draft was too punitive and legalistic.

“That’s not true,” Gomez* said. A number of bishops, but not a majority, felt the language was too legalistic [and complicated] in the appendix,” which he said was drawn up principally by Professor Norman Doe. “We have already determined that we are going to rework the appendix.”

And he asserted that “no one I think who is objective can claim that the St. Andrew’s draft is punitive. What it says is if you sign up for the covenant and you break your word, then you are really removing yourself.”

He acknowledged that a couple of bishops have said to him and publicly that “no matter what you do, you’re still supposed to be in the Anglican Communion.”

“One bishop from Canada used the analogy of the family. Once you belong to the family, you belong [forever],” Gomez* recalled. “But in many families, you remain in the family but you can’t stay in the house because your presence in the home is a bad example to other young people, and so you are forced to move out because what you are doing is an offense to the integrity of the family.”

deposed, Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh now head of the ACNA (not recognized by The Archbishop of Canterbury or The Anglican Communion ACC)

North American Province? Gomez* was asked how a new orthodox North American province might affect the covenant process.

Schismatic ¨North American Anglican¨ Gafcon cluster (not recognized by The Archbishop of Canterbury or The Anglican Communion ACC)-

He said that Global South Anglican leaders meeting a few years ago in Kigali, Rwanda, felt that “eventually there has to be some arrangement for North America to deal with the realities of the situation.”

The Global South at the time avoided the idea that it would be another province, he asserted. ‘We couched the language deliberately in a vague way, because at the time, we didn’t give any serious consideration to the form that structure would take.”

But after June’s Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), “it’s quite clear that there’s a movement that is going to be pressing that line of argument,” Gomez* said.

What happens if a new North American province emerges?

“Even if you went with some form of a structure for North America, if it is kept within the bounds of ‘GAFCON’, that would at least hold it in a place in which it can relate to the rest of the Communion,” the Archbishop said.

The ACNA ¨Irregular¨ Bishops are not recognized by the Anglican Communion or recognized by The Archbishop of Canterbury or the ACC

He said a potential new North American province could sign onto the covenant and petition the ACC to be admitted as a province in the Communion. Short of a change in membership in the ACC, though, he thought it unlikely that the ACC would admit the province.

Gomez* was asked whether or not the Global South, in signing onto the covenant, might set as a condition that something be worked out in North America.

Dr. Rowan Williams, engaging in ¨very serious discussions¨ with Global South Bishops and their non-Anglican Communion associates/representatives, August 2010, Entebbe, Uganda

“Yes,” Gomez* indicated, “and I think we will have to have some very serious discussions with the Global South representatives.”

· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing
· Thanks to Bishop Gomez, Chair, Anglican Covenant Design Group
· Thanks to Robert England
· Thanks to American Anglican Council
· Thanks to Wikipedia
· Thanks to Virtue Online
· Thanks to All Africa

Archbishop Drexel Gomez, Chairperson of The Anglican Covenant has a long history of  ¨ pursuing his own moral, political and social agendas¨

More about bishop Drexel Gomez and his ¨siren song of culture¨  tactic

* In October 2003 Archbishop Gomez was appointed to the Lambeth Commission on Communion by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams. The Commission produced the Report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion (also known as The Windsor Report and the Eames Report), published in October 2004.

In August 2007, Archbishop Gomez was the main preacher at a service where several Anglican Archbishops consecrated two American priests as bishops despite the opposition of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America‎. He accused the U.S. church of "aggressive revisionist theology" and ¨teaching lies.¨ HERE

*Nairobi — August 31, 2007--¨The Anglican Church in Kenya yesterday ordained two bishops who will be sent to the United States to minister to its flock following differences over homosexuality.

Heads of 11 provinces of the church from around the world attended the colourful four-hour ceremony presided over by ACK Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi at Nairobi's All Saints Cathedral. Nineteen Kenyan Anglican bishops also attended the ceremony.¨  Drexel Gomez, Archbishop West Indies, gave the Sermon.HERE

“Anglicanism – one of the most vibrant and unstable expressions of Christianity within the world” March 30, 2007,  +Drexel Gomez

¨...One of the problems that has been faced as the Communion has developed is its lack of an explicitly stated self-understanding of what it means to be Anglican and what it means to recognize others as Anglican and live in interdependent, mutually accountable communion with one another as part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Reflecting the British constitution, the Anglican Communion has functioned on the basis of unwritten conventions and gentlemens agreements, a sense that one could always recognize a good Anglican and a good Anglican always behaved in certain ways. That mutual recognition may have been guided by a reference to the classic formularies for some or by the pattern of common worship as expressed in the Prayer Book and its various adaptations around the Communion. The great strength of encouraging national churches to adapt to their own context has led we now realize to a situation where although there exist many common principles of canon law for the internal ordering of provinces there is a lack of agreed and stated principles of what it means to be interdependent and to take part in and respect common counsel with ones fellow Anglicans.

