Executive Council Offers Draft Covenant Study Guide

The International Concerns Standing Committee of the Executive Council has prepared a study guide to assist the members of the Episcopal Church in responding to the Anglican Covenant Draft prepared by the Covenant Design Group. For more background on this draft covenant, you may want to review the recent presentation made to our House of Bishops by the Rev. Katherine Grieb, a member of the Covenant Design Group. We have also previously discussed the Draft Covenant from the perspectives of two authors; Frederick Quinn and Lionel Deimel.

The announcement of this study guide provides us with some important information regarding the Covenant process:

...The Covenant Design Group, appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in response to a request of the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates' Meeting and of the Anglican Consultative Council, held its first meeting in Nassau, the Bahamas, in mid-January and wrote a report and the draft text of a proposed covenant.

The Primates of the Anglican Communion, meeting in February near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, received and discussed the report and the draft. They then released the report and draft to the entire Communion, asking for comment from of the Communion's 38 provinces by January 1, 2008.

Based on those responses, it is expected that a revised version of the covenant will be presented to the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops, to be followed by a final text that would be proposed to the 2009 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). If the ACC adopts the text, it would offer it to the provinces for adoption or rejection...

This study guide should not be confused with a similar one being developed by the House of Bishops:

...The covenant study guide is not the only such tool members of the Episcopal Church can expect to receive in the coming months. At their March meeting in Texas, the House of Bishops asked its Theology Committee to develop a teaching guide for consideration of both the Primates' Communiqué and the proposed draft covenant. The bishops anticipate this guide, which will focus on the Communiqué, will be available by late May for use by bishops and dioceses in preparation for the September meeting of the House of Bishops...

The Executive Council intends to prepare a response to the Draft Covenant at their October meeting. All Episcopalians are encouraged to submit their responses to this Draft Covenant to the Executive Council. These responses will assist and inform the Executive Council in their task of developing a response that will be representative of the Episcopal Church as a whole.

Deadline for responses is June 4, 2007. Send your responses to:

Response to Draft Anglican Covenant
The Office of the General Convention
The Episcopal Church Center
815 Second Ave, New York, NY 10017
FAX: (212) 972-9322

Or respond by e-mail to gcsecretary@episcopalchurch.org

J.