I have only had a chance to read through the draft a couple of times and to compare it to the St. Andrew's Draft, but my initial impressions are that it is a document well-suited both to the present time and oriented toward the future of the Anglican Communion.

In particular, I was pleased to see the addition of an essential note of humility in the Introduction to the Covenant Text, in Paragraph 7: "Our life together reflects the blessings of God (even as it exposes our failures in faith, hope and love)..." Parenthetical as that "exposure" is in its reference, it is central to who we are as a Communion and where we are now.

This humility is picked up explicitly in (2.1.3), where each Church affirms "in humility our call to constant repentance: for our failures in exercising patience and charity and in recognizing Christ in one another; our misuse of God's gracious gifts; our failure to heed God's call to serve; and our exploitation one of another." One does not have to be writing on Maundy Thursday (as I am) to hear strong echoes of the Litany of Penitence from Ash Wednesday in these words (cf. 1979 U.S. BCP, pp. 267-269).

The theme of humility is carried through in (2.2.3), with each Church committing itself "to engage in this mission with humility and an openness to our own ongoing conversion in the face of our unfaithfulness and failures in witness."

I was most pleased by the change of (3.1.2) from, in the words of the St. Andrew's Draft, the affirmation that "Trusting in the Holy Spirit, who calls and enables us to live in mutual affection, commitment and service, we seek to affirm our common life through those Instruments of Communion by which our Churches are enabled to develop a common mind" to this draft's more theologically rich affirmation that "Trusting in the Holy Spirit, who calls and enables us to dwell in a shared life of common worship and prayer for one another, in mutual affection, commitment and service, we seek to affirm our common life through those Instruments of Communion by which our Churches are enabled to be conformed together to the mind of Christ." The addition of common worship and prayer as a central way in which the Holy Spirit conforms us to the mind of Christ takes the focus off of our own (horizontal) "common mind" and orients our intentions toward the only mind that matters, "the mind of Christ."

Unfortunately, this conformity to the mind of Christ is not explicitly joined to the commitment of (3.2.4) "to seek a shared mind with other Churches, through the Communion's councils, about matters of common concern..." At least with the affirmation of (3.1.2), however, one can now argue that the "shared mind" in (3.2.4) that we seek is coterminous with "the mind of Christ" in (3.1.2), since any "shared mind" that is not shared with the mind of Christ is not worth sharing. The question, of course, which the Covenant cannot answer on its own is, "how do we know if we are sharing in the mind of Christ?" The Ridley Cambridge Draft provides good guidance, however, on how we might be able to arrive at some sort of consensus on that question in any given situation by emphasizing the essential feature of shared discernment in common council.

Another reason for joy in this text is this statement from (2.1.5): "We affirm the ecumenical vocation of Anglicanism to the full visible unity of the Church in accordance with Christ's prayer that 'all may be one'."

Gone is much of the language that critics took to be punitive or retributive or juridical, replaced however not by "softer" language but by strong language that points to the necessity of mutual commitment and integrity within relationships: the many references to "relational consequences" will doubtless be read as ominous by many, but in my reading it reflects merely a truth of all relationships: our actions have consequences, some of which we control, and others of which are determined by those with whom we choose to be in relationship.

The Ridley Cambridge Draft is one I could heartily endorse and vigorously advocate, and I hope the Episcopal Church will not be fearful of entering into the relationship that the Covenant holds out as possible for us as we grow in communion with one another in Christ.