The Covenant pages
This updated collection of linked pages explains the issues and background to the proposed Anglican Covenant, and why it will not create open, forward-looking, twenty-first century churches.
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Modern Church has been sceptical about the content and implications of the Windsor process since it began.
The official papers:
- The Anglican Communion Covenant - final text.
- 'Challenge and Hope' - Rowan Williams' letter to the Anglican Communion Primates.
- The Listening Process.
- Windsor Report and responses.
- Covenant Proposals and responses.
This page lists Modern Church's responses in relation to the process.
Covenant Final Text
- January 2012
- Americanism and the Anglican Covenant - a response by Jonathan Clatworthy to the paper Anglican Covenant - Bishop's Council by Peter Doll, Canon Librarian at Norwich Cathedral.
- Update to The Covenant pages - a collection of 39 linked pages explaining the issues and background, with extensive information about other literature.
- C of E Diocesan Synod Debates - a table of Diocesan Synod votes in the Church of England, updated with results as they became known.
- December 2011
- Instead of the Anglican Covenant - Jonathan Clatworthy replies to the Archbishop of Canterbury's 2011 Advent letter the Primates.
- July 2011
- The Colenso Affair and the Anglican Covenant - Jonathan Clatworthy replies to Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowen's Living Church article.
- June 2011
- The other troubling parts of the Covenant - comment by Jonathan Clatworthy at Episcopal Cafe.
- March 2011
- The case against the Anglican Covenant - a paper delivered by Jonathan Clatworthy at the SEARCH Colloquium in Dublin.
- Press release reporting the rejection of the Covenant by clergy and laity
at the Wakefield Diocesan Synod meeting on 12 March.
- February 2011
- Church of England resources - three documents for presenting the case against the Covenant in diocesan synods
- November 2010
- Reply to Andrew Goddard, Jonathan Clatworthy
- Letter to the Church Times, John Plant and Giles Goddard
- Reply to defenders of the Anglican Covenant, Jonathan Clatworthy
- What will the Anglican Covenant do to the Church? joint Modern Church and Inclusive Church leaflet sent to all members of the C of E General Synod
- October 2010
- Who runs the Church?
joint Modern Church and Inclusive Church advertisement
in the Church Times and Church of England Newspaper
- July 2010
- The Covenant pages
- January 2010
- Response by Jonathan Clatworthy to Neal Michell's article Is the Anglican Covenant Non-Anglican?
Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future
- August 2009
- Reply to papers by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Durham regarding the decision by the Episcopal Church of the USA to abandon its earlier moratoria on same-sex blessings and openly homosexual bishops.
The St Andrews Draft
- February 2009
- Briefing Paper for General Synod Members, Paul Bagshaw.
- July 2008
- Who Steers the Ship? The poverty of the Draft Anglican Covenant, Paul Bagshaw
(MCU Forewords Booklet, June 2008).
- Unfit For Purpose, or why a pan-Anglican Covenant at this time is a very bad idea!
Marilyn McCord Adams (Paper given at the 2008 MCU Conference).
- The Covenant Will Not Do, Paul Bagshaw (Article in Signs of the Times, July 2008).
- February 2008
- Briefing Paper for General Synod, Jonathan Clatworthy and Paul Bagshaw.
- A flow chart showing the proposed disciplinary process (Appendix to the St Andrews draft),
Paul Bagshaw.
The Nassau Draft
- February 2008
- Reply to the Church of England's Response to the Draft Anglican Covenant,
Jonathan Clatworthy and Paul Bagshaw.
- May - July 2007
- Response, by Jonathan Clatworthy, Paul Bagshaw and John Saxbee, Bishop of Lincoln
(prepared for the meeting of General Synod in July 2007 and submitted to the Anglican Communion Office
as our response to the consultation). This was later submitted as a briefing paper
to the Church of England's General Synod (in GS 1661).
Summary of arguments.
- 15 June 2007
- Letter to the Church Times, John Plant.
- 29 June 2007
- Letter to the Church Times, John Saxbee, Bishop of Lincoln.
- 19 July 2007
- Bouncing the Covenant through the Anglican Communion, Paul Bagshaw (Article in Signs of the Times, July 2007).
The Listening Process
- June 2007
- Responses to the Study Guide produced for the 2008 Lambeth Conference, by Jonathan Clatworthy:
Towards an Anglican Covenant
- November 2006
- Response, Paul Bagshaw and Jonathan Clatworthy.
- 1 December 2006
- Why we are writing to the bishops, Jonathan Clatworthy, published in the Church Times.
Challenge and Hope
- July 2006
- A Two-tier Anglicanism? editorial by Jonathan Clatworthy in Signs of the Times.
The Windsor Report
- 2005
- The Windsor Report: A Guide, Simon J. Taylor in Signs of the Times.
- The Windsor Report: A Liberal Response, Jonathan Clatworthy and David Taylor (eds.) (O Books, Winchester & New York, 2005).
- Concluding chapter, Jonathan Clatworthy.
The Eames Commission
- July 2004
- Submission opposing sanctions with respect to the appointment of a gay bishop or the approval of same-sex marriages.
The Covenant pages - previous