Response to Draft Anglican Covenant

The following is an excerpt, the meat really, of what I sent to the Office of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church per their request to respond to the Draft Anglican Covenant and at the request of the Bishop of my Diocese (Utah).

All human religions engage the tension between defining a community and excluding others. Jesus rejected this choice and welcomed sinners to his table. For me, Anglicanism offers hope of transcending the tension endemic to human religions by enabling a community unafraid of differences. Does the Draft Covenant bring us closer together? Does the Draft Anglican Covenant enhance or hinder my ability to live out my Baptismal Covenant; to seek and serve Christ in all persons and strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being? At first blush, I would have to say it does not; that the draft fundamentally, perhaps unintentionally, emphasizes comfortable-sounding words that provide for exclusionary processes. My initial reaction is to say, “Please start over with more communion, less exclusion.”

Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

Pentecost, Anno Domini 2007