BRAZIL: Bishops respond to Anglican Covenant St. Andrew's Draft

The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, following its recent meeting in Curitiba, generated an official response to the latest draft of the Anglican Covenant -- the St. Andrew's Draft -- which had been sent to all Anglican Communion provinces for review and comment ahead of this summer's Lambeth Conference.

The bishops' response, titled "Life in Communion and the Communion of Life," reiterates their previously held position that there are aready instruments that define how Anglican provinces interact with eath other, and concludes that the Covenant "is not an essential element to maintain or strengthen our Communion; on the contrary, it risks defacing it.

"Our history and the instruments we have are already sufficient to build unity from the richness of our diversity, in a continuous process of listening and mutual respect," the bishops statement says.

The Windsor Report, released in October 2004, first proposed a covenant as a way for the Anglican Communion to maintain unity amid differing viewpoints. The Covenant Design Group, which was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to work on drafting a proposed covenant, will meet again after the Lambeth Conference "to review the progress on the development of the Covenant project within the Communion."

The full text of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil bishops' response is available for download as a pdf at http://www.ieab.org.br/documentos/life_communion.pdf