Press Releases
Covenant Design Group 'Ridley Cambridge' Draft
Covenant Design Group Communique and latest draft text From ACNS, 8 April 2009
The Covenant Design Group (CDG) met under the chairmanship of the Most Revd Drexel Gomez, former Primate of the Church in the Province of the West Indies, between 29th March and 2nd April, 2009, in Ridley Hall, Cambridge, at the invitation of the Principal, the Revd Canon Andrew Norman, former Representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Covenant Design Group. We are grateful for the warm welcome received.
The main work of the group was to prepare a revised draft for the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant which could be presented to the fourteenth Meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, and commended to the Provinces for adoption. The CDG now presents the third 'Ridley Cambridge' draft for the Anglican Communion Covenant.
This text has been developed in the light of responses received in the twelve month consultation period requested by the Joint Standing Committee since the production of the St Andrew's Draft in February 2008. The CDG has worked with the twenty or so Provincial responses which have been received to the St Andrew's Draft, and which are listed in Appendix One of this Report. We also received a large number of responses from individuals, diocesan synods and other institutions, including ecumenical partners, which were also circulated among the group. All these responses are in the process of being published now on the Anglican Communion website.
The Ridley Cambridge Draft (RCD) of the Covenant text follows the pattern established in the St Andrew's Draft, of an Introduction, a Preamble, three Sections (to which a fourth is now added), and a Declaration. 'We recognise the importance of renewing in a solemn way our commitment to one another, and to the common understanding of faith and order we have received, so that the bonds of affection which hold us together may be re-affirmed and intensified.'
The members present in the meeting in Cambridge were:
Drexel Gomez, Chair
Victor Atta-Baffoe
John Chew
Katherine Grieb
Santosh Marray
John Neill
Rubie Nottage (unable to be at the Cambridge Meeting)
Ephraim Radner Eileen Scully
The 'Ridley Cambridge' Covenant draft text can be found here:
http://www.aco.org/commission/covenant/ridley_cambridge/draft_text.cfm
The complete text of the draft and other resources are found at:
http://www.aco/commission/covenant/index.cfm
ENDS