Is this gracious restraint in North America?

Via VirtueOnline:

The following is a Speech delivered in General Synod by Sarah Finch

Anglican Mainstream
www.anglican-mainstream.net
February 17th, 2009

Speech on the Anglican Covenant at General Synod: What is happening in North America. Sarah Finch, member of General Synod

We know that a covenant is a solemn agreement between two parties. But what is implied? We would expect that the two parties would like each other and respect each other. That they would share an agenda. That they would want to walk together in the same direction, using just one map.

But when we consider the reason why the Anglican Covenant was first invented - the actions in The Episcopal Church in the United States which tore the fabric of the Anglican Communion - we have to recognize that there is not one map now but two. And it seems a very healthy thing, the other day, that this fact was recognized at the recent Primates' meeting in Alexandria. There are now two versions of Christianity within the Anglican Communion.

How has this come about? For more than thirty years a gradual drift away from the authority of Scripture has meant a gradual change in Anglican faith and practice in North America. So gradual, so slow, that, unless you had your wits about you, you would not realize the enormous distance that has been covered in those years.

And the result? A very different version of Christianity, in which the uniqueness of Christ, that we were talking about yesterday, is doubted, if not actually contradicted, and scriptural teaching in matters of human sexuality is set aside. But some North American Anglicans have had their wits about them, and have protested. Under the new regime, however, such protest is a dreadful affront to the powers that be. A local congregation is expected to live out the new theology, just as, in the commercial world, a franchise, or a branch of something, is expected to follow the dictates of head office. If a local congregation is unwilling to go along with the new theology - and they reckon that the original map is far safer - and they take refuge in another Province, they will just have to get out of their present circumstances. They will have to leave their church buildings (which they have probably paid for), leave the family graves and memorial windows, leave the rectory, the bank account, the pension - the lot. Persecution is the price they are paying for being faithful to God's will.

In this country I guess few of us know the full extent of what is going on. The rules and regulations are being manipulated, so that in recent years in the United States 12 bishops and 104 Anglican priests have been deposed. Just imagine: just imagine you are a local incumbent, faithfully serving your parish and teaching your congregation, but suddenly you and your wife and your four young children have to get out, immediately. At the moment, The Episcopal Church is engaged in 56 lawsuits against parishes and individuals - and the rate is accelerating. And yet, in Alexandria the Primates were calling for 'gracious restraint'.

What is to be done? We cannot just stand by and observe. Back to the Anglican Covenant. What hope may we have for it? As yet, I think it is generally agreed, it has no strength. It cannot enforce anything. But on pages 10 and 11 of the Note from the House of Bishops that we have, the need to gain that strength is mentioned. The enforcement powers have yet to be worked out. But, a pre-requisite for sorting out a breach of the Covenant is the setting up of a standard, against which any such breach may be measured. The Covenant has to be strong enough to deal with the level of determination to go a separate way that we see in North America.

END