The objection of not being in communion with Canterbury doesn't really hold much water (at least with me). The Scottish Episcopal Church was a "schismatic" church worshiping in barns and attics when Seabury received the episcopate from them. I'd rather preserve the faith of the faithful Anglicans than be in communion with the arch-druid-songster of Cantur. DH+ Michael Ward <mward@...> wrote: 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 -- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: faithandlife-unsubscribe@... -- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: faithandlife-unsubscribe@... --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta. -- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: faithandlife-unsubscribe@...