Australia Fails to Adopt Covenant

Without fanfare, the following item was added to the page on the Anglican Communion Web site that keeps track of the status of “responses” to the Anglican Covenant:

• The Anglican Church of Australia declined to adopt the Covenant but adopted a resolution affirming its commitment to the Anglican Communion. July 2014.

In particular, on June 30, 2014, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia passed the following motion:

That this General Synod:

1. Affirms the commitment of the Anglican Church of Australia to the Anglican Communion;
2. Affirms its openness to participating in any further consideration of a covenant proposal; and
3. Urges upon the Instruments of Communion a course of action that continues to seek reconciliation and the preservation of the Communion as a family of interdependent but autonomous churches.

In other words, while expressing support for the Anglican Communion, the Australian church pointedly declined to adopt or reject the covenant on offer. This is, of course, standard Anglican politeness. Apparently, Australia has no interest in the present Anglican Covenant and covets its autonomy.

The motion as passed and the record of amendments that were rejected can be found on page 15 of the minutes of the June 30, 2014, session of the General Synod, which can be found here.