Archbishop’s Covenant Design Group announced

ACNS--On Jan. 9, the Archbishop of Canterbury announced the members of the Covenant Design Group that he has appointed in response to a request of the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates’ Meeting and of the Anglican Consultative Council.

The group will meet under the chairmanship of the Primate of the West Indies, Archbishop Drexel Gomez, and includes experts in canon law, the nature and mission of the church and ecumenical relations from around the Communion. In addition to a small core group, the Archbishop is also appointing a wider circle of corresponding members, who will be assisting the Group’s work.

The Group will hold its first meeting in Nassau, the Bahamas, in mid-January 2007, and present an interim report to the Primates’ Meeting and Joint Standing Committee when they meet in February in Tanzania.

The members are: The Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, West Indies; The Rev. Victor Atta-Baffoe, West Africa; The Most Rev. Dr John Chew, South East Asia; Ms Sriyanganie Fernando, Ceylon; The Rev. Dr Kathy Grieb, USA; The Rt Rev. Santosh Marray, Indian Ocean; The Most Rev. John Neill, Ireland; The Rev. Canon Andrew Norman, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative; Chancellor Rubie Nottage, West Indies, Consultant; The Rev. Dr Ephraim Radner, USA; Ms Nomfundo Walaza, Southern Africa; The Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, Anglican Communion Office, Secretary.

[Editor’s note: About one-third of this group is solidly orthodox: Gomez, Atta-Baffoe, Chew and Radner. Revisionists include Grieb, Neill, Walaza and Cameron. The rest are unknown.]