Anglican Communion Office issues covenant study guide
Episcopal News Service. February 18, 2011 [021811-06]
ENS staff
A guide to assist in the discussion and study of the Anglican Covenant has been released by the Anglican Communion Office.
The study guide and an accompanying question-and-answer document, available here "is intended for parishes, deaneries, dioceses or groups of individuals wishing to explore the covenant and the way it describes Anglican identity," according to a press release.
A covenant first was proposed in 2004 as a way for the Anglican Communion to maintain unity amid differing viewpoints, especially concerning human sexuality issues and biblical interpretation.
The study guide -- produced by a working group formed out of the Inter-Anglican Standing Committee on Unity Faith and Order -- includes the text of the Anglican Covenant "interspersed with summaries of the material," the release said.
The working group members are Bishop Victoria Matthews of Christchurch, New Zealand (convener); retired Bishop Kumara Ilangasinghe of Kurunagala, Church of Ceylon; and the Rev. Simon Oliver, associate professor of systematic theology, University of Nottingham.
In the Episcopal Church, all congregations are being encouraged to engage in discussion of the covenant before General Convention 2012.
Executive Council, at its June 2010 meeting, approved and commended an Anglican Covenant study guide, which can be downloaded in English here and in Spanish here.
General Convention 2009 passed Resolution D020 commending the covenant to the Episcopal Church's dioceses for study and comment during the next triennium. It asked Executive Council to prepare a report to the 77th General Convention in 2012 that would include draft legislation concerning the church's response to the covenant.
At the time of General Convention 2009, section 4 of the covenant still was being scrutinized after the Anglican Consultative Council, the communion's main policy-making body, in May 2009 recommended appointing a working group to consider and consult with the communion's provinces about its possible revision.
Representatives of the ACC decided that the latest draft needed more work before it could be presented to the provinces for adoption because the disciplinary process outlined in its fourth section had not received the same degree of consideration and comment by the communion's 38 provincial churches that sections 1 through 3 had.
All four sections of the proposed Anglican Covenant were sent to the communion's provinces for formal consideration on Dec. 18, 2009, after the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion approved a revised version of the document's text.