Canadian Church ‘approves’ Anglican Covenant

This really cuts the legs out of the pecusa PB's assertion that pecusa doesn't have enough time to look at the covenant and pass it at GC09 this summer. ed.

Wednesday, 17th December 2008. 12:09pm

By George Conger at Religious Intelligence

The Anglican Church of Canada’s Council of General Synod (CoGS) has given its cautious approval to the principle of an Anglican Covenant, but has reserved judgment pending a review of the final text.

Canadian Church ‘approves’ Anglican Covenant

At its Fall meeting in Toronto last week, CoGS, the Canadian church’s governing body between meetings of the triennial General Synod gave an affirmative response to the question posed by the ACC/Primates Joint Standing Committee whether it cold “give an ‘in principle’ commitment to the covenant process at this time, without committing itself to the details of any text.”

The 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion have been asked to respond to the current “St Andrew's Draft” of the covenant by March. The Covenant Design Group is scheduled to hold its final meeting in London next April and issue a final revision for presentation to the May meeting of the ACC in Jamaica.

Though retired as Primate of the West Indies, Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies will continue as chairman of the Covenant Design Group through the March meeting. Organizers hope the April draft of the Covenant will be approved by the ACC and released to the Communion for approval soon after.

Canada’s Anglican Journal reported that the CoGS committee tasked with reporting on the Covenant said the current draft was “a great improvement.” However a “greater clarity” of the documents language would be helpful “around terms that are commonly used in the communion but are perceived locally in very different ways.”

Formal adoption of the Covenant would take several years. US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council on Oct 21 she would “strongly discourage" a vote on the final draft of the Covenant at the July meeting of General Convention.

"My sense is that the time is far too short before our General Convention for us to have a thorough discussion of it as a church," said Bishop Schori according to a report published by the Episcopal News Service.

Were no vote taken in 2009, the Covenant would be set down for study and a possible first vote in 2012 with a second reading in 2015.