Dioceses will be permitted to “consider the Anglican Covenant proposed draft as a document to inform their understanding of and commitment to our common life in the Anglican Communion,” based on the House of Deputies’ passage of an amended version of Resolution D020 July 15.
 
Proposed by the Rev. Dan Martins of Northern Indiana, the original resolution called for a structured approach to reconsideration of the Anglican Covenant, including one which called for The Episcopal Church to “make a provisional commitment to abide by the terms of the Anglican Covenant proposed in the most recent text of the Covenant Design Group… and “that the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies appoint a special task force to determine what constitutional and/or canonical measures may be necessary in order to make a permanent commitment to the covenant.”
 
The future of the proposed covenant remains highly open to question at the international level. The Anglican Consultative Council in May called for the Archbishop of Canterbury to appoint a new Covenant Design Group committee to rewrite the fourth section which called for accountability for those Anglican churches which might sign on to the Covenant but then behave in a way seen as unilateral by other provinces. This section was problematic to a majority of the senior leadership of The Episcopal Church.
 
The amended version of D020 retains the provision permitting individual dioceses to consider the covenant separately from the entire province, but most of the other provisions, including those calling for honoring the covenant’s terms before its official approval and the appointment of a task force, were removed. However, Fr. Martins remains optimistic.
 
“It’s considerably weaker than what I originally proposed, but considerably stronger than what I actually expected would emerge from the committee,” Fr. Martins said in a post on his blog. “I am...‘not dissatisfied’ with the result. It passed by the convention, it would be a positive gesture toward the covenant that is particularly necessary now in light of what else we've just done. I think the final "Resolved" clause is particularly helpful.”
 
Steve Waring reporting from General Convention in Anaheim.
 
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