Anglican groups back Covenant draft

From Religious Intelligence_

The Church of Ireland, the American dioceses of Western Louisiana and South Carolina and the New Zealand dioceses of Christchurch and Nelson have endorsed the Ridley-Cambridge draft of the Anglican Covenant, joining Central Florida in backing the Archbishop of Canterbury’s plan for creating a structure to manage the divisions over doctrine and discipline dividing the Anglican Communion.

On Oct 24, a special convention of the Diocese of South Carolina approved a resolution by a margin of 88 to 12 per cent that “endorses” the Anglican Covenant “as it presently stands, in all four sections, as an expression of our full commitment to mutual submission and accountability in communion, grounded in a common faith.”

Delegates to the Oct 9-10 annual convention of the Diocese of Western Louisiana also affirmed their support for the Covenant and backed Bishop Bruce MacPherson’s endorsement of the Anaheim Statement, which reaffirmed his commitment to remain part of the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Covenant process.

By a show of hands the convention adopted a resolution that “fully affirms” Western Louisiana’s “commitment to the Windsor principles, including the formation of, and future adoption of an Anglican Covenant as a means of supporting the ongoing work of our bishop and the efforts of the broader Communion to preserve our unity.”

The convention further stated that it “supports the ongoing work on the Ridley Cambridge draft including section 4.” In his presidential address to his diocesan synod on Sept 24, the Bishop of Nelson, the Rt Rev Richard Ellena said the Anglican Covenant was “the Archbishop of Canterbury’s only strategy for holding the Communion together.”

In September, Christchurch and Nelson took note of the actions of ACC-14 in Jamaica and stated they supported “in principle” the Covenant process and commended the Ridley-Cambridge draft “as it currently stands as the practicable means available to make the Anglican Communion Covenant process become effective in the life of the Anglican Communion.”

On Sept 15, the standing committee of the Church of Ireland’s General Synod endorsed a report created by the church’s Anglican Covenant Working Group. “Having considered Section 4 of the [Ridley-Cambridge] Draft Anglican Covenant very carefully, and bearing in mind a full range of points of view, we believe that the text of Section 4 as it stands commends itself in the current circumstances,” the working group said.

Delegates to the annual synod of the Diocese of Sydney last week also voiced their approval of the Anglican Covenant, voting on Oct 28 to ask the Anglican Church of Australia’s General Synod Standing Committee to bring the Anglican Covenant to the September 2010 General Synod “in such a manner as to enable each diocesan synod to consider the document.”

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