The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has thrown his full support behind a covenant Anglicans are hoping will end painful divisions in their worldwide Communion and bridge the way to complete unity and fellowship in Christ.

The 70-million member Anglican Communion started the process towards an Anglican Covenant at the recommendation of the 2004 Windsor Report as one way in which trust and co-operation could be rebuilt between the churches of the Anglican Communion in light of serious tensions over a number of issues, most notably homosexuality.

A second draft of the Anglican Covenant - the St Andrew's draft - was issued at the start of February for consideration by Anglicans prior to and during the July Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly gathering of senior Anglican clergy from around the world.

"The whole intention of the covenant is 'to identify the fundamentals that we have in common and to state the basis on which our mutual trust can be rebuilt'", said Dr Sentamu, quoting from an address in the July 2007 Synod given by the Chair of the Anglican Covenant Design Group, Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies.

It is "not a new creed of Anglican-wide Canon law, nor an 11th commandment chiselled out on Mount Kilimanjaro by the Anglican Primates," Dr Sentamu added during a debate in the Church of England's General Synod on Wednesday.

He ended his address to Synod by turning to the Archbishop of Canterbury and handing him the stick of a tribal chief he had received during his recent trip to Kenya, a display of unwavering support for the Anglican Communion's spiritual head.

Patting Dr Williams on the back, Dr Sentamu said, "Among the 38 tribes of the Anglican Communion he is still the chief."

His address was followed by a debate which drew out mixed feelings from Synod members towards the covenant.