Anglican Communion Covenant

The Anglican Communion Covenant

The Anglican Communion is not a single church or a federation of churches but a collection of 44 different churches made up of 34 Provinces, four United Churches, and six other churches, spread across the globe; with an estimated 80 million Christians.

Back in 2002 relations between the Anglican Communion began to become strained when Rowan Williams was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, thought to be due to his liberal views.

The tensions in the Communion have increased over the years due to the liberalising actions of the Episcopal Church of the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada in the area of sexuality. This highlighted that there were no formal structures or agreements for handling disputes when they arise. Between 2005-09 a Covenant Design group was formed and in 2009 produced a final draft for the Anglican Communion Covenant. The Covenant is designed to balance the need to define how the churches of the Communion formally relate to each other without creating a formal constitution or federation; continuing to hold the Communion together through mutual relationships.

In May 2010 the Bishops commended the Covenant for adoption and in November 2010 General Synod assed the motion that the Covenant ‘be considered’ and so has now been referred to the 44 Diocesan Synods which have to debate ‘that this Synod approve’ the Covenant and report back by 30 April 2012. St Albans diocesan Synod had a preliminary debate on 12 March 2011 (see for more info http://www.stalbans.anglican.org/The-Diocese-and-You/Bishops/St-Albans/Sermons-and-Speeches/Presidential-Address-12-March-2011). If a majority of the Dioceses do approve, then it goes back to General Synod for final approval, voting by House probably in July 2012.

At our Hitchin Deanery Synod meeting on 11 May there will be a debate and possibly a vote taken on the Anglican Communion Covenant. The findings will be fed back to St Albans Diocese. There are strong feelings on both sides of the debate on this issue and it will be worth looking at the further information suggestions and attending Deanery Synod to hear the debate.

I would welcome any comments you may have about this proposal. Please let me know in writing either by giving written comments to me, in the folder at the back of church of via email beadle.hazel@btinternet.com

I have also attached a couple of copies of the Anglican Communion Covenant to our notice board.

Thank you for giving your prayerful consideration to this matter. To see the full proposed Anglican Communion Covenant you can go to:

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/commission/covenant/final/text.cfm

Hazel Beadle, St Faith's representative to the Hitchin Deanery