H/t to Anglican Samizdat. From the Christian Post, read the whole thing here, it is well worth your time.
As the worldwide Anglican Communion moves fullspeed toward a full implementation of a covenant held out as a means of restoring unity, an influential evangelical retired archbishop is not overly enthusiastic.
On the contrary, he has advised fellow Anglican leaders not to waste their time on church structures which the Bible describes as dung and instead to concentrate on the supreme tasks of evangelism and discipleship, which he has succeeded in doing in America.
“To me, at best, it (the Anglican Communion Covenant) is whitewashing so the Church remains one and is not split; a lot of crack underneath is not shown,” said The Right Reverend Moses Tay, the immediate past Singapore Anglican bishop and retired first archbishop of the Anglican churches in Southeast Asia and Nepal.
Speaking today in an exclusive interview with The Christian Post, the retired archbishop said the covenant will not solve the essential problem of the Anglican Communion, which he identified as a crisis of biblical orthodoxy where the historic Anglican counterpart in America has embraced immorality and refuses to repent of it.
That is an uncompromising and powerful interview. It is good to have a reminder of the real meaning of the word covenant in a biblical context.
Finally, someone who speaks the truth in love. Refreshing indeed. I wonder whether anyone participating in the “listening” process is “listening”? ++Rowan, are you paying attention?
“held out as a means of restoring unity,”
How can the church restore unity with a post-modern covenent when dis-unity was the price paid for disobedience almost from day one. Unity by covenent or contract is an enforcible physical circumstance. Unity by Love on the other hand is non-enforcible, Spiritual in its makeup and power and serves the desire of the pilgrim to obedience.
A powerful statement indeed, he stated this
“On the contrary, he has advised fellow Anglican leaders not to waste their time on church structures which the Bible describes as dung”
which we should pay particular attention to….. ANYTIME a church structure takes away from the teachings of the Holy Bible it is time for us to put on our spurs, spur our mount and head on at the gallop.
I ask the new ACNA to bear this particular statement in mind constantly and to never let the human element interfere with God’s work word, work or agenda.