Even if she isn't sure she wants to go through with it, it
would be tragic to stop the wedding plans - the Archbishop has bought her a
beautiful dress and the flowers will be lovely!
Talking of
the Covenant in terms reminiscent of the Marriage service in the Book of Common
Prayer, he points out that the parents of the bride have worked so hard to put
it all together, and their hard work, "should not be dismissed today
‘unadvisedly, lightly or wantonly’"
Instead,
this arranged marriage between the members of the Anglican Communion
"should be accepted ‘reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly and in the
fear of God’."
This
surprising concept of marriage in the 21st Century seems to take little notice
of the wishes of the partners who are to be married - after all, what do they
know? No need for a shotgun here though
- not when the 'fear of God' is involved.
The problem
is, of course, that the prospective marriage partners are getting decidedly twitchy
feet. Out of the 15 Dioceses in the CofE
who have now voted on the Anglican Covenant, 10 of them have voted 'No',
including Bishop Kings' diocese of Salisbury.
Even so, the
Bishop pleaded, "It is vitally important that the Covenant is discussed at General Synod in
July. If less than half of the Dioceses
vote for the Anglican Communion Covenant, it will not be allowed to be
discussed at General Synod. That would be tragic."
Readers of
this blog will remember of course, that General Synod has already discussed the
Covenant. Many people spoke against it
including one Bishop who said it would lead to 'factory farmed religion rather than free range faith'. Synod members who were inclined to vote
against it were told that it would be wrong to do that because, after all they
were only voting to pass it on to dioceses for consideration.
Now however,
as the Ecclesiastical Dominos have failed to fall in line, the
message appears to have changed. Now it
would be a great shame for dioceses do not return it to General Synod for
discussion, according to Bishop Kings - even though they don't want it.
So when is
the right time to pull out of a wedding?
Is it better to wait for the wedding day? For the wedding service perhaps? Indeed, for the moment of the vows? Afterall, the planning, the arrangements,
the detail which has gone into putting together a wedding of this size, is so
much more important than the marriage which follows.
Or is Bishop
Kings hoping that if the bride gets all the way to the altar, she won't have
the courage to duck out of the final vows in front of her assembled family
and friends?
Either way,
you would think that a bishop would know that unless the partners are
genuinely committed, it really is better to think twice. And all the evidence from the CofE points to
ambivalent mistrust rather than committed love.
The real problem with the marriage metaphore, however, is that the Anglican Communion is more like an existing family of brothers and sisters, rather than a loving couple in the flush of first love.
And the Prayer Book specifically forbids marriage between siblings because of the bad blood it breeds. So surely it would be better to stop the wedding before things get really out of hand.
Whichever way you look at it, this marriage is a bad idea and the best advice anyone could give are those three immortal words...
Walk Away Now
