Monday, September 19, 2011

Mixed News from New Zealand

First the good news.
The Diocese of Dunedin has rejected the Covenant. I learned this from Bishop Kelvin's blog but it is now on Taonga as well. Bishop Kelvin writes "We discussed the Anglican Covenant and agreed with the suspicion of clause 4 which seems to be current in most of the New Zealand Anglican Church. By a reasonably large majority we do not want our church to subscribe to it."

I do not understand the implications of another vote.
There was "a motion asking us to accept that people in such relationships (same sex)  should not be denied ordination because of those relationships"..."In the end, an amendment was proposed which affirmed that sexual orientation was not a barrier to ordination, but which removed any reference to relationships." Bishop Kelvin thinks this is "the situation which has been the case in the Anglican Church for many years." I am not so sure, it depends in which part of the Anglican Church one resides and I do not believe it solves anything.

However the bad news is that the Diocese of Wellington has supported all four sections of the proposed Anglican Covenant. The bishop spoke in favour and the vote (only taken on section 4) was
Clergy : 63 for; 41 against.
Laity : 52 for; 44 against.

This is disappointing.  They state "We must preserve unity, and the Covenant will help us do that. And we don't want to find ourselves no longer in full communion because we have not signed the Covenant".
I think they are namby pamby and lily-livered. They want to remain in communion even if it is wrong.  New Zealand might end up in full communion with the homophobic dioceses but out of communion with TEC and Canada.

I  am definite on this:
If the Province signs up to the covenant, I will be disappointed. But if the covenant members then eject TEC and/or Canada, I will remove myself from the parish and not enter and Anglican Church in New Zealand again.

We wait on the other dioceses Three Maori and three Pakeha plus the diocese of Polynesia.
I know the Diocese of Christchurch has postponed a vote until next year. They had more important matters to consider.  The Diocese of Nelson had their synod in August but there is nothing reportd however it is the evangelical diocese and already has  statement condemning same sex marriage. The Diocese of Waikato/Taranaki had their synod last week but there is no news yet.

No comments: