An Anglican Covenant
The idea for an Anglican Covenant was first mooted in the Windsor Report (paragraphs 113-120). The Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and of the Anglican Consultative Council commissioned a study paper on the idea in March 2005, Towards an Anglican Covenant.
At its meeting in May 2006, the Joint Standing Committee asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to establish a Covenant Design Group to further the project. This group gave a preliminary report to the Primates Meeting at Dar es Salaam in February 2007. The report included the Nassau Draft - a draft for the covenant on which initial consultation was taken in the course of 2007.
The draft is accompanied by a number of supporting documents, including the introduction, a commentary and a draft appendix.
The Covenant Design Group met again at the end of January 2008, and produced a second report and draft - the St. Andrew's Draft - taking into account many of the submissions to the group. This draft was offered for further reflection to the Provinces, but extensive reflection and discussion were undertaken by the bishops at this year's Lambeth Conference.
The comments and discussion of the bishops were received by the Covenant Design Group at their meeting in Singapore in September 2008 - and a Lambeth Commentary has now been issued which picks up on the many points of the bishops thinking, as well as offering the further reflection of the Covenant Design Group.
The recent period of consultation closed at the beginning of March 2009 and the Covenant Design Group met to develop a further revision of the text between March 29th and April 2nd 2009 for presentation at the fourteenth meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in May 2009. This revised text is called the "Ridley Cambridge text" a commentary and summary of Provincial responses were also drawn up.
This part of the website includes all this documentation, together with other contributions and insights received in connection with the covenant process.
Sections:
- Towards an Anglican Covenant [March-06]
- Report of the Covenant Design Group [Jan-07]
- Nassau Draft Covenant text [updated April-07]
- Communiqué of the Covenant Design Group [Feb-08]
- Introduction to the St Andrew's Text [Feb-08]
- St Andrew's Draft Covenant text [Feb-08]
- St Andrew's Commentary [Feb-08]
- St Andrew's Appendix [Feb-08]
- Lambeth Commentary [October-08]
- Lambeth Commentary (Survey Report) [October-08]
- Introduction to Ridley Cambridge text [April-09]
- Ridley Cambridge Covenant Draft Text [April-09]
- Ridley Cambridge Commentary [April-09]
- Documentation and Downloads
- Responses from Around the Communion
Discussions and Papers:
Covenant Draft Text
- Ridley Cambridge Covenant draft text - English [April-09] (PDF document 119K)
- Ridley Cambridge Covenant draft text - Spanish [April-09] (PDF document 190K)
- Ridley Cambridge Covenant draft text - Portuguese [May-09] (PDF document 198K)
- St Andrew's Covenant draft text- English [Feb-08] (PDF document 262K)
- St Andrew's Covenant draft text- Spanish [Mar-08] (PDF document 262K)
- St Andrew's Covenant draft text- French [Mar-08] (PDF document 262K)
- St Andrew's Covenant draft text- Portuguese [Apr-08] (PDF document 262K)
- Nassau Covenant draft text- English [Updated April-07] (PDF document 49K)
- Nassau Covenant draft text- Spanish (PDF document 36K)
- Nassau Covenant draft text- French (PDF document 34K)