Can the Anglican Communion survive?
June 30,2006

Sir, I would like to think that your news story about an Anglican covenant (28 June) will prove premature and that nothing will come of this proposal. For one thing, I wonder whether the Archbishop of Canterbury has the authority to sign away the Church of England’s independence.
Unfortunately, the proposed covenant is only part of a larger package of measures recommended in the Windsor Report. The total package would result in the Anglican Communion changing from an informal association of independent churches to something like the Roman Catholic Church, with the primates forming the equivalent of the College of Cardinals and the Archbishop of Canterbury exercising a papal-like role. Dr Williams specifically charged the commission that produced the report with establishing the circumstances in which he could “exercise an extraordinary episcopé” in the internal affairs of other churches. The Archbishop’s role would recreate a neo-colonial situation that the conservative African churches are least likely to find acceptable.

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