An Evangelical Commentary on the Draft Covenant

http://www.globalsouthanglican.org/index.php/weblog/printing/evangelical_commentary_on_the_draft_covenant/

[Global South Anglican] 17 July 2007--The following Commentary has been submitted to the Covenant Design Group, of which I am a Consultant, is published with the permission of the Chairman, Abp. Drexel Gomez, and is intended to further its work. I am grateful to the Group for taking up the work of preparing a Draft Anglican Communion Covenant.

The events of the past decade in the Communion have made clear, in a way not seen since the 16th century, the need of a strong statement of doctrine and discipline among Christians in our tradition. The question, in my view, is not about the need for a Covenant but about its adequacy to meet the theological, spiritual and missional challenges facing the Christian Church in general, and the Anglican Communion in particular, from within and without.

I offer the comments below to articulate an Evangelical perspective and corrective. I believe that the great debates and events of the Reformation remain foundational for our Christian heritage. In a world where Evangelical Christians are spreading rapidly, including those in many Anglican Provinces, it is important that our convictions be represented in an all-Communion document.

The Draft Covenant is, in my opinion, an orthodox statement of the Christian faith; it is less characteristically Evangelical. I propose that with relatively minor amendment, this document can express more fully the Anglican Evangelical perspective....