CANON Gregory Cameron, deputy secretary to the Anglican Consultative Council, was believed to have the draft Anglican Covenant on his laptop in advance of the Primates’ Meeting in Tanzania. But even the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, had apparently been unable to obtain a sneak preview at the Ecclesiastical Law Society conference. At the event, Professor Norman Doe spoke of the role of canon law, through the concept of ius commune (common law), as one of the foundation stones for the Covenant.
Canon Cameron shared a platform with Robert Tong from Sydney diocese, a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference. In the Anglican Communion, suggested Canon Cameron, the tension was now between the disciples of “ardour” and “order” — and ardour had the upper hand.
“Ardour” combined those on the Left, “with a driving ambition to make the Church as inclusive as possible, even if it means bending the rules of ecclesiastical law or expanding their boundaries”, and those on the Right, with “a fierce concern for the welfare of the disciples of the Lord. Wherever they see the harassed congregations of the righteous, they step in to assist and support — even though they may break swaths of ecclesiastical law and convention.”
For both groups, it was the priority of the gospel imperative that counted.
Robert Tong described the Episcopal Church in the United States as the “sick man of the Anglican Communion”. He found parallels in the situation with Harold Macmillan’s declaration in his “wind of change” speech in South Africa in 1960: “It is our earnest desire to give South Africa our support and encouragement, though frankly there are some aspects in your polity which make it impossible for us to do this without being false to our deep conviction [on apartheid].”
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