The Anglican Covenant

This is not really in the usual scope of this blog however I feel that I need to make some kind of response having read the document (in prep for Deanery Synod discussion after Christmas) and so this is the most convenient forum to hijack.

The Covenant has been born out of the current disquiet in the life of the Anglican Communion and so my main criteria in reading the Covenant is its likely contribution to addressing this disquiet. 

The key phase in the Covenant comes in 3.2.3, “controversial or new”, asking Provinces to show restraint before acting in ways that are “controversial or new”.   The problem is that it asks the actor to anticipate what other members of the Communion will find “controversial” when controversy, very much like beauty, is found in the eye of the beholder. 

Not only that but in the current moment while many in the Communion find the idea of Gay Bishops controversial equally significant numbers find the idea of excluding gay people from any part of the life of the Church scandalous.  The ordination of Women also creates the same set of mirror controversies.  When it really matters we will almost always find both action and inaction are controversial and so the Covenant fails as it seems to assume controversy will be only one sided.

Another major problem is the fact that it is unclear exactly what happens if a Church decides not to adopt the Covenant, given the Communion pre-exists the Covenant.  Not adopting it does not, inter alia, invalidate your membership of the Communion.  All of the provisions for dispute resolution apply only to covenanting Churches, if you have not adopted the Covenant you can’t act in ways that are “incompatible with the Covenant” even though you might be both new and controversial.  If seems as the debates within Provinces are moving forward all those with a disposition for the “controversial or new” will end up rejecting the Covenant rendering it a hollow waste of time.  

At this point it is worth noting that Anglicans in the USA have novelty and controversy in their DNA, it  is not something they started with the Consecration of Gene Robinson, nor with their first Ordinations of women which anticipated the approval of such a move by their General Convention by a couple of year -  it dates as far back, at least, as the Consecration of their first Bishop, Samuel Seabury, when the English Archbishops were unable to respond to either the needs or the vision of the American church.  When you’ve build on these foundations the Covenant is asking the leopard to change its spots.  For many the Covenant is unacceptable because it places protection of the life of the Communion above the calling to follow every move closely the image of Christ, the idea that you can be Christ-like without being controversial is a nonsense.

While there are some parts of the Covenant that provide a summary of the Anglican identity with which I could broadly agree and so it might seem odd to focus so much on these two words, these words are the key.  They sit at the heart of the operative part of the Covenant and are the basis of the disputes that the Covenant will seek to resolve through the mechanisms set out in section 4.  I find the way they are used makes the whole Covenant problematic and more importantly it does not allow the Covenant  play a meaningful part in healing the wounds that currently mar the Communion.  The Covenant process as been a partial sticking plaster but as Provinces now move close to the ratification or rejection of the Covenant it is a plaster that is coming unstuck. 

Also in recent days we have seen the Covenant rejected in New Zealand, and it is now highly likely that it will be rejected there are the Provincial level, because it fails to attend to the special make up of the Church and its governance that gives the Maori significant autonomy.  Some have claimed the Covenant is key to re-establishing the Anglican Communion without the inherited structures of power from the Colonial past, although I can’t really see how or where it does this – but how ironic it is that the Province that has done the most to re-model itself healed of that past is unable to accept the Covenant. Once the Covenant is death and buried perhaps we should ask our Brothers and Sisters in New Zealand for a lesson in how to live together with unity and diversity, with dignity and respect.

Weekend directed by Andrew Haigh

Weekend

One of the interesting things about this film is while it is a ‘gay’ film there is an ordinariness about the characters.  The main character, Russell, living in a tower block furnished in charity shop chic is a highly unusual depiction of a gay man.  It is rare to see working class gay man on screen, and when they do appear it is usually in the context of some major issue like them being a rent boy or an abuse victim.  While Russell is not without ‘issues’, they are low level everyday angst - his characterisation of himself as ‘fine’ rings true.

Glen, the other half of the film, perhaps has bigger issues – but again these are the ordinary feelings of a failure to launch, in his twenties he hopes to be an artist but had clearly become stuck in a rut with the growing realisation that youthful dreams might not be coming true.

They talk and argue about the nature of relationships, and particularly the desirability of ‘gay’ marriage, but this is not really what the film is about – by placing these two people with differing views sparing against each other the film avoids taking either view as an ‘agenda’.

It is a slow paced film, with lingering shots which at times hold you uncomfortably in the midst of the intimate moments which in the early days (hours) of a relationship can be so tense. 

It can hold its head up well as it finds its place in the long pedigree of British Kitchen Sink dramas. 

I wonder at the 18 certification of the film, this will be due to both the sex and the drugs.  The drug use ‘deserves’ an 18 because it is recreational and inconsequential – it would not do to allow impressionable young people to see that reasonably well adjusted people who are successfully holding down jobs take coke and smoke joints.  I am less clear about the sex, where is the line that makes this an 18 while there seems to be plenty of romping in the average 15? But it is interesting to think about whether the depictions of  either activity are integral to the film – given Glen’s rants about the public expressions of gay sex and relationships it would have been incredulous for the film to shy away from their sex. But what about the drugs, perhaps you could have left them out but they do seem to be a token of authenticity which would have been lost if rather than having another line they had had another cup of tea.   

