Care with the Blue: IARCA Covenant Committee

Following yesterday's underwhelming report from the bilateral committee that oversees the relationship between TEC and the Episcopal Church of Brazil, today's report from the IARCA Covenant Committee was much more heartening.

Summary of the Report
This committee oversees the relationship between TEC and the Anglican Church in Central America (Iglesia Anglicana de la Región Central de América). Once more, some context might help with this report.

This province of the Anglican Communion is comprised of five dioceses (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama), with four of those five being originally founded by TEC. Its existence is an outgrowth of the attempts for autonomy for Province IX dioceses, beginning in the mid-sixties. The goal was for autonomy to be reached by 1985 or 1988—but no one could achieve autonomy by then.

Mexico reached autonomy in 1995, with TEC creating a twenty-five year covenant of financial support (one that ends soon, unless changes are made—I don't know the current status of that situation). Three years later, in 1997, the above noted dioceses reached autonomy as the Anglican Church in Central America, with TEC creating a forty-year promise of financial support and the covenant overseen by this committee (that covenant it online here). The other areas of Province IX are no longer currently working towards autonomy but are, instead, a part of the Province IX  Sustainability Plan. (You can read some about that online here).

The Committee which oversees our relationship with the Anglican Church in Central America clearly worked pretty hard during the triennium. They learned about the history behind the autonomy movements in Mexico and Central America. They also discussed what would need to happen to revise the current Covenant with the IARCA. That work began in Guatemala in 2016 and though it could have been hampered by 2015 GC budget cuts, the group worked on finding a way forward that could enable the mutual flourishing of our provinces.

They note that we have learned much from twenty years of walking together and, now halfway through the covenant period, are hopeful that a revision of the covenant will strengthen the next decade of ministry together. The new Covenant will not be brought to GC 2018, so we will need to wait until 2021 to formally approve a new version of it.

Reaction to the Report
Though the situations are significantly different between Central America and Brazil, it is hard not to note the tremendous difference between this report and the last one. As far as I can tell from the report and my own research, it seems this relationship continues to function well and healthily. The ability of the Committee to overcome its own hurdles and get important work done is to be commended. I look forward to reading the revised Covenant when it is completed and hope our two provinces can continue to walk together faithfully.

Note: You can click here for a list of all Blue Book Reports & Resolutions that have thus far been reviewed.