The Church of England Evangelical Council Statement on The Episcopal Church’s Response

http://www.globalsouthanglican.org/index.php/comments/the_church_of_england_evangelical_council_statement_on_the_episcopal_church/

[Global South Anglican] 13 Oct 2007--“The Church of England Evangelical Council has met and considered the responses of The Episcopal Church (TEC) to the questions asked of it from the Primates′ Meeting in Tanzania. We wish to report back to the Anglican Evangelical churches we represent the results of our consultation.

We are committed to the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

We believe TEC′s response does not meet the requests of the Primates from Dar es Salaam, not merely for clarification but for repentance and turning back from their clear intention to affirm same-sex blessings and the consecration of practising homosexuals to the episcopate. They have continued to widen a gap of their own making. As a result the fabric of the Communion is torn almost beyond repair.

We support attempts to draw the Communion back together around a covenant, but in the light of TEC′s response this covenant may not hold. TEC has shown by its pronouncements and its practice to have placed itself outside the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the Catholic Creeds.

We support the intentions of the Common Cause Council and those bishops invited to give pastoral care for congregations in the United States.