The December 3rd Meeting Will "Present a Draft Constitution"
The Anglican Communion Network has produced a press release that clarifies what will take place in Wheaton in a few weeks. Here is the opening paragraph (emphasis added by RWF).
Leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a federation of more than 100,000 Anglican Christians in North America, will release to the public on the evening of Dec. 3 the draft constitution of an emerging Anglican Church in North America, formally subscribe to the Jerusalem Declaration of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and affirm the GAFCON Statement on the Global Anglican Future at an evening worship celebration in suburban Chicago.
The full press release may be found here.
In light of this statement, it seems clear that the December 3rd meeting will not actually "launch" the new province. It will, instead, present what its framers intend for it to become once its new constitution is ratified by member ecclesiastical entities.
This actually makes sense, in light of the fact that the diocesan conventions (or equivalents) of each of the member dioceses and ecclesiastical bodies will surely have to ratify the proposed constitution individually before they will officially become members of such a new provincial structure. The CCP's leaders seem to be following the course taken in adopting the U.S. Constitution. It was proposed and debated for months before the individual states ratified it one-by-one and it went into effect.
So December 3rd is a highly significant development in the future of North American Anglicanism--indeed it is an essential step in the process of forming the new province--but it is not yet the actual "creation" of the orthodox province itself. It begins the ball rolling toward its creation and gives the GAFCON primates something they can officially endorse as the proposed orthodox province in their discussions with other leaders of the world-wide Anglican Communion.
Leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a federation of more than 100,000 Anglican Christians in North America, will release to the public on the evening of Dec. 3 the draft constitution of an emerging Anglican Church in North America, formally subscribe to the Jerusalem Declaration of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and affirm the GAFCON Statement on the Global Anglican Future at an evening worship celebration in suburban Chicago.
The full press release may be found here.
In light of this statement, it seems clear that the December 3rd meeting will not actually "launch" the new province. It will, instead, present what its framers intend for it to become once its new constitution is ratified by member ecclesiastical entities.
This actually makes sense, in light of the fact that the diocesan conventions (or equivalents) of each of the member dioceses and ecclesiastical bodies will surely have to ratify the proposed constitution individually before they will officially become members of such a new provincial structure. The CCP's leaders seem to be following the course taken in adopting the U.S. Constitution. It was proposed and debated for months before the individual states ratified it one-by-one and it went into effect.
So December 3rd is a highly significant development in the future of North American Anglicanism--indeed it is an essential step in the process of forming the new province--but it is not yet the actual "creation" of the orthodox province itself. It begins the ball rolling toward its creation and gives the GAFCON primates something they can officially endorse as the proposed orthodox province in their discussions with other leaders of the world-wide Anglican Communion.
posted by Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) | 2:24 PM
1 Comments:
I am very anxious to see how the new province will shake out and perform. One thing I would like to see is that the "presiding bishop," for lack of a better term, have the position and title of archbishop... PB sounds too TEC.
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