Covenant Design Group issues communiqué and draft

Updated 2008-02-06 5:45 PM

The most recent draft of the proposed Anglican Covenant was released today in London. You can find a copy of the Saint Andrews draft here, an important appendix here and the accompanying communiqué here. The group also issued commentary to the draft here.

We will be updating this story throughout the day, and would be grateful for your evaluation of the document, particularly the conflict resolution process outlined in the appendix.

The Episcopal News Service story is here.

Mark Harris at Preludium “On first read. A snippet: “Several questions arise from all this: Do we really want something out there that begins to look like constitution and canons? What is the process by which Draft II and its ancillary documents will be considered by the member churches of the communion? I would suggest that at least Draft II and its Appendix ought to be considered as separate and unequal documents.”

From the other side of the aisle, Peter Ould writes, “Do you know what – if the last bit of the appendix had the decision making going to the Primates meeting, we might have something pretty powerful here. At present though, it looks like a carefully planned fudge.So howabout all the Primates (and attendent bishops) go along to Canterbury in July, amend the appendix so everything is ending up at the Primates, and pass the Covenant like that?”

A statement from the evangelical Church Society – “A number of liberal dominated provinces, including the Church of England, produced submissions which would have severely weakened the initial Covenant and at least this new draft does not seem to have given too much ground in that direction. However, the whole thing still remains entirely inadequate to meet the needs of the hour.”

Ruth Gledhill sees a link to the past – “Even though Melitius lived and preached back in the fourth century, the parallels between then and now are obvious. Melitius broke clear rules already in place about not interfering in the provinces of others by ordaining pastors for himself in St Peter of Alexandria’s patch of ecclesiastical territory. But Melitius would have argued that Peter’s liberal theology made his actions necessary.”

The Pluralist speaks – “Why can’t there just be open processes of consultation to begin with? Matters that are crucially different across cultures, such as inclusivity, are going to end up in the dreaded state of “relinquishes the force and meaning of the purposes of the Covenant” and trying to get a Church back in to that force and meaning.”

Ephraim Radner, a member of the design group, has commented here (and scroll down for more) – He asserts the covenant “is to go to the bishops at the Lambeth Conference, where it will receive quite explicit and concrete comment and response, which will inform the 3rd draft later this year. It should by now be clear where the direction of the Covenant is oriented.”

Anglican Journal has quotes from Eileen Scully who represented the Canadian church in the meeting of the group – ‘The latest draft of the covenant “really reflects a movement away from creating new structures,” said Ms. Scully.’

Past Posts
Categories