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Covenant aims to mediate disputes withinAnglicanCommunion: A "sensible and Christian way of dealing with our conflicts"

The final draft of a long-debated document aimed at mediating disputes between liberals and conservatives in the global Anglican Communion was sent in mid-December to the communion’s 38 provinces for approval.

The Anglican Communion, which is the world’s third-largest body of Christians with 77 million members, has been bitterly divided over homosexuality since the election and approval of an openly gay Episcopal bishop in 2003.

Lesbian bishop-elect faces Episcopal review: Confirmation process ahead

Since becoming the first lesbian to be elected a bishop in the Epis copal Church, Mary Glasspool has been hailed as a gay rights pioneer and maligned as the straw that will finally break the back of the Anglican Com munion.

Glasspool “wavered two or three times” before agreeing to be nominated as an assistant bishop in Los Angeles, she said in an interview December 9. But friends and spiritual counselors reminded her to follow her own preaching.