Global South Primates Respond to Vatican Initiative

From the Living Church which has link to the statement-

Responding to the Vatican’s announcement for Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans, the six-member Global South Primates Steering Committee has said the Anglican Communion’s covenant “sets the necessary parameters in safeguarding the catholic and apostolic faith and order of the Communion.”

In their statement, “A Pastoral Exhortation to the Faithful in the Anglican Communion,” the leaders urge that Anglicans remain Anglicans and that the Archbishop of Canterbury help them do so.

“In God’s gracious purposes the Anglican Communion has moved beyond the historical beginnings and expressions of English Christianity into a worldwide Communion, of which the Church of England is a constitutive part,” the leaders said. “In view of the global nature of the Communion, matters of faith and order would inevitably have serious ramifications for the continuing well-being and coherence of the Communion as a whole, and not only for provinces of the British Isles and the Episcopal Church in the USA. We urge the Archbishop of Canterbury to work in close collegial consultation with fellow Primates in the Communion, act decisively on already agreed measures in the Primates’ Meetings, and exercise effective leadership in nourishing the flock under our charge, so that none would be left wandering and bereft of spiritual oversight.”

The leaders add about the covenant: “At the same time we believe that the proposed Anglican covenant sets the necessary parameters in safeguarding the catholic and apostolic faith and order of the Communion. It gives Anglican churches worldwide a clear and principled way forward in pursuing God’s divine purposes together in the one, holy catholic and apostolic church of Jesus Christ. We urge churches in the Communion to actively work together towards a speedy adoption of the covenant.”

The statement bears the names of the Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola, Nigeria (chairman); the Most Rev. Emmanuel Kolini, Rwanda (vice chairman); the Most Rev. John Chew, Southeast Asia (general secretary); the Most Revd Mouneer Anis, Jerusalem and the Middle East (treasurer); the Most Rev. Stephen Than Myint Oo, Myanmar; and the Very Rev. Albert Chama, dean of Central Africa.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/10/26/global-south-primates-respond-to-vatican-initiative