We are "in" by way of the Nigerian church, of which we are a part.

Right?

Frank
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Ward<mailto:mward@...> 
  To: faithandlife@...<mailto:faithandlife@...> 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 8:26 AM
  Subject: RE: [FaithandLife] BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD AND AND ANGLICAN UNITY BY 2012


  Charles+

  I'm not sure what this means for the Continuum, but it may address the one
  objection that I continually hear from people in the Episcopal church: "You
  aren't really Anglican because you aren't in communion with Canterbury."  We
  all know why we aren't, and I'm sure we've all talked 'til we're blue in the
  face explaining it, but it is nevertheless the one thing that is always held
  over our heads.

  Any idea whether or not this idea of "covenant" speaks to those outside the
  official Communion?

  MLW+
  ==========================================

  New Anglican covenant begins to take shape 

  By Bill Bowder 

  THE OUTLINES of a sacrificial covenant that could bind
  the Anglican Communion together as a "genuinely global
  communion of interdependent autonomous Churches",
  despite its current differences, has been approved by
  the Archbishop of Canterbury and a select group of
  Primates.

  Dr Williams and other members of the joint standing
  committee of the Primates of the Anglican Consultative
  Council have agreed on a way to produce a covenant
  that could be in place by 2012. It would form a key
  part of the discussions at the Lambeth Conference in
  Canterbury in 2008.

  The details of the covenant will be drawn up by a
  design group, to be appointed by Dr Williams later
  this year. They will then be considered by bishops,
  clergy, and laity across the Communion.

  A working party of eight clerics and academics based
  in Britain has sketched out a timetable for its
  development and implementation, and the style of its
  possible contents.

  First, there would be just one Anglican covenant for
  everyone. It would be a single formula and it would
  have no opt-outs. For the purposes of the Communion,
  the covenant should be built on the idea of God's
  promise "that we shall be led to truth and unity". 
  In the covenant, the different provinces and Churches
  would commit themselves once again to live together in
  communion. 

  Such a covenant would be costly: "We do not
  underestimate the cost that being in covenant may
  exact on the Churches of the Communion," the group
  warns. 

  For the covenant to work, most Churches and provinces
  must be able to "gather" around it. But those who
  could not, would not then have to leave the Communion.

  Just as the Churches had been Anglican before there
  was a Lambeth Conference, so they could be Anglicans
  without accepting the covenant. "It might be expected
  that, as time goes on, stronger presumptions of mutual
  recognition and interchangeability of ministry and
  membership would arise between those Churches and
  provinces that had signed up than those who had not
  chosen to do
  so."

  What could emerge was "a two (or more) tiered
  Communion with some level of permeability between
  Churches signed up to the Covenant, and those who are
  not". 

  www.anglicancommunion.org<http://www.anglicancommunion.org/>

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