In addressing this challenge and enabling the articulation of who we are and what we wish to become as a worldwide communion of churches committed to interdependent mission, the work of the Covenant Design Group is already making significant progress. As the report of the first meeting notes...¨HERE

¨...The rampant individualism and selfishness of Western culture was the greatest single threat to the faith. Believers must surrender their lives to God and be faithful to him, rather than pursue their own moral, political or social agendas. The Church faces “the challenge of discernment and commitment” as it entered the 21st century, he said, urging the bishops to hold fast to the faith once delivered, and not succumb to the siren song of culture...¨

The senior serving Primate of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Gomez was elected Bishop of Barbados in 1972 and was translated to the Diocese of Nassau and the Bahamas in 1995, and
elected Archbishop and Primate of the West Indies in 1999. He will retire at the end of this year. The Bishop of Barbados, the Rt Rev John Holder praised Archbishop Gomez for his constancy and faithfulness. He had been at the “heart of the fight” in the Anglican Communion’s battles over doctrine and discipline and had offered “outstanding leadership as the church wrestled and searched for a way forward.”Archbishop Gomez’s labours amidst a “difficult, contentious and painful” fight to hold the church together had ensured that future generations “could call themselves Anglicans.”HERE

The ANGLICAN COVENANT according to FRED SCHWARTZ: ¨The Anglican Communion should promote the healthy relationship between each individual and his/her God¨

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, ought promote ¨Healthy relationships between individuals and God¨ and not ramrod a punitive Anglican Communion Covenant

¨...One thing I find immutable at this point in my life. There are two great commandments. I find that Moses had ten and gave us all ten but those ten can be reduced to the two that Jesus gave us. First, love God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and, love your neighbor as yourself. (On these two commandments hang all the laws and the prophets.) But even having figured this much out, God's existence does not depend on me and these two commandments, only my relationship with God and my neighbor.

And so my actions, insofar as they affect my relationship with God and my neighbor depend on those things. Should there be more? Can there be more? What about all the other stuff like tradition and the Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury and all that stuff? Well, that which I have described informs ALL my other actions and decisions. Notice that I said it informs MY actions and decisions. I have chosen to be Episcopal/Catholic (another time for that definition). I will say this much, since it has taken me about forever to get here (and I apologize to those who have been here and those who should have been here and were held out for reasons not entirely clear) that in my basic understanding as written about above, no one is excluded from participating. Not a single solitary soul. It cannot be, it should not be, it must not be.

Insofar as the Anglican Communion is concerned, if it promotes that which I have described, then we should keep it. If it does not, then jettison it just like so much flotsam and jetsam. The Anglican Communion should promote the healthy relationship between each individual and his/her God. I do not see that as happening, at least not right now. It has become an impediment to our journey and should be released. Nothing terrible will happen. God will not cease to exist because we do not belong to this Anglican Communion. Our relationship with our God and our neighbor will not be irreparably damaged if it goes away. Let others argue about the Covenant and about the Communion, it has become a millstone around our necks. Time to move on, time to get back to what matters, time to renew our relationship with God and our neighbors -- ALL our neighbors!
read it all, HERE

· Thanks to Fred Schwartz, TEC diocese of San Joaquin
· Thanks to Real Anglicans, sidebar
· Thanks to Flickr Photosharing
· Thanks to Dr. Lionel Deimel, No Anglican Covenant (logo)

The ill-conceived Anglican Covenant: Favors coercion over the hard work of reconciliation

¨Anglican churches are being asked to adopt a so-called Anglican Covenant that seeks to bind them more tightly to one another and to codify procedures by which future disputes within the Anglican Communion will be resolved.

We believe that this covenant is ill-conceived. In response to the reputed “crisis” in the Communion, drafters of the covenant have favoured coercion over the hard work of reconciliation. The covenant seeks to narrow the range of acceptable belief within Anglicanism and to prevent further development of Anglican thought. Rather than bringing peace to the Communion, we predict that the covenant text itself could become the cause of future bickering and that its centralized dispute-resolution mechanisms could beget interminable quarrels and resentments.

We believe in an Anglicanism based on a shared heritage of worship, not on a set of doctrines to which all must subscribe. Our understanding of Anglicanism leads us to view the covenant as profoundly un-Anglican.

At No Anglican Covenant, we present the case against the Anglican Covenant and useful material for those studying the covenant or looking for arguments to support their opposition to its adoption. We also provide background material and track the status of the adoption (or rejection) of the covenant across the Communion.

