Ephraim Radner comments on ‘Primates See Covenant ‘With Teeth’ As Unrealistic’

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2009/02/03/ephraim-radner-comments-on-primates-see-covenant-%E2%80%98with-teeth%E2%80%99-as-unrealistic/

[Anglican Mainstream] 3 Feb 2009--If indeed Abp. Aspinall said what he is reported to have said and in the context he appears to have said it—and I don’t really know—he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Why do I say this? He is not on the drafting committee. What inside scoop has he managed to garner into the minds and intentions of people he barely knows? Indeed, the only Primate onthe drafting Committee now is Abp. John Chew, and HE certainly has another idea. Furthermore, the drafting committee has not yet met for its drafting meeting (end of March). Aspinall doesn’t speak for me,and I am on the drafting committee, and I have no intention of “pulling back” from the need to articulate covenant in the concrete terms of its mutual accountability. If the Archbishop thinks that this amounts to “hitting people over the head with sticks” he is both theologically and ecclesially ignorant as well as seemingly malicious in his characterizations of what we are about and should be about. This is all irresponsible posturing, presenting private and ill-informed wishes as if they were a common and faithful decision, and hoping people believe it as a fact. If indeed he said it.