From The Church Times-THE Scottish Episcopal Church has become the first member of the Anglican Communion to reject the Anglican Covenant at the level of a General Synod. Last Friday, the Synod voted against the adoption of the Covenant by 112 votes to 6, with 13 abstentions.
The Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway, Dr Gregor Duncan, referred to the indaba discussions that had taken place at diocesan synods since the General Synod last year, and suggested that the Church was “as well-informed and prepared to decide as we could possibly be”. Although it was “pointless to deny that since Synod last met the context had changed” — the Covenant had been rejected by more than half of the diocesan synods in the Church of England — it was important that the Scottish Episcopal Church “make our own decision for our own reasons”.
The Revd Professor David Atkinson (Aberdeen & Orkney) suggested that it was possible to reject the Covenant for “positive reasons”. “I will be voting against the motion, not for a negative reason, but because I believe, without being in it, that we will have far more freedom to develop our mission for Scotland.”
Jim Gibson (Glasgow & Galloway) spoke in favour of the Covenant, arguing that it was necessary to regard it “from a worldwide perspective”. He warned that “if we don’t adopt it, we run the risk of being seen to be selfish and unhelpful,” both to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who “has worked very hard at a lot of personal cost to try and find some way of working together and getting the Communion together”, and also to “our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who, in a time of political and economic uncertainty and difficulty and strife, are looking closely at the lead the Church in Britain is going to give”.
More here-
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=129960
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