A Covenant of Understanding

As the fundamental principle of our common life, we share our commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and seek to lead all people to have faith in His saving grace.

Being inheritors of a great missionary tradition that brought the apostolic faith to this hemisphere, we express our profound gratitude to our Anglican forebears for the spiritual legacy they have delivered to us. We have been strengthened by decades of mutual encouragement through many effective companion diocese relationships, mission trips, and other shared mission opportunities. Therefore, as Communion-committed Anglicans, we covenant to walk together to maintain and further our witness as Anglicans.

Inspired by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) we commit to forming The Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and Caribbean (CAPAC) in order to provide regional solutions to regional needs. Membership in CAPAC is open to provinces, dioceses, and recognized networks and ministries in the region that remain committed to conform to the historic Anglican formularies and have endorsed the theological position of the Windsor Report. CAPAC is a covenanted affiliation of Communion?–committed Anglicans organized to enable coordination, cooperation, collaboration, and communication, and to encourage mission as well as resource theological education and ministry of the Gospel in the Caribbean and the Americas.

We declare:

* A commitment to the primacy of Scripture as presented in the classical Anglican formularies. Our understanding of faith and practice conforms to the theological standards described in the Windsor Report Sections A & B which we affirm and to which we wholeheartedly subscribe.

* We are committed to advance our witness, cooperation, and common cause in the Gospel with others of like theological commitment and practice in our hemisphere and collaborating with those who embrace the historic apostolic faith.

* Our intention to encourage and resource the ongoing life of the Anglican Communion in this hemisphere in mission, ministry and sacramental life together with others of this theological persuasion. We are particularly concerned that Anglican theological and liturgical resources be developed in the major languages of the region and that plans be made to discern, articulate and pursue a faithful strategy for mission among the various national and cultural groups.

* A remarkable breadth of diversity bridged and united among us as Communion-committed Anglicans.

* A common call to unify Communion-committed Anglicans currently fragmented by history and the present strident challenges to the historic faith and, in some places, the tragic oppression of faithful Christians. Intending to serve the wider communion by addressing the numerous overlapping jurisdictions in our hemisphere, CAPAC seeks to provide a solution in the context of the wider Anglican Communion.

Cognizant that it may be necessary to establish interim, provisional measures for mission and ministry, we fully intend to pursue cooperation with the Instruments of Unity of the Anglican Communion in compliance with the Windsor Report and the direction of the Lambeth Conference of 1998.

We purpose to move forward by establishing a steering committee representing the constituent provinces, conforming national networks, and dioceses that share these theological values.

The Episcopal Steering Committee is hereby established incorporating the Bishops who lead the first four organized entities entering into this Covenant:

The Primate of the Southern Cone

The Primate of the West Indies

The Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network in the USA, (and Chair of Common Cause in the United States)

The Moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada

Provisions are also hereby made for such executive and administrative support as agreed by the Episcopal Steering Committee.

Approved unanimously by the participants of the Anglican Pan American Conference gathered in Nassau, Bahamas, July 6-8, 2005 and attested to by the signatures hereto affixed by the Episcopal leaders of the founding entities.

(Signed)

The Most Revd Drexel W. Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies

The Most Revd Gregory J. Venables, Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone

The Rt. Revd Robert W. Duncan, Moderator, Anglican Communion Network

The Rt. Revd Donald F. Harvey, Moderator, Anglican Network in Canada

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

Dr. Bill Atwood