We hope you will find No Anglican Covenant both interesting and useful, and we welcome your comments.¨ read all about the opposition to the Anglican Covenant,
HERE

· Thanks to Lionel Deimel, Logo
· Thanks to Sara Wagner, Photo
· Thanks to The Pluralist, sidebar

UPDATE FROM THE PLURALIST:  ¨ Good: Against the Covenant, but er...¨

It is late in the day, but the anti-Covenant forces are building and another has been launched. Supporters include the retired Bishop Peter Selby. The recent article by Andrew Goddard in favour of the Covenant, in regarding the Modern Church/ Inclusive Church advert as disingenuous, has been shown to be itself disingenuous because he wrote:HERE

¨NO ANGLICAN COVENANT¨ COALITION: Dedicated to the essential genius of Anglicanism and the potential negative consequences of adopting the Anglican Covenant

It´s time. It´s time to consider the Anglican Covenant.

It´s time to remember every single one of us at The Anglican Communion. It´s time to remember that we have brothers and sisters everywhere in the World who ought be welcomed/embraced and served at the Communion rail of our everyday religious lives.

All different kinds of human beings everywhere/anywhere come to be with us/you...they are us and we are them at The Body of Christ. Everyone of our sisters and brothers must be welcomed and invited to receive the gifts of God for the people of God. It´s the offering of Christian hospitality. It´s inclusive, it´s a family gathering/feast, it´s joy, it´s fellowship it´s the authentic guarantee of ¨Godly¨ forgiveness and personal acceptance.

I don´t think we should shun anyone at the Anglican Communion...not in the name of Christ or by the authority of any ¨exclusive/excluding¨ Covenant some have invented instead of trying to  understand/listen with/to one another better. Our Baptismal Covenant gives us the right to belong together and stay together. Nobody moves. Stay where you/we are. We´re not going anywhere. We belong to God and one another...that´s the intended reality of our most holy *situation*!

WE, people like me (and you), have always been front and center and participating fully in our lives/your lives.  We are like you and we are honored to be with you. We stand shoulder to shoulder with all of you. Like it not, ready or not, we´re right here next to you at the alter, singing in the choir or quietly praying to God for a ¨miracle¨ or two. We are the we´s in the next pew at an Anglican or Episcopal Church near you...we care about you (and hope that you care about us too).

No Anglican Covenant, I don´t want anyone to exclude you, or the likes of you...that might be me. 

Mil Gracias, Leonardo Ricardo, Central America, November 3, 2010,  Richard Hooker Feast Day 

¨Este sitio es el trabajo de la Coalición De ¨No Anglican Covenant¨. La Coalición contiene a Cristianos dedicados, muchos de ellos “bloggers”, de alrededor de la Comunión Anglicana Mundial que creen que la propuesta Contrato Anglicano que se les está pidiendo a nuestras iglesias que endosen o ratifiquen es, si mucho, redundante, pero además hará daño irreparable a nuestras iglesias y a nuestra Comunión.


En especial, miembros de la Coalición creen que el Convenio (Contrato) pudiera cambiar para siempre la naturaleza fundamental no solo de la Comunión Anglicana, si no del Anglicanismo mismo. De una comunidad de intereses de iglesias regionales y nacionales, pero diversas, que se apoyan mutuamente, que trazan sus tradiciones históricas y litúrgicas de la Iglesia de Inglaterra amenaza a emerger una iglesia monolítica, mundial que no responda a las necesidades locales, estrecha en su perspectiva teológica, y gobernada exclusivamente por obispos a quienes la mayoría de nosotros jamás veremos.


Es irónico que los herederos de la Reforma Inglesa proponen ahora que las iglesias renuncien su autonomía a una autoridad central conservadora. A pesar de protestas del siglo XVI que la Iglesia de Inglaterra solamente estaba cambiando al Papa por el Rey de Inglaterra como cabeza de la iglesia, cambios de mucho alcance se implementaron rapidamente en la nueva iglesia independiente, algunos de los cuales aparecerían en la tradición Católica Romana hasta siglos más tarde.


Desde la más temprana historia, el Anglicanismo ha sido una amalgama incómoda de al parecer, tradiciones eclesiásticas incompatibles. Mientras que vemos esto como una de las fortalezas del Anglicanismo, otros lo ven como una debilidad que se debe de corregir. Ciertamente, por quinientos años, los que se adhirieron a una tradición ú otra han tratado de extinguir maneras de pensar que compitan dentro de las iglesias Anglicanas. Sus victorias, por lo general, han sido locales y a corto plazo.


La ¨No Anglican Covenant¨ propuesta, sin embargo, podría introducir una conversión al por mayor de un Anglicanismo vibrante e iridiscente a una nada monocromática de la cual el trabajo del Espíritu Santo sea excluido permanentemente.


