The Anglican Covenant is being proposed as a way of holding the Anglican Communion together in the face of divisions over human sexuality and biblical authority.

Just as the Church of England General Synod was giving its backing to a mechanism to preserve unity in the Anglican Communion, conservative Primates were issuing a statement declaring that they can no longer give it their support.

In a statement issued by the Primates Council of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) today, they said they could no longer accept the Anglican Covenant as a means of resolving disputes within the Anglican Communion despite originally being some of the main drivers behind the measure.

“While we acknowledge that the efforts to heal our brokenness through the introduction of an Anglican Covenant were well intentioned we have come to the conclusion the current text is fatally flawed and so support for this initiative is no longer appropriate,” they said.

The statement was signed by Archbishops from West Africa, North America, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya.

In it, they also confirm that they will not attend next year’s Primates’ meeting in Ireland. Instead, they plan to hold their own meeting in the latter part of 2011, followed by an international gathering dubbed GAFCON 2 sometime in 2012.

The announcement threatens to scupper the Anglican Covenant process, as the measure cannot be implemented without the approval of all 38 Provinces in the Communion.

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