Council: Delay Vote on Covenant Until 2015

January 31, 2009

Executive Council endorsed a report on the proposed Anglican Covenant which expresses significant reservations with the current draft and recommends delaying until 2015 a final up-or-down vote by General Convention.

In a press conference at the conclusion of three-day council meeting in Stockton, Calif., Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, said council made virtually no changes to a report prepared by a task force in response to the second draft of the proposed covenant.

The report said that delaying a vote until 2015 “would provide a fruitful opportunity for TEC to hear the voices of other members of the Anglican Communion as they discuss future drafts.” It also said the covenant can only “be embraced on the provincial level, that is, The Episcopal Church, and not on a diocesan level.” the rest