ACI: Proposed Statement Of Clarification For Adoption Of The Covenant

from Stand Firm by Sarah

I really like this idea. What do y'all think? What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses?

Make sure you read the entire piece over at the ACI website:

Accordingly, it is necessary for covenanting churches to clarify what committee they intend to perform the functions specified in Section 4. Adopting the Covenant without such a clarification would suggest that the ACC standing committee is intended for this role when it is manifestly unsuited for the task. But it is not necessary to amend the Covenant text for this or broader purposes because the text does not explicitly identify the ACC committee as it is now constituted. Unnecessarily amending the Covenant would also run the very real risk of splitting the Communion into groups that had adopted different texts. The final text as proposed constitutes a common understanding of the Communion and its structures, widely held by the member churches, that should not be given up through unilateral amendment.

What is required, therefore, is not an amendment but a clarification to specify transitional procedures and to establish on a provisional basis a committee capable of performing the tasks defined in Section 4. Among other things, this provisional committee would arrange for a committee recognized by the covenanting churches to fulfill the Covenant duties on an ongoing basis.

Accordingly, we offer the following suggestion for a way forward in light of the confusion over the status of the ACC and the committee specified in Section 4. We propose that each church adopting the Covenant also adopt the following statement of clarification and attach it as an integral part of the adoption to the instrument by which they formally enter into the covenant .