Among the many reasons it has gone the way of the Dodo bird is that those who read it thought it ceded too much power to the Archbishop of Canterbury who might act in a papal like manner by declaring who was in violation of the Covenant and then act accordingly. But that would require a set of ecclesiastical cojones he does not possess nor would exercise even if he had them. Dr. Williams' style has never been confrontational or coercive. He has preferred to raise questions he would not answer.

Of course no one can tell a partnership of autonomous provinces with some theological diversity what to do and think. The Anglican Communion is not the Roman Catholic Church with Papal authority backed up by a Magisterium to deal with "scandalous and ungodly behavior". The Anglican Communion is more of a federation tied loosely together by the 39 Articles of Faith, Holy Scripture (when it is not being disemboweled on a phallic revisionist cross), a creed (that many bishops say with their fingers crossed behind their cassocks), and a neutered Prayer Book.

The truth is the covenant has been trounced in one diocese after another in the UK and USA. It is a death by a thousand cuts. A majority of diocesan synods have defeated the Covenant which means that it cannot be debated by General Synod - the diocesan synods have killed it by a majority of roughly 2 to 1.

Canon lawyer Allan Haley said the Covenant was designed to resolve disputes and strengthen unity, yet it is clear that Anglicans do not do "punitive action" (or unity) very well: we do not even do suspension, preferring instead the euphemistic "withdraw from public ministry". So we can forget anathematization or excommunication.

It is more than probable that when Dr. Williams exits as Archbishop of Canterbury in December, the Covenant will finally die with him. If all 38 Provinces in the Communion do not unanimously approve the Covenant, it cannot be authoritatively accepted.

THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION

By contrast, the Jerusalem Declaration is explicit where the Covenant is implicit. The Declaration affirms: "We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God's Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity's only Saviour from sin, judgment and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. Not least the Declaration acknowledge God's creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married."

The last sentence is the clincher as it separates the covenant from the GAFCON Declaration.

The liberal progressive, revisionist western Anglican provinces would never sign on to such a statement. That is the very reason why it should be on the agenda and pushed in London this week. It is the only hope for the Anglican Communion.

ANGLICAN PRIMATE CALLS FOR REFORM

In his opening speech in London, Kenyan Archbishop Eliud Wabukala stated, "The unprecedented challenges to Anglican identity forced upon us by the revisionist scriptural interpretation have in the mercy of God, given us an historic opportunity to rediscover the distinctive reformed catholicity of our Communion as shaped so profoundly by the witness of the sixteenth century Anglican Reformers.

"Our aim of a renewed, reformed Anglican Communion will not be sustained if we are unwilling to support and encourage those who are gifted to do the training and the theological heavy lifting so essential to give depth and penetration to our vision both within the Church and beyond it. We need to recover the vision of the Anglican Reformers, of ordinary believers knowing scriptures and being nourished by biblical teaching. Equally we need leaders, lay and ordained, able to give a robust defense of apostolic faith in the global public square. If we do not, secular ideologies that have so powerfully shaped liberal and revisionist Christianity in the Communion will tighten the grip. The Lord our God cannot allow it. He calls us to move on."

Strong words indeed, especially as lame duck Archbishop Rowan Williams is left floundering on a sea of dissension.

Predictions in the British press that the Anglican Communion itself is dead are, of course, grossly exaggerated and inaccurate. What is happening, and it is being reinforced in London this week, is that the fulcrum of the Anglican Communion has moved to the Global South, specifically Africa, where the Anglican Communion is at its strongest and best both in numbers with a sound biblical theology to sustain the communion and grow it.

Western Anglicanism is in retreat and decline, pressed for the need to accommodate to a variety of pansexual behaviors resulting in a massive hemorrhaging in numbers and finances. The Church of England, the American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada are in their death throes even as new Anglican groups form to pick up the faithful and press the case for a renewed Anglican orthodoxy. Church of England evangelicals are slowly being galvanized as they watch what has happened to their Anglo-Catholic brethren in the UK.

What is needed says Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council is a new Covenant based on Jeremiah's prophecy of the "new covenant" in Jer. 31:31-34.

"In the Bible, that word 'covenant' stands for God's pattern for promises that you and I can depend on," he writes.

"It is a clarion call to fulfill Christ's Great Commission by proclaiming the transforming love of Jesus Christ to the whole world. More than that, it addresses the real crisis at the heart of the Anglican Communion-those who have departed from orthodox faith and practice within the official structures of the Anglican Communion, and those who uphold orthodox faith and practice over and against the heterodox-but who have not yet been recognized by the "official structures" of the Anglican Communion. In Article 11 of the Jerusalem Declaration, Confessing Anglicans recognize and desire full koinonia (the NT word translated variously as "communion" and "fellowship") with those who know and love God in Jesus Christ and uphold orthodox faith and practice. And in Article 12 Confessing Anglican reject koinonia and the authority of churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word and deed."

Here are the questions for this kairos moment in the life of the Anglican Communion: Could the Jerusalem Declaration be the basis for a "new covenant" that we can depend on to hold together the vast majority of the Anglican Communion (mostly in the Global South, but including the Anglican Church in North America and other Confessing Anglicans in the "Global North")? Could this gathering of leaders around the Supremacy of Christ and The Jerusalem Declaration begin to address the questions about how we can faithfully order the Anglican Communion under such a new covenant? Can they address the need for apostolic, conciliar and synodical structures that will truly maintain faith and order within the Anglican Communion?

END