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The Anglican Communion Alliance commends the Anglican Covenant Agreement which has now been sent to Provinces of the Communion for adoption and will become active as soon as any Church adopts it. In its final form, the Covenant points to an emergent core of Anglican Churches that will shift the character of decision-making among the Instruments of Communion. The Covenant provides a framework making explicit the nature and calling of each covenanting Church to share in a common life of interdependent relationship as articulated in sections 1-3. Section 4 clarifies the procedures by which covenanted life can be maintained, particularly in the case of disputes.
Some Canadian dioceses which have already sought to proceed with the blessing of same-sex unions/marriages are impacting the common life of the Communion without regard to implications this action would have on the wider Church. They have justified their actions according to political, social and cultural demand and/or according to supposed individually received leading of the Holy Spirit. The Covenant before the Canadian Church requires mutual submission to common life and thus to decision-making that takes into account God's work through the structures of the whole Church of which it is only one (increasingly smaller) part. We call those parts of the Canadian Church who have set out on their own in this matter to return from charting their own course and remain as full members within the Anglican Communion with the rest of us.
We would not counsel people to 'leave' the Canadian Church especially as the Covenant now provides a way forward for our Canadian Church. We would suggest that we are called to stand firm within the Church by witnessing to the gospel from the particular places and ministries in which we find ourselves. In this way, we can allow the processes of our life to unfold obediently according to God's own reconciling mission. Those Churches willing to abide by the common life set out in the Covenant Agreement - a life founded on a commitment to mutual accountability, care and mission in the gifts of Christ - will prove and provide a means by which faithful Anglicans, even those in Churches not willing to abide the commitments of the Covenant, will be able to join in this movement. How precisely this will happen cannot yet be known; but it is now clear that there is will amongst our larger body, to proceed along this path of common, covenanted witness.
We leave you with this glimpse of our future life provided by the Reverend Dr. Ephraim Radner: "And we – older and younger – can, because we must, bear with a continued hope that, though still demanding new orderings, does not seek the overturning of the hope of the past. Still, in Christ, we hope for common prayer in the Scripture’s formation; still we hope for ordered debate and discernment; still we hope for mission that reforms us even as it touches the world; still, for unity. These have been among the Anglican essentials of life in the face of challenge; they remain so; and they continue as means of grace that can strengthen the ministry of other Christian bodies and draw us closer together. But now we must appropriate these essentials, in all humility, for a deliberate mission of seeding the Kingdom – every one of us, a sower who walks in the wake of the great Sower’s passing through the fields. What could be more enlivening than such a vocation and invitation? Let those young people who are called to service in this way be encouraged at this time, above all times! ... But we cannot go forward without properly understanding that this is now God’s work, and not the arena for individual self-assertion, including the building up of structures only loosely capable of breaking free of individual rancor. God has not yet finished breaking us down in order to make us strong in hope and gentleness. At least, we should be ready for such work, because it is a work we need for the sake of the world"
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