US Church cannot sign Covenant, say Wright and American critics

From the Church Times-

THE Episcopal Church in the United States cannot in conscience sign the Anglican Covenant, a group of con servatives says. The group includes the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright.

The criticism of the Episcopal Church comes in a 27-page position paper, “The Anglican Covenant: Shared Discernment Recognized by All”, published on Thursday of last week. The signatories are Dr Wright and four US conservatives: Canon Professor Christopher Seitz, the Revd Dr Philip Turner, the Revd Dr Ephraim Radner, and Mark McCall.

The group contends that the ongoing Covenant process, designed to bring some structure to the Anglican Communion, has inter dependence at its heart. This ex plicitly involves accountability — defined as being open to correction — to other provinces in matters that affect the whole Communion. The obvious case in point is the debate about the blessing of same-sex couples and the consecration of gay priests and bishops.

The paper states: “Without ac counta bility there is no commu nion, and a Church that is unac­countable by definition has ordered its life outside the Communion of Churches.”

The paper cites the recent de cisions of the US General Conven tion to open the door to same-sex blessings, and its statement that “God has called, and may call” gay and lesbian people “to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church”.

The General Convention passed a resolution, D025, which reaffirmed its commitment to the Anglican Communion as an active, partici p ating member. There has since been talk of a willingness to study and sign the Covenent when it is finalised.

The authors of the paper take issue with this, stating: “That the actions of the General Convention constitute instead a provisional rejection of the Anglican Covenant is manifest. . . The actions of the General Convention repudiating the teaching of the Communion on human sexuality can only be seen as the repudiation of the Covenant itself.”

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=81236

Christian scholars call for New Year’s resolution to daily prayer

From The Church of England News-

Renowned Christian authors behind the latest in a series of Bible notes from the Church of England, released today, have called for Christians to reconsider the time and energy they spend on daily Bible study and prayer in the same way as they might be reassessing other areas of their lives at the beginning of the year.

“Making daily prayer and Bible study part of your morning routine will improve your spiritual health in the same way as getting more exercise will improve your physical health,” argues the Rt Revd Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, to mark the launch of the latest in the daily Bible notes series, Reflections for Daily Prayer, by Church House Publishing. “January is obviously a good time to get into positive new habits, and the Reflections series is proving just the right sort of Biblical personal trainer for thousands of Christians.”

Reflections for Daily Prayer is a series offering contemporary, stimulating Bible commentaries in a handy format for each day of the working week, designed to refresh and inspire times of personal prayer. Almost 14,000 copies of previous editions of the series have been sold since the series was first launched at the end of 2007.

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr1009.html