GAFCON response to the St Andrew’s Covenant: correction and apology

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Via Email:

The Global Anglican Future Conference Theological Resource Group (TRG) has published a response to the St Andrew’s Covenant. http://www.gafcon.org/index.php This has the authority of that group and is the substantive response from GAFCON.

There are two major concerns about the proposed covenant. First, what will it contain? Will it have sufficient commitment to the doctrinal and ethical commitments of the traditional Anglican formularies? Will it have sufficient material on the process of maintaining unity on essentials?

Secondly, the current St Andrew’s draft focuses the action away from the Primates to the Anglican Consultative Council. In every case except the Church of England, the Primates are the elected heads of their churches. The Lambeth Conferences of 1988 and 1998 asked for enhanced responsibility to be given to the Primates on matters of contention. The St Andrew’s draft reverses this direction and gives responsibility to the ACC for approval of the final text of the covenant and as arbiter of inclusion in the Communion.

Thirdly, it should be noted that even though the Lambeth Conference is an instrument of communion, it has no decision-making role in finalizing the covenant. Rather it is the ACC that will be the final arbiter of what the covenant will contain.

Further, no bishop here has the authority to accept the covenant on behalf of anyone else: such decisions belong to the provinces, their synods and house of bishops.

The briefing paper that was posted on the GAFCON website, on which Dr Andrew Goddard focuses his major critique http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm, has now been removed. It was purely a resource paper provided for the TRG comparing the St Andrews Draft with earlier theological reflection. This reflection was incorrectly identified for which apologies are made for the confusion caused.

The response of the GAFCON Theological Resource Group is to the St Andrew’s Draft and the GAFCON Theological Resource group welcomes comments on the substance of their response to office [at] gafcon [dot] org.



Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Covenant • Global South Churches & Primates • GAFCON I 2008

2 Comments
Posted July 23, 2008 at 7:27 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. badman wrote:

I don’t see how this can be described as a GAFCON response.  GAFCON has long since broken up and dispersed from Jerusalem.  This communication is from a person who has not identified himself.

July 23, 10:45 am | [comment link]
2. WilliamS wrote:

This is a response from The Global Anglican Future Conference Theological Resource Group and does not claim to be from the Jerusalem gathering.

July 23, 4:32 pm | [comment link]
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