Global South Primates Raise Urgent Questions

From The Living Church-

Eleven Global South Anglican primates released a communiqué at the end of their China visit in September. The discussions in China clearly build on many exchanges and face-to-face meetings between these primates in recent times, especially in the Fourth South-to-South Encounter in Singapore in April 2010. These protracted meetings have taken much time, personnel, and financial resources. And much more resources need to be in place to carry out the plans in the communiqué. The China communiqué, therefore, raises urgent questions. The key issue turns on the ecclesiological nature of whatever Global South Anglican churches plan to do. Briefly:

Can the Global South primates come up with a coherent ecclesiastical structure that can hold their “mission and networking” together, once the existing Communion instruments are deemed dysfunctional? This is all the more urgent since the primates have decided to withdraw participation from key Communion-level instruments. Alternative ecclesial structures (interim or permanent) need to be in place to give corporate expression to their Anglican identity.

Will their churches adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant, in which the existing four instruments assume a central place? After all, Global South churches have played a key role in drafting the Covenant from the start. A Global South Anglican paper was commissioned for study in the South-to-South encounter in 2010 to defend the Covenant. Why the perhaps hesitant note on the Covenant in the communiqué, as if it is something new?

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2011/9/29/global-south-primates-raise-urgent-questions