ACNS: Drafting an Anglican Covenant
March 5, 2008

The Most Revd John Neill, Archbishop of Dublin

As the Anglican Communion has developed into a worldwide communion of Churches, it has embraced a rich variety of cultures, languages and local identity. Each Church has usually expressed, as a vital part of that identity, its communion with either the Church of England or the See of Canterbury. This communion has been given visible expression since the nineteenth century by the Lambeth Conference of Bishops, called by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The characteristic features of the Communion are frequently expressed through the Chicago/Lambeth Quadrilateral, with the fourfold emphasis on the Holy Scriptures, the Catholic Creeds, the Dominical Sacraments and the historic Episcopate.

During the latter part of the last century, the Anglican Consultative Council, comprising bishops, priests and laity, became an 'instrument of communion', holding the Churches together, alongside the role fulfilled by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lambeth Conference. More recently, the Primates' meeting was established, adding a fourth strand to the structures of the Anglican Communion. the rest