Anglican Covenant May Be 10 Years Away

From The Living Church:

Posted on: August 1, 2008

After a day of discussion on Aug. 1 concerning the proposed Anglican Covenant, there is widespread support in principle for such an agreement among the bishops attending the Lambeth Conference. It is unlikely that anything would be in place for at least 10 years, however.

During a Lambeth Conference media briefing Friday morning, the Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, deputy secretary general and director of ecumenical affairs for the Anglican Consultative Council, explained that there is currently no provision to welcome into the covenant a diocese whose province rejects it.

“At the moment we are playing a ball game to win provincial support,” he said, “but provided it is within the constitution and canons of the province, there is no harm in having a diocese declare itself in sympathy with a covenant.”

Canon Cameron said the Covenant Design Group would receive input into the second, or St. Andrew’s draft, of the covenant at a meeting scheduled for September in Singapore. A third draft would not be released until after a meeting of the Design Group in London next April. The third draft would then be given to the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, which is scheduled for Jamaica in May. After that it would be submitted to the provinces for approval. In the case of The Episcopal Church, it is unlikely that it would be considered before the 77th meeting of General Convention in 2012. If changes are necessary to the church’s constitution, it would require approval by two successive conventions, meaning the 2015 meeting of the triennial body.

Bishop Dorsey Henderson of Upper South Carolina said he did not think it would require changes to the constitution, however. Both he and Bishop Duncan Gray III of Mississippi expressed support in principle for the covenant, but less enthusiasm for one that contained punitive measures.

“The intent is to stay together,” Bishop Gray said.

Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, primate of Australia, told media during an afternoon briefing that the covenant is not meant “to be a stick to whack people over the head with. It is meant to be a beautiful” expression of what it means to be Anglican, he said.

Archbishop Drexel Gomez will retire as Primate of the West Indies in December, but he will remain as chair of the Design Group at least through the ACC meeting in Jamaica next May.

“The overall aim is to hold the Anglican Communion together, to explain who we are and what we believe,” he said. It is not intended to design something new, he added.

Steve Waring