This week, the Conference will give some time to the Anglican-Methodist Covenant. (Have a look at the Conference calendar to see when)
I wrote about this back in 2005 when the Covenant’s website was set up, and my opinion hasn’t changed since then. I’m sorry to say that I believe this covenant is at best a distraction that will do little to move the ecumenical cause forward. Such a covenant has existed in Wales since 1975 and, while there are some good relationships in particular neighbourhoods, it would be hard to claim that Wales has become a beacon of ecumenism. If anything, the reverse is true.
The truth is that this sort of ‘top-down’ approach doesn’t work unless it is accompanied by creative and vigorous work at the local level. My sense is that the ecumenical scene is anything but creative and vigorous just at the minute. I just don’t see how this covenant will do anything to change that.
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Dave Faulkner 07.07.08 at 1:36 pm
I’ve spent the last 11 years working in Anglican-Methodist LEPs. I have a certain sympathy for Anglicanism, having taken my first theology degree at one of ‘their’ colleges. But I don’t think the covenant has made a scrap of difference on the ground: (a) People are just keen to work with each other as they always were; (b) The Methodists are far more aware of the covenant than the Anglicans are; (c) What happens well does so, because there are good relationships; (d) It hasn’t remotely freed us from the top-down authoritarianism that amounts to one message only, namely ‘You can’t do that’ - not least because, despite all the rhetoric of the covenant, we still don’t have mutual recognition of ministries.
Right, glad I’ve got that off my chest!