English Covenant

{{Short description|Proposed UK Christian denomination, 1980}}

{{distinguish|Solemn League and Covenant}}

The English Covenant was a proposed merger in England of the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church (URC), and the Moravian Church. First published as an ecumenical initiative in 1980 after extensive discussions in the 1970s, it eventually failed because the Church of England rejected the covenant in 1982.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1enBgAAQBAJ&q=english+covenant+1982+house+clergy+synod&pg=PA343|title=Protestant Nonconformist Texts Volume 4: The Twentieth Century|first1=David M.|last1=Thompson|first2=John H. Y.|last2=Briggs|first3=John Munsey|last3=Turner|date=5 February 2015|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=9781498219181|via=Google Books}}The Rev Caryl Micklem: Obituary in The Independent, 18 June 2003

In 1972, a Churches' Unity Commission was set up by church leaders. The commission published Ten Propositions on Visible Unity in 1976, and suggested the creation of the Churches Council for Covenanting (for Unity).https://moodle.urc.org.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=2604 {{deadlink|date=September 2022}}[https://ctbi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Story-of-the-BCC-pdf_view.pdf THE STORY OF THE BCC. Notes by Colin Davey]{{Cite web |url=https://urc.org.uk/images/the_manual/N_-_Index_of_Assembly_Resolutions_1972_to_2018.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2019-10-10 |archive-date=2019-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010051257/https://urc.org.uk/images/the_manual/N_-_Index_of_Assembly_Resolutions_1972_to_2018.pdf |url-status=dead }} Responding to this document, five churches agreed to proceed with a plan for unity – the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the URC, and the Moravian Church, and Churches of Christ (which merged with the URC in 1981). The plan was generally welcomed by the Methodist Church. The URC, an ecumenically spirited denomination created in the same year as the commission, approved the initiative and sought to reorganize itself accordingly up to 1982.Tony Tucker (2003). Reformed Ministry: Traditions of Ministry and Ordination in the United Reformed Church. {{ISBN|978-0853462170}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KvhJDAAAQBAJ&q=english+covenant+1982+house+clergy+synod&pg=PA81|title=Ecumenism in Retreat: How the United Reformed Church Failed to Break the Mould|first=Martin|last=Camroux|date=27 May 2016|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=9781498234009|via=Google Books}} However, in the same year, the General Synod of the Church of England failed to secure the required two-thirds supermajority in the House of Clergy, even though the other two chambers of the synod had approved the plan.