Question: What do the new Lady Primate of TEC and the Seven “orthodox” Bishops of TEC and of the ACN, who applied for Alternative Primatial Oversight to Lambeth in 2006, have in common?
Answer: They all appeal to “The Baptismal Covenant” of the 1979 Prayer Book as the basis of their faith and their Anglicanism. The lady had it recited in full and preached on it at her public service of recognition on Nov 4, and the Seven made it the basis of their confession of faith in their appeal to the Arch of Cant.
The lady interprets it as it was intended to be understood by its framers in the 1970s and as successive General Conventions and PB’s have interpreted it –- as the charter of progressive liberal religion—while the Seven, pretending that the 1979 Book is an orthodox document, seek to make its radical center into something that it has never been, the basis of [their definition of] orthodoxy--(we ask: why are they so against the historic Formularies of the Anglican Way which are also those of The Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA as the basis of their Anglican Faith?).
In the New Province desired by the Seven there must surely be a repudiation of this Covenant and the interpretation of it in TEC since 1970s, and the use instead of the traditional Baptismal Services in the BCP 1662, 1928 and (Canada) 1962 for the Anglican understanding of the beginning and nature of the Christian life!
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford)
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