Oponiéndonos a la adopción de esta Convención estamos trabajando para prevenir semejante calamidad. Nosotros, los miembros de la Coalición de ¨No Anglican Covenant¨, estamos actuando independientemente y no necesariamente tenemos las mismas perspectivas que las que tienen nuestras iglesias ó las organizaciones a las cuales pertenecemos.¨  NO ANGLICAN COVENANT official site, leer todo Aqui

¨This site is the work of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition. The Coalition comprises dedicated Christians, many of them bloggers, from around the worldwide Anglican Communion who believe that the proposed Anglican Covenant our churches are being asked to endorse is, at best, redundant, but, more likely, will do irreparable harm to our churches and to our Communion.

In particular, the members of the Coalition believe that the covenant is likely to change forever the fundamental nature of not only the Anglican Communion, but also of Anglicanism itself. Out of a fellowship of mutually supportive yet diverse regional and national churches tracing their historical and liturgical traditions to the Church of England, there threatens to emerge a monolithic, worldwide church unresponsive to local needs, narrow in its theological outlook, and governed exclusively by bishops most of us will never see.

It is ironic that inheritors of the English Reformation are now proposing that churches surrender autonomy to a conservative central authority. Despite sixteenth-century protestations that the Church of England was merely replacing the Pope with the King of England as head of the church, far-reaching changes were quickly implemented in the newly independent church, some of which would appear in Roman Catholic tradition only centuries later.

From its earliest history, Anglicanism has been an uncomfortable amalgam of seemingly incompatible ecclesiastical traditions. Whereas we see this as Anglicanism’s strength, others view it as a weakness to be corrected. Indeed, for five hundred years, adherents of one tradition or another have attempted to extinguish competing strains of thought within Anglican churches. Their victories mostly have been local and short-lived.

The proposed Anglican Covenant, however, could usher in a wholesale conversion of a vibrant and iridescent Anglicanism into a monochromatic nonentity from which work of the Holy Spirit has been permanently precluded. The Covenant, after all, seeks uniformity, rather than unity. Uniformity gives the illusion of unity and is most easily achieved by expelling or silencing voices that dissent from a defined norm—in other words, by a series of acts of disunity. But true unity is a gift of God for which diversity is a prerequisite.

By opposing the adoption of the covenant, we are working to prevent the calamity that a major change to the Anglican Communion could easily become.

We, the members of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition are acting independently and do not necessarily hold the same views as those of our churches or of other organizations to which we belong.¨ read it all,  NO ANGLICAN COVENANT, official site, click HERE

Mr. Paul Bagshaw
The Church of England
Not the same stream
Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Mr. J. A. (Jim) Beyer
The Episcopal Church
Jim’s Thoughts
Western Springs, Illinois, U.S.A.

Mr. Doug Blanchard
The Episcopal Church,
Counterlight’s Peculiars
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.

Ms. June Butler
The Episcopal Church
Wounded Bird
Thibodaux, Louisiana, U.S.A.

The Revd. Jonathan Clatworthy
The Church of England
Modern Church
Liverpool, England

Dr. Lionel Deimel
The Episcopal Church
Lionel Deimel’s Web Log
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

The Revd. Dr. Elizabeth Kaeton
The Episcopal Church
Telling Secrets
Rehoboth Bay, Delaware, U.S.A.

The Ven. Lawrence Kimberley
Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia Christchurch, New Zealand

Ms. Susan Gage
The Episcopal Church Wake Up and LIVE
Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.A.

The Revd. Dr. Lesley Fellows
The Church of England
Lesley’s Blog
Buckinghamshire, England

The Revd. Ann K. Fontaine
The Episcopal Church
what the tide brings in
Lander, Wyoming U.S.A.

The Revd. Malcolm French
The Anglican Church of Canada
Simple Massing Priest
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

The Revd. Canon Giles Goddard
The Church of England
Inclusive Church
London, England

The Revd. Lauren A. Gough
The Episcopal Church
stoneofsilence
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A.

The Revd. Jonathan Hagger
The Church of England
Of Course, I Could Be Wrong…
Newcastle upon Tyne, England

The Revd. Torey Lightcap
The Episcopal Church Irreducible
Minimums
Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.A.

The Revd. Canon F. Hugh Magee
The Scottish Episcopal Church
St. Andrews, Scotland

The Revd. Terry Martin
The Episcopal Church
Father Jake Stops the World
Atlantic County, New Jersey, U.S.A.

The Revd. Jean Mayland
The Church of England
Hexham, Northumberland, England

The Revd. Canon Alan T. Perry
The Anglican Church of Canada
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Mr. Leonardo Ricardo (Leonard Clark Beardsley)
The Episcopal Church
Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano
Antigua, Sacatapequez, Guatemala

The Revd. Canon Susan Russell
The Episcopal Church
An Inch At A Time: Reflections on the Journey
Pasadena, California, U.S.A.

Mr. Simon Sarmiento
The Church of England
Thinking Anglicans
St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England

The ¨NO ANGLICAN COVENANT COALITION¨ HOMEPAGE HERE