The new Anglican Church in North America, which is holding its inaugural meeting down in Texas this week, approved its constitution yesterday. It looks to be an unsurprisingly orthodox document, affirming age-old tenets (a la the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1571). It also sets up a local option for female priests.

The real key to ACNA’s longevity, though, might be this:

Resolution on the Anglican Communion Covenant

…the Provincial Council of the Anglican Church in North America expresses its readiness to adopt the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant…

Further Resolved, that the Provincial Council of the Anglican Church in North America expresses its solidarity with the Communion Partner Bishops in North America in the hope that individual dioceses and other churches might be encouraged to adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant whether or not the Provinces of which they are a part have chosen to do so.

You see, there’s some hubub in the Episcopal Church about whether individual dioceses can sign on to a proposed Anglican covenant, even if the denomination does not. The idea behind the covenant is that it would be a written statement laying out what Anglicans believe about X, Y, and Z, and the possible penalities for Anglicans who publicly subscribe to different beliefs. It aims to forestall schism, bind the 38-member provinces of the Anglican Communion, and give them something concrete to fall back on when disputes arise, like the current one over the Episcopal Church’s election of a gay bishop.

This spring, 15 centrist/conservative Episcopal bishops said, yup, sign us up for the covenant.

Many Episcopal leaders, though, including Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson have expressed deep concerns over the current draft of the covenant, which would curtail the autonomy of the Anglican Communion’s 38 regional provinces.

By proclaiming its support for the covenant — even though a final version has yet to be written — ACNA is hoping to lure those dioceses away from the Episcopal Church. Even if they fail to do that, at the very least the situation may alienate the Episcopal Church from those dioceses and the rest of the communion. Further, it throws the situation in North America into further confusion, which also benefits the upstart ACNA.

It should be noted, however, that not everyone agrees dioceses should be allowed to sign the covenant on their own. Like many aspects to this story, it’s all a bit murky at the moment, and may take decades to shake out.