The Southern Cone and Anglican Unity

The ACNS has just released a statement from the province of the Southern Cone, which has approved the new Anglican Communion Covenant.  This is good news for progress in Anglican unity, and a change from the previous situation, when then-primate Gregory Venables signed the Oxford Statement and affirmed that "the current text [of the Covenant] is fatally flawed and so support for this initiative is no longer appropriate."

Most interesting, to me, is the status of the Southern Cone in its relationship with the North American churches, and how this affects its standing in the wider communion.  Last October I discussed the dismissal of the Southern Cone from ecumenical bodies because of its intervention in the affairs of other Anglican provinces.  Kenneth Kearon had inquired about this transgression of the Windsor moratoria, with no response.  In today's statement from the Southern Cone, however, we read:

the Southern Cone had held churches in North America under its wing for some time while the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) was formed. However, the Province has not maintained jurisdiction over any local churches there for over a year. As a result, all so called ‘border crossings’ by any provincial members ceased (as of October, 2010) even though the Southern Cone still remains in impaired communion with US and Canadian Provinces. It is hoped that the Covenant can now provide Communion stability. 

This is an argument I've been making for a while... that continuing Anglican groups who have been in a situation of oversight from other provinces need to get out on their own and move into the ACNA as quickly as possible.  Oversight from elsewhere, even if justified by Gospel purposes, means that these provinces remain delinquent as far as the Windsor Report and the canons of the Anglican churches are concerned.

If the Southern Cone is claiming that their border crossing ended in October of 2010, it's a shame that they never established communication with Kearon in order to prevent dismissal from the Unity, Faith, and Order Commission around the same time.  I'm not sure what their current status is in this body, but hopefully the organizational machinery can now start to turn in the direction of reinstating their delegate, if this process has not begun already.  The acceptance of the Covenant also raises questions about the future direction of GAFCON... that such an important province as the Southern Cone has affirmed the Covenant is hopefully a signal that minds are beginning to change from the rather harsh views that have come from conservative quarters about the viability of a covenanted Anglican future.