ENS | A presentation to the House of Bishops on the Proposed Anglican Covenant

Steps towards the Covenant

By Ephraim Radner
Monday, March 19, 2007

I want briefly to say something about the Covenant's origins in a practical sense, and then move on to its rationale and content. As most of us know, the proposal for an Anglican Covenant derives almost exclusively from the Windsor Report itself (see e.g. par. 118-120). The proposal came in the context of the Report's recommendations to enhance the unity of the Anglican Communion: "This Commission recommends, therefore, and urges the primates to consider, the adoption by the churches of the Communion of a common Anglican Covenant which would make explicit and forceful the loyalty and bonds of affection which govern the relationships between the churches of the Communion" (118). Several things about such a covenant were noted in the Report, and the "draft" of a possible covenant was included in the Report as an appendix and, in a sense, a "discussion-starter"...

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