The Invention of Tradition Edited by E Hobsbawm and T Ranger

The Invention of Tradition (Canto)

This is a classic text, one that was referred to often in various contexts while I was an undergraduate and which a decade latter I have finally got round to reading.  So it is in some ways hard to judge it as I have knew largely what the point the collection makes for years and in the (almost) 30 years since its publication the ideas have been accepted and built upon - in many places where this collection scratches the surface and suggests more research is needed those gaps have now been fully explored.

The key issue that the collection points out is that many of the social rituals which we take as ancient are in fact recent inventions - for example those attached with the British Monarchy while seeming to go back to the earliest of days turn out often to have been made for television, and the most familiar example, the Scotsman in his clan tartan kilt and bagpipes, is an invention of the Victorians, particularly when worn by a lowland Scots.

The collection is well written and for those unfamiliar with the territory it would remain a great place to start, but for me the most interesting part comes in the last essay where Eric Hobsbawn beginning to look at Europe in a comparative way.  Here the question starts to be asked about why the invented traditions of the British Monarchy seem to have had a great part in ensuring its continuance other European Monarchs despite being equally inventive have been swept away.

Thinking about the Church, which from the highest incense swinging Catholic to the ultra-reformed house church is heavily constructed on traditions, this idea of invention is really helpful.  A great deal of time and energy is spent trying to find the authentic practice of the Church - so we can model ourselves on the worship of the early Church - but the invention of tradition, I think, allows us to bypass this.  We can abandon the 'authentic' because it is an impossible goal and instead ask the more pertinent question "What do our traditions say about us?"  If your ritual practice unlocks the truth of the Gospel then it is of little consequence if it is 2000 years in the making or new this Sunday - the meaning is more important than the origin.

Twenty Thousand Saints by Fflur Dafydd

Twenty Thousand Saints

While this is a Winner of the Prose medal at the National Eisteddfod is in not a novel without flaws - for example twice we are given insight in different character's minds by their bowl movements (or lack of them) however while this could have been developed into a theme it isn't, these two isolated moments are either end of the book remain undeveloped, like an idea she had but never got to working up.

I also wonder it Fflur has ever meet a nun or an archaeologist as while both are central characters in the book both were the cause for a significant suspension of disbelief in order to get through it as their "professional practice" bore such little resemblance to the nuns or archaeologists that I have met.

These notes of caution should not put you off - it is an engaging book, which creates a vivid and claustrophobic picture of island life.  It shows how petty and how loving people can be in such a small and clearly bounded community.  It is at heart a love story between two people who come to the island and to each other in part as escape from their existing love-less relationships.  The believability of these relationships, which had gone on for years in a steady 'compliance' and mild discontent, is troubling as it means they follow a pattern that is observable often, how many people do you encounter who are going through the motions of love to the point where they have forgotten (or maybe never known) what the real thing is like.

The question the book asks is whether peoples motives in seeking out places like Bardsey is more to do with what they are running from than what they are running towards - and if you deny you are running away it seems somehow you will never truely escape.  

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie

They came to Baghdad (Crime Club series)

Reading this some what battered Crime Club copy - a first edition from 1951 - with its musty bookish smell helps one to remember it is a period piece and so Christie should not be judged too harshly for some of the prejudices this work betrays (that is not to suggest that we should excuse her entirely - just remember some ideas that are beyond the pale now were common currency then).

While the settling is Baghdad this is almost entirely a European story - of the main characters only 2 are non-western, one a paper thin stereotype of a comic hotelier, the other a fanatical but seemingly junior member of the organisation that is to be defeated.

It is a stange mix - the basic plot is more typical of Ian Flemming than Christie - with a secret global organisation set of establishing a new world order - it is a 'big' story but the main character, Victoria, the accidental detective is all Christie, breaking the global conspiracy by turns with fanstical lies and all the plucky 'jolly hockey sticks' gusto she can manage and so it is cut down to a light read.

Without one of her big name 'detectives' this is in many ways a refreshing outing with Christie although it would still be hard to argue against a charge of "formulaic".    

Hector's Talent for Miracles by Kitty Harri

Hector's Talent for Miracles

This is a book found through it's review in Planet magazine and it has as a backdrop the link between Wales and Spain forged by a miner who went to fight for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War.  This might seem to be a little off putting - the worry that this is an 'issue' based plot with all the creaking wooden characters that generally come along with it.  However this is not to any real extent a book 'about' the Civil War - the Civil War is a backdrop and like the eldery matriarch around which it revolves its time is passing.  The question is whether that passing will be a peaceful or a tormented one.

The main theme of the book is in fact the corrupting effect of silence - that central matriarch is a Nun who was raped during the war, she has no one to share the pain of that event and so is eaten up by it and the shame she feels.  This shame not only effects her, but her daughter conceived during the rape and on to her grandson.  The bitterness prevents them from blossoming until those final days of her live when daughter and grandson break free and live without the shame.

The 'Welsh' part to the plot, a granddaughter looking for the miner grandfather who went to fight and was lost is a far less interesting side of the book - there is little of the intensity of the Spanish side.  Compared with the struggle of the Spanish characters to reconcile themselves with real crimes our Welsh heroine seems self-indulgent.  If this was a deliberate feature of the book, to contrast the national histories and question if the amount of term Welsh commentators spend soul searching, this would have been an elegant and enriching twist. However I think this reading is entirely accidental and so it becomes a weakness.

Despite this last criticism the book as a whole remains engaging with the essence of believability about the characterisation that allows you to become a part of a story which draws you forward as a thriller would turning the page to find out just how things will work themselves out.