Standing Committee releases Anglican covenant's revised section 4
Episcopal News Service. December 18, 2009 [121809-02]
The Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion, at the conclusion of its Dec. 15-18 meeting in London, released the revised text of section 4 of the proposed Anglican covenant, a set of principles intended to bind the Anglican Communion in light of recent disagreements over human sexuality issues and theological interpretation.
The revised text of section 4, with alterations noted against the previous draft, is available here.
A commentary from the small working group set up to revise the text of section 4 is available here.
Responses from Anglican Communion provinces to section 4 of the Ridley Cambridge Draft are available here.
A letter from the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, is available here.
Representatives of the ACC decided last May that the Ridley Cambridge Draft of the covenant needed more work before it could be presented to the communion's 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 1-3 had.
In late May, Archbishop of Canterbury appointed a small working group to consult with the provinces about section 4 and its possible revision and to report to the Standing Committee. The ACC also requested that the Standing Committee approve a final form of section 4, which it did Dec. 18.