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Former Anglican Deputy Secretary-General’s comments add to Covenant controversy
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| Bishop Gregory Cameron |
Highly charged comments by the Bishop of St Asaph (Church in Wales), the Rt Revd Gregory Cameron, criticising the London-based Modern Church and Inclusive Church organisations for a one-page advertisement which they placed in the 29th October issues of the Church Times and the Church of England Newspaper, opposing the proposed Anglican Covenant, have been jointly rejected by the Chairs of the two organisations, the Revd John Plant and Canon Giles Goddard respectively.
However, Bishop Cameron, who was Deputy Secretary- General of the Anglican Communion from 2004-2009 and was a principal architect of the Covenant, has told the Gazette he accepts that the comments he made in the course of a letter which he wrote to the Church Times and which was published in its 5th November issue caused offence. In the letter, Bishop Cameron had written that the two organisations, Inclusive Church and Modern Church, for which he "formerly had the highest regard", had "turned themselves into the nearest to an ecclesiastical BNP that I have encountered".
The Covenant is an agreement which all member-Churches of the Anglican Communion are being asked to adopt and includes a procedure for dealing with inter-Anglican disputes. However, the Covenant itself has now become a major issue of dispute.
Also in his Church Times letter, Bishop Cameron said that Modern Church and Inclusive Church had resorted to "the old tactics of misinformation and scaremongering about foreigners and outside influences to whip up a campaign against the Anglican Covenant", and described the members of the groups as "latter-day little Englanders".
However, Mr Plant and Canon Goddard jointly replied to Bishop Cameron in a letter published in the Church Times last Friday. they wrote that to use the sort of language that Bishop Cameron had used "in no way reassures us about the purpose of the Covenant".
They added that the arguments for the Covenant "have never been persuasively made", and said that the Covenant would "undoubtedly be used to resist change and development in the Communion".
Speaking to the Gazette last week, Canon Goddard said that both Modern Church and Inclusive Church thought that Bishop Cameron’s comparing of them to the British National Party was "unnecessary language and not helpful for the debate".
The Moderator of the newly formed No Anglican Covenant Coalition, the Revd Lesley Fellows, told the Gazette that she believed Bishop Cameron had written his letter "in haste", but she had no doubt that his description of the two groups was "inappropriate".
Simon Sarmiento, who is one of the three-member team which runs the highly-regarded ‘Thinking Anglicans’ website, told the Gazette he felt Bishop Cameron’s choice of words was "unwise".
In response to a Gazette enquiry last week, Bishop Cameron stated: "I have to accept that the comparison with the BNP has offended because some people have taken this as an accusation of racism. this was not my intention, and I have never wished to make such an accusation. The Church Times advert reminded me strongly of the rhetoric of the far right in British politics because it claimed that the Covenant was all about the subjection of the Church of England to outside powers, and even suggested it imperilled freedom of speech.
"The Covenant itself excludes such an interpretation and clearly seeks to preserve the autonomy of the Anglican Churches - see clause 4.1.3 - while seeking to find ways for the Communion to articulate where it stands as a whole."
The Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon, told the Gazette: "Bishop Gregory was responding to the recent advertisements that contained a number of incorrect statements. A full and engaging debate on adopting the Covenant can only be had when everyone has read it. we would urge everyone to do so here: http://anglicancommunion.org/commission/covenant/final/text.cfm"
The Revd Jonathan Clatworthy, General Secretary of Modern Church, assured the Gazette, however, that those who had placed the advertisement had studied the Covenant in detail. He further pointed out that considered analyses of the Covenant had been published on the Modern Church website, with all the points in the anti-Covenant advertisement having been substantiated.
Mr Clatworthy added that in England there was "a large and increasing lobby against the Covenant".